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  #11  
Unread 01-23-2022, 08:57 PM
Max Goodman Max Goodman is offline
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Most modern productions of Much Ado About Nothing skip or amend Benedick's "If I do not love her, I am a Jew." Should we be standing and shouting "Censorship! Political Correctness"?

And what Julie said.
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  #12  
Unread 01-23-2022, 10:07 PM
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Jennifer Reeser Jennifer Reeser is offline
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Hi Max,

In answer to your question -- if they are seriously so offended by such a statement as the one you have cited, why on Earth would they be patronizing and attending the play, in the first place? Such a playwright? No one ought to even put themselves into the perilous and precarious position of feeling so conscience-bound. That's a "no-win" situation. It's at best intellectual cowardice and at worst, artistic vandalism. I don't stand and demand. I shrug and leave. When I encounter writers who offend me on such charges as this, I place filters on their emails so that they go instantly into the shredder. They don't even get an audience from me.

An ounce of information is worth a pound of activism.

J

Last edited by Jennifer Reeser; 01-23-2022 at 10:41 PM.
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  #13  
Unread 01-23-2022, 11:11 PM
Brian Allgar Brian Allgar is offline
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Changing or deleting lines or phrases in Shakespeare for reasons of 'political correctness' is the present-day equivalent of bowdlerization, and equally deplorable. Even the Bible doesn't say "If this line offend thee, pluck it out."
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  #14  
Unread 01-23-2022, 11:28 PM
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Jennifer Reeser Jennifer Reeser is offline
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Hear, hear, Brian.

The magnificent, incomparable Paul Stevens was first ever to publish my Dark Lady sonnets, as I recall. He eventually wrote not only a blurb for the book, but an entire foreword. All mention of offensiveness or grounds for omission are conspicuously missing.

Furthermore, anyone foolish enough to dare to suggest that Paul was politically conservative should promptly be hooted out of the room, followed by rotten fruit
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  #15  
Unread 01-24-2022, 12:10 AM
Julie Steiner Julie Steiner is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jennifer Reeser View Post
I don't stand and demand. I shrug and leave.
I admire your restraint. Some people might start a General Talk thread to kick up a fuss about it.
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  #16  
Unread 01-24-2022, 06:19 AM
Max Goodman Max Goodman is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jennifer Reeser View Post
Hi Max,

In answer to your question -- if they are seriously so offended by such a statement as the one you have cited, why on Earth would they be patronizing and attending the play, in the first place? Such a playwright? No one ought to even put themselves into the perilous and precarious position of feeling so conscience-bound.
Hi, Jennifer,

Have I been that unclear?

The shouting would not be because the patron was offended by Shakespeare's character's statement, but by the actor's (the theater company's) omission of the statement.

It's analogous to slamming Mr. Stewart in the press and, to a lesser extent, to this thread.

Last edited by Max Goodman; 01-24-2022 at 06:25 AM.
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  #17  
Unread 01-24-2022, 06:44 AM
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Jennifer Reeser Jennifer Reeser is offline
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No, Max, you have not been in the least unclear, I understood perfectly and was addressing your scenario. I appreciate your comments. Be well.

Jennifer
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  #18  
Unread 01-24-2022, 09:09 AM
Julie Steiner Julie Steiner is offline
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Okay, my joshing of Jenn aside, here's a link to the seven sonnets from of her Dark Lady sequence that were published by Kim Bridgford in Mezzo Cammin.

Here are links to the four that were published by Paul Stevens in The Chimaera and one in The Flea, plus his Eratosphere announcement of the "superb collection" containing all of them.

Here's the one in The National Review.

Here are links to order Jennifer's Sonnets from the Dark Lady book, containing 100 other poems before that Shakespeare-inspired sequence of 27, on Amazon and Ebay.

Here are two reviews of the book, by Kim Bridgford in Mezzo Cammin and Jenn Ruckel in Rattle.

Last edited by Julie Steiner; 01-24-2022 at 09:12 AM.
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  #19  
Unread 01-24-2022, 11:16 AM
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Sarah-Jane Crowson Sarah-Jane Crowson is offline
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Thank you Julie! Much appreciated.

(really much appreciated, as I wouldn't have found them without your signposts and I've just bought the kindle book (sorry, but it means that it's affordable) and that, in turn means I can sneak in half an hour of poetry before returning to the dubious joys of critiques of neo-liberal education).

Sarah-Jane
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  #20  
Unread 01-24-2022, 12:08 PM
Jesse Anger Jesse Anger is offline
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Picard has the right to perform the poems he wants, but don't get it twisted, it's a virtue signal: a dog whistle with a ton of nuance underneath which he left unaddressed.
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