Late afternoon. You all took in an enjoyable lunch at Squash Burgers, you stayed at home with Owen when he was napping and Carol, Kim and Brennan headed over to Graeter’s for dessert. You took the time to read chapter eight, “The Shakespeare Paradox”, of Lehrer’s Imagination and found it more interesting than you thought you would.
I like the way Lehrer re-forced his general thesis of imagination gaining its spring from the city environment. In class my focus was on how the social environment influenced the writers and their literature. I did not think to use London itself as conducive to the creativity; my focus was on the connections formed by the writers themselves. If I were still teaching I would spend an extra thirty minutes or so explaining these new concepts on creativity at the beginning of the Elizabethan Age and on up through twentieth and into the twenty-first century. I would hope there would be some attempt at student discussion on the topic along the way. I don’t know why I waste my thoughts on such an enterprise. Those days are long gone. Part of the fun of teaching was preparing class through lecture and discussion – mostly overviews of literature beginning a new literary age. There was always something I would dig up each year to make the work relevant to modern times; at least that was my attempt. I did not do as well as specifics of literature throughout the canon of English literature. Never enough time.
There were a few quotations in the chapter that were of great interest because they made you think and consider and not always agree with the author. Explore these presented facts and concepts a bit, orndorff. – Amorella
Most focused on when and where great thinkers lived. They are bunched together for the most part and I have always thought this of interest. In the Merlyn books I am using the Greek Dead talking to the Living during the time of Plato and Aristotle; that ‘transmissions of the Dead are from time to time received by the Living (more than one) and that is the reason for the grouping as seen in Imagination. I don’t consider my idea to be factual at all, but it conforms to the themes in the books. Certainly, Lehrer has some scientific legitimacy in my mind. It is very interesting to think on.
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Comments on Lehrer’s Imagination: Chapter Eight: “The Shakespeare Paradox”
“[David] Banks gives the example of Athens between 440 B.C. and 380 B.C. He notes that the ancient city over that time period was home to an astonishing number of geniuses, including Plato, Socrates, Pericles, Thucydides, Herodotus, Euripides, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Aristophanes and Xenophon. . . . they all lived at the same place at the same time. Or look at Florence between 1450 and 1490. In those few decades, a city of less than fifty thousand people gave rise to a staggering number of immortal artists, including Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Ghiberti, Botticelli and Donatello.” p. 213
And,
“When William Shakespeare arrived in London sometime in the mid-1580’s, the city was in the midst of a theatrical boom. There were more than a dozen new playhouses, many of which staged a different play six days a week. On a typical night, approximately 2 percent of Londoners went to see a performance, with more than a third attending at least one play a month. . . .
Shakespeare’s new hometown was one of the densest settlements in human history. Approximately two hundred thousand people were packed into a few square miles on the banks of the Thames. . . . [W]ages in the metropolis were about 50 percent higher than elsewhere in the country. . . . As a result, London continued to attract throngs of young people like Shakespeare. It’s estimated that by 1590, more than half of the city’s population was under the age of twenty.” pp. 214-215
And,
And yet even as Londoners flocked to the playhouse, they were also pioneering a new kind of literary culture in which books became an important part of the public discourse. This is largely because sixteenth-century England underwent a massive increase in literacy – there hadn’t been this many readers in a city since ancient Athens. While historians estimate that less that 1 percent of English citizens could read in 1510, by the time Shakespeare moved to the capital, the literacy rate was approaching 50 percent.
This was not the case in other countries. . . .” p. 217
And,
“Paul] Romer’s [economic] theory come with very clear implications for creativity. In essence, it suggests that the increased sharing of information is almost always a good thing. ‘The thing about ideas is that they naturally inspire new ones,’ Romer says, ‘This is why places that facilitate idea sharing’ – think of, for instance, Silicon Valley or Elizabethan England – ‘tend to become more productive and innovative than those that don’t. Because when ideas are shared, the possibilities do not add up. They multiply.” p. 222
From: Lehrer’s Imagination, “Chapter Eight”
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Lehrer goes on to say that copywriter and patent laws make some people very wealthy while they also stifle creativity. People cannot ‘so easily borrow from others’ as they could in Shakespeare’s day.
I am assuming that Lehrer’s statistical information is factual, though I am half inclined to check it. Today creative people (and others of course) can easily share via the Internet. I have mixed feelings on this. I think new ideas should be shared; they should be free and common, as seen in one of my favorite sources, Wikipedia. As I self-published my books a copywrite was attached and I show it in my blog though I don’t mind sharing my notes and the workings of book four. However, I don’t know what will happen when I self-publish through iUniverse because they insist that if readers want the books they go through the library or buy it from them, the publisher. It is a quandary.
I disagree, orndorff. Legally when published, you are the author and should be paid accordingly, as you are now. You earned about five dollars and fifty cents in royalties this last tax year and you cashed the check and have probably spent the money already. Is this not so? – Amorella
You are so funny, Amorella. Yes. You are right. I took the money and spent it. I see I can puff and puff philosophically, but what I did was take the money and used it for a selfish purpose no doubt. You are right. I should just keep my mouth shut on the subject.
Note. I do not feel Wm. Shakespeare wrote the works, but they were written in those times. - rho
Dusk. Owen had his bath and all is well. Lots of energy after supper – you find it enjoyably fun to hear the boy laugh as he plays, why don’t you admit it? By the way earlier today you finally opened your Linked-In account and found a ‘M.H.’ wished to make contact but as too much time has passed you could not accept her link. You feel bad, especially since most of your links are family, friends, former colleagues and/or former students.
I did try to contact M.H. but there are several with that name and I could not see if she might have been a former student. In any case it was not polite not to respond more quickly but I couldn’t remember my password. Tonight I made several guesses and one of them worked. Anyway, if M.H. reads this posting she knows who she is and she may contact me again if she wishes; sorry for my lateness in responding.
As for Owen, when he’s a good kid he’s fine, but his favorite word these days is, “No!” I don’t like it when he is not polite, but then he is only two so I should have more patience like his mother, father and grandmother. I can’t believe how many times he ran around the inside of the house – laughing most of the time. He should be exhausted but he is still awake. Kim is reading him a story. She has lots of love and patience. Good for her. She gets it from her mother. He talks to his father every night via the iPhone – actually these days they talk while they view each other. It is so amazing. The first time I saw a picture phone was at the World’s Fair in New York City back in the mid-sixties when I went on the trip with Fritz. Then, that’s another story and I have probably already told it two or three times. I have been holding Brennan a couple of times but he's pretty young and does not communicate much unless he doesn't like to find himself in a particular circumstance -- usually it is with a near empty stomach because of his size.
Owen’s to bed, time for you to think about bed too, boy. Post. - Amorella
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