Exit, pursued by a bear

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I found a copy of The Winter's Tale that had been lying around a nook in the Shire. As usual with everything in our apartment, I haven't a clue as to whom it belongs, but I hope its original owner doesn't mind that I've started bringing it back and forth to work.

Sometimes when I read works by really talented authors I start to feel dejected about my own writing and how it will never be as great as theirs. It's like when I used to hack away at the violin for hours and hours, scrutinizing over every inflection of every note until the perfectionist in me would get too frustrated to continue. My masochistic self would then go onto YouTube and watch a video of Heifetz playing the song like it was child's play - eyes closed, head a-jerkin', lips arranged in that sort of half smug, half bemused smile, the kind that only world-class violin virtuosos get to wear as a badge of unattainable perfection.

The great thing about reading Shakespeare is that his literary genius doesn't stem from his ability to play with words, per se. Instead, the guy makes up ridiculous new terms and expressions, assigns meaning to them, and basically announces to the rest of society, "Here, add this to Webster's. It's legit now." To me, this inventive quality of his, this stepping-out-of-the-box-and-running-a-mile-away-and-turning-around-and-blowing-a-raspberry-at-convention approach to writing is wonderfully fun and inspiring.

I haven't made it very far into the play yet, mostly because I felt compelled to read through the five million introductions (bad idea, spoiled everything ever) but here are a few of my favorite quotes so far:

"One good deed dying tongueless slaughters a thousand waiting upon that." (I.1.2 93-94)

"Would I knew the villain, I would land-damn him." (II.1 142-143)

"Happy star reign now!" (I.1.2 362)

Sometimes when I'm reading Shakespeare's more outlandish verses I imagine what it'd be like if I burst out in Shakespearean tongue from time to time. "Yessss there's pizza leftover in the kitchen! Happy star reign now!" Then I laugh out loud, usually on a crowded bus full of exhausted crabby people. Then it's awkward for the rest of the ride.