Death by Shakespeare

Death By Shakespeare – Kathryn Harkup

So strange, released 5/5 and has several glowing book blog bits touting its excellence. I checked my (digital) libraries, no known entity. On Apple Books, it was $19.95, $18.99 Amazon Prime, and $9.99 for Kindle.

Kind of all all over the market, and I would greatly prefer the Apple Books version, always slicker and quicker. While I adore hardbound books, in this day and age, I keep so few. I do have a few treasured Shakespeare copies, but again, more for sentimental reasons than anything else.

But on to Death by Shakespeare…

“London was rarely plague-free but there were several severe epidemics during Shakespeare’s time there. Plague outbreaks not only threatened the lives of Londoners but also seriously curtailed the incomes of actors and playwrights.” Page 28.

Shakespeare lore and trivia, apocrypha, etc.? The opening chapters are the quick, biographical sketch of Shakespeare and his milieux, setting the stage, so to speak. Buried is a short notation about his coat of arms, a black ribbon on a yellow field, with a spear, which, to me, looked like a pen or quill, with a notation that it all could — yea, verily — tie to Malvolio and his “cross gartered” in 12th Night. Coincidence, I’m sure.

At first, presumed set-up being “Death by Shakespeare,” wherein I was led to believe it was about the various ways one can die in a Shakespeare play, while the first, cursory look, as I started? Excellent, gentle overview of what is known, and an appropriate amount of lightweight conjecture about how the bard became The Bard. Plus stagecraft, then and now.

Pretty sure my usual source, the feeds I read, think they’ve already commented on this one. But for me, it was an idle purchase, after reading, literaly, 50 or more library books, I wanted something that was scholarly. Fortunately, this is scholarly without being boring, dry, or mind-numbingly tedious. Just the opposite.

The discussion about the meaning of death, both physical and metaphysical, ontological and medical, interesting in its own right, and the command of the Shakespeare canon without browbeating?

Frighteningly topical, too, at times…

“Sixteenth-century Europe was an environment with many opportunities for plague to cross over from rodents to humans.” Page 306.

Not unlike current conditions?

“Smoking didn’t stop plague but the tobacconists made a killing.” Page 320.

Although, other than hand-sanitizer, and the early toilet paper shortage?

But this is about death in its many forms, and perhaps a little tone deaf at times like this, but then, again, maybe not. Kind of a CSI-franchise in laymen’s terms layered in with literature and wit.

COR. Aside.
I do suspect you, madam,
But you shall do no harm.

• Shakespeare’s Cymbeline 1.5.31-2

I kept thinking, I’ve read a book like this before, Stiff by Mary Roach? Didn’t turn up in my notes, but the outlines of death and its chemical, physical forms? All sounded familiar.

Lively to read, that was for sure, and entertaining, with wit and proper novelistic cadence, tackling two academic subjects and injecting life where there is usually nothing but deadly prose.

Death by Shakespeare

Death By Shakespeare – Kathryn Harkup

Death By Shakespeare: Snakebites, Stabbings and Broken Hearts

Life During the Plague

1. Clues for maintain a productive lifestyle during quarantine?
2. Tips to retain some semblance of sanity during the current panic?
3. Advice for shut-in creatives?
4. Ways to survive and even thrive despite the current conditions? Think that’s what this really is.
5. How to survive and thrive when masks are option, but but make damn good sense.

Life During the Plague

The first is that morning routine. While I developed this as a way to deal with Mercury in apparent retrograde motion, with this year’s Mercury, Venus, and Mars all “doing a little dance?” Now, more so than ever, does a modified version of this routine work.

First thing, coffee. Lots of coffee. I’ve gone a number of different routes with this, demitasse to quart containers, fine china to barely serviceable paper cups. Adjust as need be for current, in-house conditions.

Coffee.

Or whatever in a similar guise. One buddy uses bourbon. Whatever works. I think coffee is best.

Life During the Plague

Yesterday morning, though, I feel into a trap. First thing, while the water was boiling for the coffee? I looked at the news feeds.

Big mistake.

Online news becomes an animal that feeds upon itself. I tend to favor a handful of reasonably reputable news sites, or I’ll fall prey to the click-bait headline, and next thing I know, I’ve got the corona, and I’m at death’s door.

“Top ten things not to do in quarantine,” another favorite headline.

The cure is simple enough, instead of spending a few moments which turns into hours, of doom-scrolling, make something of the time. The news won’t change, and not looking first thing in the morning can help.

