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DUALITIES
There is the knowing and the not knowing,there is the seeing and the not seeing,the hearing and the silence, but therecannot be the being and the not, regardlessof what Hamlet may suggest as a question.Even Yorick realized this, perhaps too late.No one listened to Horatio on the parapettoo busy in their own soliloquies to hear.But…
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ACT 1
His life was a collapsing theaterof the absurd and he was holding on tightlybut it was slipping through his fingers.It was not supposed to be this way,this was not the play he envisioned, yethe was here, in a cold table read, andnone of the assembled were certain wherethe evolving script might take them.He had imagined…
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WRITER
He knew he had the novel in him. He had no idea where it was hiding, but it was there and all he had to do was to find it. He had looked in most of the obvious places but all he had found was memoir and the odd bit of non-fiction. They were fine…
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CLUELESS
As someone who once taught Introductionto Literature at a local college, I was alwaysamazed to learn how little my studentsseemed to know about the great canon of workthat was the foundation of all they read.Some at least recognized that the West Side Storytheir parents had forced them to watch,and worse, to listen to, was based…
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AND NOT A PRINCE
I suppose I could sit hereand emulate Hamlet, questionexistence, lose myself in a bookand when asked what I was readingreply words, words, words untilmy questioner doubted my sanity.But my father is gone, the biologicalone and both adopted onesfor bad measure, and so areboth mothers, so the key relationshipin that play has no underpinning in mine.And…
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NOMENCLATURE
We really need to stopnaming new plant varietiesand comets after the peoplewho first discovered them.Think about it for a moment –they didn’t invent anything,they just saw what was already there.So let’s agree on a new ruleshall we, plant varieties willhenceforth be named afterrock bands with at leastone gold record, and cometsafter random lines fromeither Hamlet…
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A QUESTION OF TIMING
Umberto Eco, I believe,intending to or not,has found the perfect wayto bring classic playsback to life, to enable usto reinterpret theseold works, to hold theirreincarnated selves dear. All you need do is decidewhether you are onewho prefers beginningsor finds ends more satisfying. Go see Hamlet, but missthe first act or so, and museon why he…
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TO BE, OR NOT
As he begins to speak, she realizes this conversation will, as usual, devolve into a monologue. It is always this way, and with a finely honed skill, she, eyes wide open, slips out of this moment. She is certain, correctly so, he will never notice. He will fill in her nods, assume she has heard…
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THINKING MAKES IT SO
Words, words, words Polonius, it’s all this damn book is full of, but don’t let it bother you, for your time is so limited, I’ll see to it soon enough. It’s the price of doing the bidding of the devil. Did you really think it would be otherwise? This is, remember one of…
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an old writer and his words 