Before the curtain rises

Kronborg Castle in Helsingoer, Denmark, aka Elsinore.

Goat Rope is in the throes of a long jag on Shakespeare's Hamlet lately, although you'll also find links and comments about current events. If you are a fan of the melancholy Dane, please click on earlier posts.

A lot of the important actions in Hamlet take place before the actions portrayed in the play. Hamlet’s father, known hereafter as Old Hamlet ruled Denmark with success and was apparently happily married to Gertude (although one wonders whether she might have trodden the primrose path of dalliance with Old Hamlet’s brother Claudius while her husband was smiting his foes). Their son Hamlet was born about 30 years before the play, although he seems younger.

Old Hamlet was as warlike as you’d want a king to be. At one point, he accepted a challenge from the king of Norway, aka King Fortinbras, to single combat over contested land and won on the same day young Hamlet was born. Fortinbras’ brother, Old Norway, became king of the diminished Norwegian lands, but his nephew young Fortinbras would seethe to regain lost glory.

Young Hamlet was entertained as a child by the jester Yorick and later went to study at the university of Wittenberg, incidentally and anachronistically home to reformer Martin Luther (and to Doctor Faustus in the tragedy of Shakespeare’s sometime rival Christopher Marlowe).

While Hamlet was away, Claudius, apparently long jealous of his brother for more than one reason, made his move. He poisoned Old Hamlet while the later slept and married Gertrude within two months of his brother’s death.

Claudius gained the throne, in effect usurping it from young Hamlet, who was clearly old enough to succeed his father. Young Hamlet was shocked and bitterly disappointed to find the wedding follow so closely upon the funeral. He took comfort in the love of Ophelia, daughter of Claudius’ counselor Polonius and brother of Laertes.

Something was rotten in the state of Denmark and it was only going to get worse.

THE BOOGEY MAN. Here's another column by the prolific Dean Baker about dealing with the recession.

A NEW POLL shows significant support for public spending aimed a getting the economy moving again.

MOVE OVER, SPIDERMAN. A new gadget may make it possible for people to walk up walls.

EAT IT. Food rules for our time.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

A heat-oppress'd brain

El Cabrero is in Shakespearean mode lately with a special emphasis on Hamlet. As mentioned earlier this week, self consciousness has been a major theme of the "modern" period, which as strange as it may sound is often considered to have begun around 1500. You can see it in paintings (like Las Meninas), in literature (like Don Quixote) and even in philosophy (Descartes' "I think, therefore I am").

Hamlet himself has got to be one of the most self conscious characters in all literature (with the possible exception of Spider-Man). This shows up in all kinds of ways, the most obvious being his long solitary speeches or soliloquies.

I find it interesting that Shakespeare has him before the action of the play studying at Wittenberg, birthplace of the Luther's Reformation (Protestantism is all about individuality and self-consciousness). Like Horatio, he has obviously been trained in philosophy, although he admits that there are more things in heaven and earth than it might imagine.

This shows up particularly in his capacity for self doubt. Even after seeing his father's ghost in the presence of witnesses on the battlements in the beginning of the play, he continues to question its veracity. As he says in Act 2, scene 2,

The spirit that I have seen
May be the devil, and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
As he is very potent with such spirits,
Abuses me to damn me.

I've always found one of his most endearing traits was the fact that he knew he might be wrong, although he might have taken it too far. Hamlet may have had a bit too much self consciousness and self doubt, while George W. Bush could have used a bit more. The Golden Mean is difficult to attain.

ONE DOLLAR/ONE VOTE. The US Supreme Court overturned a previous ruling on contributions to political campaigns.

HEALTH CARE. It looks like the US House won't pass the Senate version of reform.

BIT THE BULLET. Krugman's latest op-ed urges the House to do just that.

WHATEVER HAPPENS, here are 10 things you can do to improve your own health care.

IN THIS CORNER...Here's coverage from the Charleston Gazette about a debate between Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship and environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

THE TURN OF A PHRASE

Icon of the Archangel Michael.

