Tag Archives: Macbeth

The American Tragedy

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If I were to have dinner with anyone living or dead, I would choose Jafar Panahi, the Iranian director of The White Balloon (1995), This is Not a Film (2011), Taxi (2015) and this year’s It Was Just An Accident. Even though Mr. Panahi speaks no English and I speak no Farsi, I believe there would understanding through his entrancingly beautiful films and the humility he shows in every interview I know.

Jafar Panahi silently aghast of the Shark Tank Guy

Mr. Panahi and I would talk about films and books, living in this chaotic world and the American Tragedy. Mr. Panahi understands that there is no such thing as the American Dream, no success story of rising to the top of the capitalistic ladder, that there is only tragedy, a sacrificing of everything for personal greed.

Daniel Day Lewis’ portrayal of the American Tragedy

This tragic tale has been told throughout Western history – from Aeschylus’ Agamemnon slaughtered by his wife, Clytemnestra, through Scotland’s Macbeth beheaded by Duncan to the American’s Daniel Plainview sitting in blood and piss – each furiously violent stories of how the attainment of power leaves you desolate and dead.

Yes, Macbeth, those trees are moving coming for you.

The fates of Gates, Zuckerberg and Musk are not hard to determine; like Trump, the bitter and ignominious final chapter is coming fast. None of us will be sad. Mr. Panahi and I would laugh and nod about that and then talk about better things, films to come and maybe even of one day living in a tolerant and empathetic world 

Time for the Witches, PJ & Dee

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The subjugation of women started long ago, Gunter Grass postulating in The Flounder that it was the moment men figured out childbirth was not a secret of women but the result of fornication.

Whatever the moment, the persecution has continued unabated throughout history, well documented through the portrayal of women as The Fates, Furies and Witches, all tortuously guiding men to their downfall.

Macbeth’s Witches Three
Orestes Hounded by the Furies

The portrayal of witches has evolved somewhat today, some still hideous and evil, others sexy and fun, but all remaining an essential threat to men.

Cher in Eastwick
Sam in Bewitched
The Witch of Witches
Witchie Poo in HR PufnStuff

The fear of women remains rampant throughout the world, especially so in the United States, because they really do have a greater power than men. It isn’t because of their vaunted role as mothers – preserve us from that pronouncement – nor their intuition or dreaded scorn. Rather it’s due to the fact that they aren’t as petty, childish and stupid.

Given that young women have been trained to sexualize themselves for approval and financial security, they now need role models to find their way.

PJ Harvey on stage
Dee in My bad Side
Dee in Anori

Intelligent, talented and, yes, beautiful, Ms. Harvey mines the essential ooze with acuity and supreme confidence, enough to terrify any man. As does Dee in my novels My Bad Side and Em, hopefully soon to be in print.

Men just need to accept that they are babies and let these witches take over the world.

Ice Friday: Shakespeare’s “Tomorrow” Speech

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Shakespeare wrote many soliloquies; although dark and depressing, his final speech for Macbeth is one of his best.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Ice Friday: Shakespeare's "Tomorrow" SpeechOut, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

The Myth of Conscience

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While literature is rife with the terror of a bad conscience – Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray – there is little evidence that we actually care about wronging others. MACBETH by William ShakespeareWe aren’t as smart as we think and end up believing that selfishness and greed is what keeps us alive. Children are taught all sorts of other good things – sharing and caring and all that – but they learn by watching how adults behave. downloadThe message is clear: Teachers and parents don’t practice what they preach; the wealthy stay rich through manipulation, and leaders maintain their power through collusion.

housegop-republican-party-westcottWe want what we have, and we want whatever everyone else has too.img_7698Bring on the flood.