It’s such a simple guideline, and yet, seems one of the most effective ways I’ve found to help cope with current conditions.

At the moment, Mercury is Retrograde in Cancer while Venus is Retrograde in Gemini.

This is “forcing an issue,” more than anything else. The biggest obstacle? Which issue?

With both Mercury and mercurial influences (Venus retrograde in Gemini), this combines two areas, our outward communications, and what our home is.

Outward and inward, in a single breath.

Life During the Plague

So coffee is an obvious hot tip to maintain some kind of control over one’s immediate environment. Avoid the news feeds, especially, first thing in the morning.

Finally, there has to be the spark of joy. Some activity the brings happiness, and possibly internal pleasure, sure. That.

For me, I like hearing my fingers typing. There’s a gentle rhythm, and that’s all it takes.

Life During the Plague

6 Book Questions

The last question is a ringer, guilty pleasure — that’s half the shelf space in my office.

astrofish.net/shop

Pink Cake: The Quote Collection – Kramer Wetzel

Pink Cake: A Commonplace Book

• ISBN-10: 1434805751
• ISBN-13: 978-1434805751

Joe County

Joe Country – Mick Herron

From a long reading — read most of a whole series in a few week, ok, maybe in a few months, during the first of the pandemic and shut-in existence, but a character in a book introduced me to this author, and being smarter, now, I started at the beginning with this series.

It is mostly set in a London that I remember, a little grimy, gritty, with an essence that a very Dickens-like street urchin would pop up at any minute, “Sweep your chimney, guv?” Done, of course, in perfect Cockney accent. Halfway through the last book, London Rules, the whole series finally fell into place, in my mind, other than absurdly clever plotting, it is either satire, black comedy, espionage-thriller, or a commentary on the current state of politics, especially in the UK.

I’m not sure.

“For it has secrets: like every building in every city, Slough House is a neuron in an urban hippocampus, and retains the echo of all it’s seen and heard.” Page 9.

Just part of setting that British tone, and why I suspect satire. At what point does a volume of work subsume itself?

“That, and a bone-bred pessimism: if you expected things to get worse, history would prove you right.” Page 39.

Time and again. Hashtag “justsayin’.”

Watching the weirdly addictive “Killing Eve,” from the venerable beeb (BBC)? At one point, one of the characters (played by the remarkable Fiona Shaw) suggests, with a shrug, “London Rules,“ and I don’t recall the rest of the interaction. Still, the show’s noir essence, and the way the Slough House novels all run together? It fits. Whether this is a construct of a fictive universe, or a thing, I’ll never know. The plotting and pacing is deftly different from an American counterpart, as novels go.

Curious, as an aside, about the language. A “biro” in England is a “bic” — short for “bic pen” in American. A name’s trademark name that comes into commonplace usage. The pervasive nature of English Literature, though, the terms? Texas is 260,000 square miles, maybe more. England is 50,000 square miles (source: Wikipedia). I consume enough British material, I understand, and yet, throughout most of the world, it would seem, “biro” is more common. Unsure of my direction, it does explain one reason this material seems so sharp yet defies a typical taxonomy — in my mind.

As number six In the series, is that a connection?

By the end there seemed like a few series pieces left in place, but the body count is getting higher.

Weirdly engaging, for me, a version and descriptions of land, I knew, part myth, part fact, all very British in its imagery.

The overarching story is interesting, layered between plain, old fashioned European politics, espionage, double and triple crosses, and then?

Joe Country – Mick Herron

Joe Country (Slough House)

Previously

1. Slow Horses
2. Dead Lions
3. Real Tigers
4. Spook Street
5. London Rules

It is what it is.

Yeah, anything said in Latin sounds better?

“Est quod est.”

astrofish.net/shop

Pink Cake: The Quote Collection – Kramer Wetzel

Pink Cake: A Commonplace Book

• ISBN-10: 1434805751
• ISBN-13: 978-1434805751

San Pedro Creek (temporarily free e-book)

Studies have conclusively proven

Studies have conclusively proven that swearing releases endorphins, and promotes lower stress less levels.

Studies have conclusively proven

Studies have conclusively proven that anything that helps when Mercury is Retrograde? Helps.

Swearing helps. Clears that throat chakra.

astrofish.net/travel

If only there was a manual.

The Portable Mercury Retrograde

The Portable Mercury Retrograde – Kramer Wetzel