Election day is approaching, and of course, there weren’t any elections in Shakespeare’s time in Britain. Oh, but there were elections of a type in those days of yore, and in particular in Denmark, when a king died and there was no clear successor. In Hamlet, the old King Hamlet is murdered by his own brother, Claudius, at a time when the crown prince, Hamlet himself, is in Wittenburg, Germany studying philosophy. By the time he gets back to Denmark, his uncle, who murdered his father and adding insult to …

‘Popped in between th’ election and my hopes’: Hamlet and Election Day Read More »

(We’re mashing up current events with Hamlet, the whole play, and you can start here in the middle or with this post.) Just as Hamlet is on the verge of persuading Gertrude to foreswear her marriage and restore her connection with her son (cue the deep Freudian analysis), our orange-haired Ghost enters, and Hamlet unwisely begins speaking to him: Hamlet: “A king of shreds and patches, – Save me, and hover o’er me with your wings, You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?” Queen: “Alas, he’s mad!” Ghost: “This …

‘For in the fatness of these pursy times/Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg’: Blogging Hamlet – 24 Read More »

A brave Iranian competitive rock climber decided to take off her hijab while competing in South Korea. Then she disappeared. According to reports, “The whereabouts and status of rock climber Elnaz Rekabi, 33, are uncertain after she represented Iran at the Asian Championships in South Korea and was photographed competing without her hijab, the Islamic headscarf mandated for all women by the authoritarian regime in Tehran.” Iran later released a picture of Rekabi smiling and wearing a headscarf at the airport. But it was an old photo, which is not …

‘Whither should I fly?”: Macbeth and the disappearance of an Iranian athlete who competed without her hijab Read More »

Google’s main purpose under Sundar Pichai’s leadership has been to reconstitute a global caste system, rewarding those categories of humans and companies that hew to a left-wing ideological line, and rendering invisible those who do not. The people of India should take pride in the efforts its government has taken under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi to weaken the caste system, which the nation inherited from time immemorial. And it is ironic in the extreme that just as that great nation begins to come to terms with that ingrained …

‘Marry them to your heirs!’: The Merchant of Venice and Sundar Pichai’s Global Caste System Read More »