More odd bits:
Mercury is still backwards, so it seems. Pesky planet. Although it’s not my resource, seems like I’m not the only one to suffer.
Comments:
I’m trying to reconstruct this from memory, and I’m not doing a very good job of it, but there were a few comments at the tail-end of a reading the other evening. The conversation was giving me rather nice feedback. Swole my little pointed head clear up to bigger’n this tiny trailer.
“You don’t write that fluff, like in Cosmo, it’s not like your scopes are dripping with perfume.”
As usual, I tend to buck the trend, and as might be expected, given my odd style and choices, I’ve got a more fairly representative demographic between male and female, unlike the usual stats that suggest horoscopes are only read by women.
“I didn’t like the traffic bit you did, more dirt bikes.”
I’d have to agree, I didn’t like it either, but I was playing with styles. So far, though, the concept of a “theme for the week”? Just an observation from my point-of-view, backed by loyal readers? Themes like that don’t work. Besides I get bored about halfway through. Bored means cranky.
Brain food:
Breakfast? Coffee. Lunch was coffee, cheetos and egg nog. Then I swallowed some herbal, nutritional supplements. I wonder what happens when all that collides?
Stealing:
When is bad, and when is it just homage? I’m hyper aware about what’s stealing, and plagiarism, and what’s just borrowing.
In summation:
The Truth Will Out is a good book with a very plausible hypothesis that Sir Henry Neville was the actual author of the canon of work attributed to William Shakespeare. Shakespeare – the actor, businessman, from Stratford? He was the front for the whole shebang since Sir Henry couldn’t really be associated with the theatre.
Bacon theorists, Marlowe conspiracist, classical Stratfordians, and de Vere proponents are handily addressed and debunked. The book’s style is a little academic with a bajillion footnotes. But the way I read it, the evidence is entirely circumstantial, although, as presented, highly believable.
The closest the text gets to a smoking gun, is a notebook dated 1602, when Sir Henry was a political prisoner in the Tower, and a number of the passages from that notebook correspond to a play that wasn’t produced until 1613, Henry VIII (All That Is True). Which was, according to current academic beliefs, co-authored with Fletcher.
The other point that hit home with me, in The Tempest, Prospero breaks his staff thereby giving up his magic. The play is generally considered Shakespeare’s “good-bye” to theatre. Breaking the staff? Or the spear?
The hypothesis turns on the way the plays, in order of appearance, line up with Sir Henry’s career. Plus, there’s a tremendous lack of support for the Shakespeare of Stratford camp as the real author. Then, there’s the ancillary support from the sonnets, and the always problematic “First Folio Dedication,” and so on.
The Truth Will Out certainly dredges up some pretty interesting material as corroborating evidence. Excellent book, nay, a “must read” for Shakespeare hobbyists. or anyone deep into conspiracy theories, like, the Shakespeare authorship question.
Unrelated:
(And possibly politically offensive – stunning satire.)
Cherchez le poisson:
Who says bass fishing and Shakespeare (the playwright) can’t be combined? On another Austin afternoon, as soon the e-mail belched loudly and stopped working, I grabbed a pole, and froze my cojones off, standing there in the face of a north wind, trying something different, a smaller hook. Eventually, it paid off. Same gang as the day before, same spot, different fish. I hope. I tried to capture the reel’s brand, too, a Capricorn. Just for fun.
