My Other Girlfriends
When I started this blog, I knew that life would present challenges to my completing it… that there would likely be revisions as I went along. My intent was to put it out there and watch what happens, to be open to anything so long as I kept to a schedule that would allow me to complete all of Shakespeare’s works in a year’s time.
I hit a big snag when I reached the Sonnets. I have had to ask myself serious questions why that was… and what it meant about the project as a whole. Why had my interest suddenly gone south? Why was it at that very time that other pursuits called me away?
Those two pursuits include another blog and a screenplay that I need to finish soon. What these have done is call my attention to the obvious fact that I’m not in alignment with my goals and values. Or rather that my goals and values need clarification. Just what does Shakespeare have to do with what I want to accomplish?
In searching for the meaning behind this lack of congruency, I believe I hit upon the larger issue that the sonnets brought up: the world has plenty of Shakespeare experts who can tell the curious reader everything she needs to know about the works in infinite detail. I’m adding nothing of value in this arena whatsoever.
My inspiration for starting the blog was wanting to read Shakespeare to see what he had to say to an aspiring writer in the modern world… to anybody in the modern world, actually, but writers in particular since that’s what I happen to be — allegedly. So how did I get off that track?
I’m not sure I ever got on that stated track. What I have been doing is venting my pent-up snarkiness on the works as I’ve muddled through them, sharing epiphanies which have meant a lot to me but have likely been of marginal (or less) value to others. That seems entirely lame of me.
But as I put down the sonnets (to pick up later) and dove into Coriolanus, I discovered my joy had returned. The plays… aha. That’s what this is truly all about!
It became clear to me that I had erred in trying to present myself as anybody but the village idiot regarding Shakespeare scholarship or quasi-literary analysis. What I needed to do was approach it as me… just me… a guy trying to write a screenplay and figure out what he’s meant to do in this lifetime. How reading the Bard fits into this 2010 life of mine. And to invite you to ask yourself how Shakespeare in turn might fit into yours.
I was tempted to call this post “A Revaluation of All Values” after Nietzsche, but opted for the more mundane Tiger-riff instead. The goal here is not to cheat on the blog, but rather to focus in on what the blog means and is truly all about. Otherwise, why continue with it?
So then. About Coriolanus…
A Year of Shakespeare 
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