Public Discourse about Public Discourse: Talking Education Reform
Common among writers is the occasional (or often) distrust of the value of words against the possibility of action. William Shakespeare embedded in his works this angst, powerfully and with humor in A Midsummers Night's Dream. Recently, I wrote a poem about this fear and drew on two works of literature—Shakespeare's Hamlet and William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.
In Hamlet, Polonius is taunted by the troubled Prince when Polonius asks, "What do you read, my lord?" Hamlet responds with "Words, words, words."
For Faulkner's Addie in As I Lay Dying, the message is much darker and direct: "That was when I learned that words are no good; that words dont ever fit even what they are trying to say at."
These literary truths bode poorly for politicians, pundits, and scholars/academics because they all share one quality—the proclivity to function in the world of ideas as expressed through the medium of words, spoken and
In Hamlet, Polonius is taunted by the troubled Prince when Polonius asks, "What do you read, my lord?" Hamlet responds with "Words, words, words."
For Faulkner's Addie in As I Lay Dying, the message is much darker and direct: "That was when I learned that words are no good; that words dont ever fit even what they are trying to say at."
These literary truths bode poorly for politicians, pundits, and scholars/academics because they all share one quality—the proclivity to function in the world of ideas as expressed through the medium of words, spoken and