This week on Goat Rope, El Cabrero is responding to a challenge from a reader to write about the five things I admire most about Jesus. The hardest part was figuring out where to start.

If this is your first visit, please click on earlier posts.

The fourth thing I'm going to write about is Jesus' way with words. Official Goat Rope verdict: he had one. Big time. Whole libraries have been written on the sayings of Jesus and more could and will be written. I'm going to focus today on his awesome one liners.

My personal favorites include some of his comic visual images, like when he nailed hypocrites who made a show of religion while neglecting simple justice and compassion:

You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

And speaking of camels, let's not forget this one:

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God

.

How about these for cutting through the #$&%:

No one who puts his hand on the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.

What goes into your mouth will not defile you, but what comes out of your mouth, that will defile you.

Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

To save your life is to lose it; to lose your life is to save it.

Follow me and let the dead bury their dead.

The first shall be last and the last shall be first.

Exalt yourself and you will be humbled; humble yourself and you will be exalted.

I could go on and on but I'm sure the Gentle Reader knows where to find more.

WHERE YOUR TREASURE IS. In light of the new Census report on poverty, health coverage, and incomes, the American Friends Service Committee calls for new priorities:

Congress should redirect the $720 million a day the U.S. is spending on the Iraq war to programs that reduce poverty at home, urged the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), responding to Census Bureau data released today.

“For $720 million, we could provide over 400,000 children with health care, or over a million children with free school lunches,” notes Joyce Miller, the American Friends Service Committee assistant general secretary for justice and human rights. “America’s shameful poverty rate should lead everyone to ask ourselves how we want to spend our tax dollars — on war or on education, health care, job training, affordable housing, and the like.”

CONSIDER THE LILIES. Did you ever want your own Spiderman suit? As in a real one? A group of Italian scientists say nanotechnology could make it happen.

MORE ON THE CAMEL/NEEDLE'S EYE THING. CEOs of major U.S. companies made more in a day than the average worker in a year.

MORE ON THE WHERE YOUR TREASURE IS THING. Here's an interesting essay by David Korten on rethinking the meaning of wealth in terms of life.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

WEEKEND SPECIAL: THE CANINE FILM CRITIC REVIEWS "THE GODFATHER"

For first time readers, this blog generally deals with fairly serious topics during the week. Weekends, however, are reserved for the commentaries of various animals in and around Goat Rope Farm.

We are pleased to once again welcome Mr. Sandor Sege (pronounced Shandor Shegg-AY), our official film critic.

We must remind our readers that Mr. Sege suffered a head injury when he crashed into a wall whilst chasing a squeaky toy. As a result, he has been known to transpose the plots of the films he discusses. Nonetheless, we believe that his unique insights into the world of cinema more than compensate for this regretable shortcoming.

It is our hope that features such as this will promote a greater appreciation of both the humanities and the animalities.

THE CANINE FILM CRITIC EXPLAINS "THE GODFATHER"

OK, so this movie is about an old guy who is like the head of a crime family and he's trying to figure out which of his kids is going to take over the business. His name is Don Corleone.

He's about to pick one of the kids when he goes to this science lab and is bit by a genetically modified spider. After that, he can climb up walls, jump all over the place and squirt web out of his wrists.

Doodus said if he was like a real spider, the web would come out of someplace else. Moomus told Doodus he was a dork.

Anyway, he gets this cool uniform and swings around all over New York City. Everything goes OK until this great white shark starts eating tourists right at the height of vacation season and then everybody wants him to stop it so he goes out on a boat all the way to Cambodia to kill the shark who used to be a Colonel but then went nuts.

There's a big storm and the boat lands on a witch. This makes these little people happy but not her sister, who is like the editor of some fancy fashion magazine. It all works out though, because when everything starts to get really crazy she turns out to be his sister, so they can't get married.

The symbolism of this movie is really deep, especially the part where a monkey throws up a bone and it turns into a space ship.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED