[Shakespeare] Last night's discussion, and a fond farewell

[Richard Johnston]

Dear friends,

We had a magical discussion of Twelfth Night last night, and if you weren't
able to join the call, I hope you'll have a chance to download and listen to
it. Here's a link to this morning's blog post, where you can download the
file:

http://showsupport.typepad.com/odyssey/2010/07/
link-to-discussion-of-shakespeares-twelfth-night.html

For those of you on the call, the book we talked about was Harold Bloom's
Shakespeare and the Invention of the Human, where he argues, over the course
of individual essays on all of Shakespeare's plays, that Shakespeare,
through the plays he wrote and characters he created, essentially "invented"
what we think of now when we hear the word "human." I'm glad Peter brought
him up, because, if not mistaken, one of Bloom's other books The Western
Canon was one of the sources of inspiration for Reading Odyssey.

I've never been fond of goodbyes, so I'll keep this short and sweet. My most
heartfelt thanks to all of you who participated in Shakespeare in the Spring
this year, whether you joined one call or all four. For me, reading
Shakespeare is always a humbling experience, and learning from all of you
made it even more so. So thank you for your time and energy, and for your
observations and questions; for the courtesy you showed, and support you
gave to everyone in the group. Lastly, a giant thank you to Phil Terry, less
for giving me the opportunity to moderate this group--which usually
moderated itself--but for his creativity and vision in making Reading
Odyssey what it is.

This morning, I received a lovely email from a participant describing how
the supposedly mundane concerns of the last few decades--getting a job,
building a career, establishing and supporting a family--had somehow
prepared him, in ways he couldn't possibly have imagined, for reading
Shakespeare and other literary works, which he hadn't really encountered
since college. Maybe this shouldn't surprise us, though. After all, these
"mundane concerns" he describes are really just life and living, and if you
take just one thing from Shakespeare in the Spring, I hope it's a
recognition of Shakespeare's profound engagement, underneath all the poetic
language and sparkling wordplay, with life. With read, honest-to-god, often
brutally hard, but sometimes absolutely delightful, and always
thought-provoking human life.

I've addressed you as friends in all of my emails, and I really do mean
that. Some people bond over climbing a mountain; well, we've read three
Shakespeare plays together. Please keep in touch, especially if you decide
to continue reading Shakespeare. If you're ever in the Boston area, don't
hesitate to look me up; it's always great to put a face to a name. Yet even
if we never meet in person, I hope to see you again on another Odyssey.

All best,

Rich

-- 
Richard Johnston
Resident Tutor, Cabot House
Teaching Fellow, Department of English
Harvard University
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