An affectionate take on Shakespeare:
“An exemplar of art’s subversiveness is of course Shakespeare. On the one hand, he can be used as the ultimate symbol of establishment values, but think also how he was used as a tool to express political dissent in 1960s Poland. Within Shakespeare’s plays is a deep critique of the nature of power which can never be wholly disguised, although it can be made unjustly dull. His brilliance was in his anarchy, which doesn’t permit the total closing off the contradictions present in his plays. He creates a disturbing beauty from the contradictions he sets in play, which makes his works fascinating and complex and deeply satisfying expressions of humanity.”
— “The Poetic of Theatre” by Alison Croggon
A friend — after I linked to Thursday's post on Facebook — followed the links to one of Croggon’s essays, and reported that he found her “a decent writer, what.” (I would hesitate to post someone who was not.) I replied:
“I'm glad you read it. Actually I was thinking of you as I read it and thought you might find it interesting.
“I look forward to seeing Croggon’s future pieces. At least by this archive, I find the older pieces narrower and more restrained — this book of poems reviewed and no more — whereas as she gets accustomed to her metier she seems (as is common) more easy with broad sweeping generalizations, which is when criticism gets really fun for me.”
Alas, the postings from the old blog — absent the recognition of a substantial subject like Churchill — become, as I feared, a tad tedious. Certainly some of mine at this site have aged even more poorly (I went so far as to put some of them in a book), but I save them stand “for posterity,” warts and all, or at least until I let the website lapse, wilfully or through inadvertence.
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