Just For Starters

When we were told to write about our prior experience with the Bard, I was shamed to realize that my own exposure had been very limited. You see, my high school education was anything but traditional, and unlike most of you, I never had to read A Midsummer Night's Dream, or even Romeo and Juliet. Before I came to college, the extent of my Shakespearian knowledge was a dog-eared copy of The Taming of the Shrew and a couple of odd sonnets. Since that time, I've read The Tempest and Hamlet, but I still feel as though I've gotten only an inadequate taste of the sort of beauty that can "make heaven drowsy with the harmony."

Since you can't talk about Shakespeare without talking about everything else, I might as well discuss the School of Night as well. After all, we cannot change the world without knowing how. We ought to, as they were, be affected. Our oddities should cause others to do a double-take. Whether that involves growing facial hair or not is a point I'm not sure on. Admittedly, I've never been particularly good at it myself, though, so I might just have to stick with dying in an unusual manner. However, a peculiar problem has been nagging at the back of my mind as I think on what to write. If history can only give us the facts, is it really from whence our example should be taken? How can the simple facts, the history of these (albeit remarkable) men give us insight into our own lives? Should we not then be relying on the greater truth, the myths that these great men were born from? Their lives were nothing more than a retelling of a story older than time itself.

It's an interesting problem, at least.

Anyways. To the story that I'm consumed with. I've been thinking about it for a while, and I've had a very difficult time coming up with the answer to that question. I don't think of myself as particularly obsessed with anything. Perhaps that means that I'm obsessed with the idea of not being obsessed. I've been obsessed with my own image before. Not like Narcissus, mind you, but I'm the sort of person who's always very careful to give the right impression--especially when I first meet someone. Perhaps that's been why I've been so wary about starting to fill out my blog. The idea of being in a class of such skill level is very intimidating. But perhaps my intimidation is a good thing. Hopefully it will drive me to success.

I'll be posting more later, but if you check the timestamp you'll understand why I'd be reluctant to continue writing. Even I'm not this much of a night owl.