Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Tue, Aug 21 2007
Do dead poets and live presidents meet in a speechwriter's mind?
What do President Bush and Shakespeare have in common? It seems that it's a fellow named Michael Gerson, who we apparently have to thank for such pointed phrases as "the axis of evil". If Shakespeare had been born as a contemporary of President Bush, I wonder if he might have been an oval office speechwriter. After all, he wrote in the vernacular of his day. If he could be alive today he would probably write in much the same style as today's writers. Writers write because they must, no matter the time period in which they live or the framework in which they work. Or, as Robin Williams' character John Keating said in Dead Poets Society, "I sound my barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world." He was quoting Walt Whitman, who seems to me as far removed from President Bush as Shakespeare does. But if there are only six degrees of separation in life, maybe it's the written word that helps to cross the divide from one generation to the next. You or I could be contemporaries of anyone we wish, if in reading we recognize a dream we have in common with those who lived, and wrote, before us.
posted at: 10:01 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
What do President Bush and Shakespeare have in common? It seems that it's a fellow named Michael Gerson, who we apparently have to thank for such pointed phrases as "the axis of evil". If Shakespeare had been born as a contemporary of President Bush, I wonder if he might have been an oval office speechwriter. After all, he wrote in the vernacular of his day. If he could be alive today he would probably write in much the same style as today's writers. Writers write because they must, no matter the time period in which they live or the framework in which they work. Or, as Robin Williams' character John Keating said in Dead Poets Society, "I sound my barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world." He was quoting Walt Whitman, who seems to me as far removed from President Bush as Shakespeare does. But if there are only six degrees of separation in life, maybe it's the written word that helps to cross the divide from one generation to the next. You or I could be contemporaries of anyone we wish, if in reading we recognize a dream we have in common with those who lived, and wrote, before us.
posted at: 10:01 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
