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News & ArtsThursday, March 12, 2009
Arts Ricky Shakespeare
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 11:37 AM
Speaking of Ricky Gervais—does anyone know if Gervais has commented on this dig in yesterday's New York Times?
The perennial search for a portrait of Shakespeare is really a search for an image that justifies our idea of Shakespeare, our idea of writing. We somehow want the young Shakespeare to look like Joseph Fiennes, fiery and slashing. But what if he looked like Ricky Gervais? Would the plays mean less to us?
Um... is the NYT suggesting that Ricky Gervais is so ugly that some audiences might not be able to enjoy Hamlet if Shakespeare looked like him? What?
1
Well, just think how much better The Office would have been if Gervais looked like Zac Ephron. Or not.
The idiocy of this is that we have NO IDEA what Shakespeare looked like. Similarly, the endless fake controversy over whether Shakespeare "really wrote" his plays. In the realest sense, WHO GIVES A SHIT? The "real" Shakespeare and the "apparent" Shakespeare are the same, and unknowable. The personality and appearance of the author is a wholly made-up chimera -- you don't know him, you don't really know anything at all about him, and you shouldn't really care.
The idiocy of this is that we have NO IDEA what Shakespeare looked like. Similarly, the endless fake controversy over whether Shakespeare "really wrote" his plays. In the realest sense, WHO GIVES A SHIT? The "real" Shakespeare and the "apparent" Shakespeare are the same, and unknowable. The personality and appearance of the author is a wholly made-up chimera -- you don't know him, you don't really know anything at all about him, and you shouldn't really care.
2
“I froze your tears and made a dagger,
and stabbed it in my cock forever.
It stays there like Excalibur,
Are you my Arthur?
Say you are.
Take this cool dark steeled blade,
Steal it, sheath it, in your lake.
I’d drown with you to be together.
Must you breathe? Cos I need Heaven.”
The man IS Shakespeare!
“I froze your tears and made a dagger,
and stabbed it in my cock forever.
It stays there like Excalibur,
Are you my Arthur?
Say you are.
Take this cool dark steeled blade,
Steal it, sheath it, in your lake.
I’d drown with you to be together.
Must you breathe? Cos I need Heaven.”
The man IS Shakespeare!
3
Exactly, we don't know for sure what Shakespeare looked like, even when she was writing her plays.
4
I think that's overstating it a bit. It's a logical question. In an age when photos of authors on their book jackets are given as much attention as the words between the covers, I think their pointing out the obvious fact that looks matter. And I don't think it was a particularly HARSH dig at Gervais. It's just that he's normal looking and doesn't particularly smolder. Whereas, when Shakespeare is portrayed on screen, he tends to smolder a LOT.
The fact that people even NEED to know what Shakespeare looked like says a lot about what's important to us today.
The fact that people even NEED to know what Shakespeare looked like says a lot about what's important to us today.
5
It's not what's important to us today. It's a persistent human curiosity. The First Folio even has an engraving of his likeness.
6
So Dan has finally morphed into Charles; guess it was a matter of time before Savage started posting stupid ass shit that tries to sound "profound".
8
Ricky Gervais looks like a total goofball. Joseph Fiennes looks like the kind of tortured weenie would be really good at drama. I myself would much rather hang out with a goofball than a tortured weenie, but I'm not quite as sure about Gwyneth Paltrow's feelings on the matter.
9
Wait, she's married to that Coldplay guy, right? I think that answers that question.
Tortured weenies for Gwyneth!
Tortured weenies for Gwyneth!
11
I (theatre major) went to college with a tortured weenie who was the spitting image of Joseph Fiennes. Hot, but a total asshat.
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