richard III

[thankful for a book-a-day advent to thanksgiving: 8 days left]

it is strange, i guess, that the shakespearian play i am most overwhelmed and moved by isn’t king lear or romeo and juliet or the tempest, it’s richard III. historical inaccuracies aside, richard’s character fascinates me. so very evilly evil.

and it was here, as i tried to understand the medieval link between deformed body and deformed mind (you’ll remember that richard has a gimp arm), that i stumbled onto a literary theory that changed the way i communicate and understand communication: speech act theory. (for those of you who are endlessly curious, here’s a link to a fairly easy to understand synopsis of j.l. austin’s original book.)

combine speech act theory, richard III, and the neverending story (don’t assume here that you’ll read anything like that off-hand, stiff-as-mud movie they made) and you’ll have a mind-bogglingly amazing weekend.

paradise lost

[just a little side note: we’re still in the book-a-day blog advent to thanksgiving. thanks for books!]

my vivid mental image of the war in heaven, the fall of satan, and the subsequent fall of adam and eve all stem from john milton’s epic poem.

milton gives satan depth of character. he gives voice to adam’s, and especially eve’s, torment of soul.

since having my concept of the universe altered by milton, i’ve lived my whole life by a few lines in the poem’s fifth book, “freely we serve, because we freely love . . . in this we stand or fall.”

read it. it might change your life.