My Head’s in the Rio Grande Mud

The title’s allusion – I’ve been on a ZZ Top binge lately. More about that later. An article cycled up featuring Mark Rylance on Shakespeare. The actor, DeNiro, I think, made a similar broad, sweeping comment about Shakespeare and Rap.

So I was thinking about seeing Mark Rylance present one time. He had a couple of academic texts with him, and seemed to refer to them, as he talked, pulling quotes out, as if he had developed his presentation on the fly. He looked scholarly. If I recall, and I might not, Rylance is Capricron. I doubt he was presenting extemporaneously at the time. It just looked that way because, that was a point that would sell. He’s an actor.

A fine actor, at that, and I’ve seen prance on stage as Shakespeare’s Richard II.

But his point is correct, as I was listening to Merchant of Venice with frankly prejudicial terms and racist slurs. While I was offended on one level, give it a moment’s pause, those jokes and jibes meant something else and carried very different meaning, in their day.

Shakespeare’s language was meant to be spoken, with actors adding inflection, depth, and meaning. It was a working script, kind of like, a constant works in progress.

Likewise, my astrology is a works in progress. Tease out meaning. Look it up in books, then add character to subtly give direction.

However, I would disagree with one point in that article, I do find the same critical thinking applied to “literature” should be applied to pop music and cheesy thriller novels.

#Shakespeare