Nothing can please many, and please long, but just representations of general nature.
...
Shakespeare is above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirrour of manners and of life. His characters...are the genuine progeny of common humanity, such as the world will always supply, and observation will always find. His persons act and speak by the influence of those general passions and principles by which all minds are agitated...
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...Shakespeare excells in accommodating his sentiments to real life...
Actually that wasn't me, that was Dr. Johnson in 1765. Could have been though! Probably "mirrours" betrayed me.
Actually this post isn't even mostly on Shakespeare. It's more on Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton and reality shows. I have often wondered why any of them exist, what the fascination is, why they have such a hold on the public. If Dr. Johnson was correct, even partly, then realism is Shakespeare's appeal too. "Common humanity" appeals to the common humanity. They don't appeal to me but then I haven't read Shakespeare either.
That's one thing that struck me about Dr. Johnson's Preface to Shakespeare.
Harris on Philosophy.
Actually this part of the post is by me. "Representations of general nature," "mirrour:" Those are, like, so 1765, a-ha. Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979), Richard Rorty. Rorty broke all those mirrors.
Art. Art broke those mirrors also, broke with representations of nature before philosophy did. Come the camera, come impressionism. You see something different when you're not looking in the mirror.
...
Shakespeare is above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirrour of manners and of life. His characters...are the genuine progeny of common humanity, such as the world will always supply, and observation will always find. His persons act and speak by the influence of those general passions and principles by which all minds are agitated...
...
...Shakespeare excells in accommodating his sentiments to real life...
Actually that wasn't me, that was Dr. Johnson in 1765. Could have been though! Probably "mirrours" betrayed me.
Actually this post isn't even mostly on Shakespeare. It's more on Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton and reality shows. I have often wondered why any of them exist, what the fascination is, why they have such a hold on the public. If Dr. Johnson was correct, even partly, then realism is Shakespeare's appeal too. "Common humanity" appeals to the common humanity. They don't appeal to me but then I haven't read Shakespeare either.
That's one thing that struck me about Dr. Johnson's Preface to Shakespeare.
Harris on Philosophy.
Actually this part of the post is by me. "Representations of general nature," "mirrour:" Those are, like, so 1765, a-ha. Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979), Richard Rorty. Rorty broke all those mirrors.
Art. Art broke those mirrors also, broke with representations of nature before philosophy did. Come the camera, come impressionism. You see something different when you're not looking in the mirror.
