Friday, July 18, 2008

Shakespearean Writer's Block—Now Available in Bottles!

"You shall have wine enough, my lord, anon."
The commodification of Shakespeare is nothing new, but I was struck with the equovocation of this particular one. Does the bottle suggest that one can break writer's block with a simple dose of this merchandise? Or does the bottle, like the porter in Macbeth invite us to consider that it contains the essence of writer's block itself:
Much drink may be said to be an equivocator with [the writer at work]: it makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him . . . (II.iii.31-34)
I suppose Hemingway might disagree, but I can't recall seeing any William Shakespeare brand Absinthe anywhere!
Links: Steele Wines.
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Bardfilm is normally written as one word, though it can also be found under a search for "Bard Film Blog." Bardfilm is a Shakespeare blog (admittedly, one of many Shakespeare blogs), and it is dedicated to commentary on films (Shakespeare movies, The Shakespeare Movie, Shakespeare on television, Shakespeare at the cinema), plays, and other matter related to Shakespeare (allusions to Shakespeare in pop culture, quotes from Shakespeare in popular culture, quotations that come from Shakespeare, et cetera).

Unless otherwise indicated, quotations from Shakespeare's works are from the following edition:
Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Gen. ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
All material original to this blog is copyrighted: Copyright 2008-2039 (and into perpetuity thereafter) by Keith Jones.

The very instant that I saw you did / My heart fly to your service; there resides, / To make me slave to it; and, for your sake, / Am I this patient [b]log-man.

 —The Tempest