* New Post on Ether Capacious: Shades of Gray
I ain't never read Ray Bradbury's novel, Something Wicked This way Comes. Reckon I oughta remedy that. Think thar' wuz a movie too?
However, I has read The Bard's Macbeth from whence cometh the eerie warnin' Bradbury used fer the title of his novel.
Imagine mah surprise, recently, to find two younger folks (40s), a neighbor an' a book club member, who ain't never knowed whar' that sayin' come from--an' they's edoocated folks. Surprising. Or is it?
Is Shakespeare still taught? Is Liberal Arts DOA these days? What do it mean to be edoocated these days? Be it all about technology? Can we understand the human experience solely from techno-wizardry? Or, are the insights of Shakespeare no longer valid? Are there any human struggles, desires, vices, virtues that are constant over the eons--do y'all think the New Age be so new that the lessons of our forebears have no relevance to the morphed man of today?
I'se jes' rockin' on the porch, sippin iced tea wif' mint, an' ponderin' this a bit. Mebbe it's not the Crack of Doom, jes' Much Ado 'Bout 'Nuthin'.
I doan know...It be real hard to have a conversation wif' folks who ain't familiar wif' the cultural markers. We use such phrases as a shorthand --ya' know, "Chevrolet, baseball an' apple pie" to communicate a Norman Rockwell image of America.
Trouble is, some folks doan have no clue what that phrase alludes to at all! The cultural markers is movin', I reckon. I 'member when some ole fella had to explain to me the meanin' of "cut a rug." Sure, that has to happen. But, Shakespeare? Imagine not knowin' the meanin' of "pound of flesh" or "green eyed monster" an' not seein' a Primrose Path, or git a prickle on the Ides of March? How communicate the Dogs of War? Woe is me. Somethin' very important is afoot: Cultural robbery.
All that Glitters is not modern or technological. No Shakespeare? Something Wicked This Way Comes.
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