“In such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners.”- Camus
Doubt helps keep us fully human as opposed to fanatics who sacrifice some fundamental part of their humanity when they adopt a worldview that is one of an ironclad belief in a system, or a person. Doubt necessitates questions. It separates the individual from what he or she is questioning so that the object of devotion may be examined with a critical eye and mind. Fanaticism breeds obedience and a […]
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The Tempest is about the motivations for vengeance and murder, and what one might do with the power of a god. It shows the audience the arbitrary bloom of one love match, but also has something to say about earned and unearned forgiveness and the residue of viciousness. Prospero, with his power to summon storms and spirits, create hallucinations, bestow sleep, hold others to his will, is a very human god. His […]
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One way that genius with language works means coming up with ways of seeing that no one has thought of and making a metaphor* as a vehicle of that new vision. Shakespeare does this effortlessly, or so it seems in my experience. What does effortless imply? I think it means that for Shakespeare these images surfaced quickly from the flow of thought involved in his writing process. Maybe he asked […]
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Machiavelli’s view of humanity brings to mind this description of The Inferno : “… Virgil’s warning to Dante when traveling in Hell: if he is to see rightly, pity is forbidden. The eye that wishes to see human nature complete must be unclouded by tears, unclouded even by allegiance.” * In this context of pitilessness, we see that Machiavelli has little faith in human nature: “We can say this of most […]
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