Wednesday, March 27, 2013

We Must Look at What We Seek to Accomplish


 
 
Shakespeare Wrote Commercial Fiction–The Battle Between Literary & Commercial Fiction
 
 
 
Image via Wikimedia Commons (Source The Washington Times)
 
I am 59 years old and sometimes I prefer movies and TV shows my generation used to watch. It was called family entertainment. They were layered with something for everyone. Children would laugh and adults enjoy the children and the entertainment. The children and teenagers, and young adults were not old enough to understand what was said. Now, I enjoy them the more so because the layers and complexities made the difference and I still discover much.

Many TV shows and movies today leave me with an empty feeling after a period of time. The difference is they are geared to a certain audience level with very little to ponder about. The special effects are fantastic but I compare them with books that have pictures and few words. When I watch them again I don’t receive much of anything else.

But those from my youth I still can watch them over and over again and many agree with me. It seems those who are teenagers today are more interested by Adult Swim than by anything on TV and at the movies. My granddaughter age 16 would leave it tuned to that station all night and day if I didn’t change the channel.

I never read Shakespeare. I thought I was not interested in poetry at the time but that is another story. A few years ago my Wifie-Poo and I recorded a CD of 28 minutes of playtime in my room. It was not planned or rehearsed. We were just having fun. I call her my Wifie-Poo because we were not legally married but we were one flesh sanctioned only by God.

We could not afford the low income marriage penalties specifically designed for people who receive General Assistance, Social Security Insurance, or Social Security Disability Insurance. It was difficult at best because of the restrictions low income housing puts on all of the renters. They can change without notice and you will find yourself homeless again.

Wifie-Poo had me read I think Sonet 130. It was fun and funny how she coached me along to read it. Finally she let me loose to read it in its entirety. Low and behold I knew Shakespeare was a Black man. Only a Black man knows and about and how to talk to a black woman like that.

 

SONNET 130 with my commentary:

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

(her eye’s are brown far from blue)

Coral is far more red than her lips' red;

(her lips are not red. Coral is “orange pink” is far more close to red than her lips)

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

(her beast are not white. The color of dun is black)

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

(Black women did not have hair products so often their hair was called wiry or nappy)

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,

(She was a rose with her mask removed not red and white)

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

(She is a Black women, her cheeks don’t turn red when she blushes)

And in some perfumes is there more delight

(And in some perfumes,

Is there more delight?

punctuation)


Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

(Her breath is more sweet smelling than in some purfumes)



I love to hear her speak,

Yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

 

(Her voice may have been soothing and sultry like Sade and Anita Baker. Yet he knows the sound of music is supposed to be more pleasing than the sound of her voice.)

 

I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks,

Treads! on the ground:

(He called her a goddess

and he never seen a goddess

as she walks

leave tread marks as she goes)


And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

(This is a double negative and cancels each other out or it is done for emphasis. This Black woman can be compared to none other)

Sonet 130 could be enjoyed by “common” people, but there are references that captivated, challenged, and even upset the highly educated. To think Shakespeare holds a Black woman to be more reverenced and esteemed than a white woman? Preposterous the men said! That is scandalous the women said. He is a Black man Chaplain Winston Muldrew said.

But even to this very day the highly educated won’t let on to the common people what Shakespeare meant. They would lynch him in his time if they ever knew what he meant. It was so layered. Layered can mean you use the same words for child and adult. The maturity level not age determines understanding.

 

My goal was to enter in the dialogs and exchange of ideas of the world, to make friends and influence others and to be influenced by others. This discussion is exactly what I want to do in the Shakespearian style. He knew how to reach a multitude of people. In online university I was taught authors have to know who their audience or write to a specific audience. I just write not actually knowing who my audience is. What I do know is I like to write and research. In the process of time I discovered that I had an audience. My blog has been viewed by many countries in the world. And I discovered the best critics are the global virtual community of writers.

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