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Thursday, July 21, 2011

Literary Electron

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I have been knitting and sewing so much that my brain must have yarn and thread lines (instead of the real ones, that is). While I was still waiting for my baby to arrive, I managed both knitting AND reading. Haha. I wonder, where is all my time going?
Anyway. I’ve finally managed to get back my reading mojo – with my newly acquired author-love, Bill Bryson. An American who emigrated to Britain (speak about going back to your roots) and loved every moment of it. I adore his style, so easy and light without being simplistic (I know, I’m a snob when it comes to literature, but I guess that’s what happens if you get a degree in linguistics and teach language after that for some years) and repetitive. God, I would like to write like him! What’s more, he chose a subject that … I don’t know if there is anything left there. But still. Shakespeare. I am a great fan of his plays and have read them many times, and never failed to discover something new. But I would NEVER think of pursuing an academic career studying Shakespeare (and I was dreaming about academic career in literature!). Not only this field is, to put it mildly, overcrowded, there’s very little information that can be proved. It’s all about interpretation, guessing, deciphering. What I love about Bryson’s Shakespeare, is that it’s exactly about what we don’t know concerning Shakespeare. And still, Shakespeare did not live in some kind of vacuum, and only his time can fill a whole volume. And what’s more, I can read this book before going to sleep, isn’t that great for a baby/yarn-infused brain?
By the way, the post title refers to what Bryson called Shakespeare – for his being there and not there.

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