Confessions of a Conservative Atheist
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It’s the year 1600 and I am already an accomplished playwright, having written plays and created characters like Romeo and Juliet that would be revered for centuries. This might have been enough for any other artist, but I am not any artist by any means. I am William Shakespeare about to write Hamlet. It’s the… Continue reading I am William Shakespeare about to write Hamlet
Perhaps it was compiling a collection of unreleased songs in 1998 that inspired Springsteen to enter the second half of his career, rejuvenated and reinvented after what most consider a moribund 1990’s. There’s a lesson here, about life’s ups and downs, finding the future in the past, letting things go, hoping they come back, and… Continue reading Springsteen’s “Loose Ends” and the songs that got away
We’re all looking for something better, but are unlikely to achieve it through some magical moment, some mystical epiphany, or some mythical transformation. Ironically, Bruce Springsteen’s two albums most focused on positive outcomes and the possibility of redemption, are also his most underrated if not outright forgotten. After spending almost two decades penning songs about… Continue reading Springsteen’s “Better Days” and the promise of a more limited redemption
Few, if any endings are more tragic, but therein lies Shakespeare’s clever trick. To produce such an effect, he hid a tragedy in what is truly a comedy, the comedy of life itself. Everyone knows Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy because any play that ends with two young lovers, the main characters of… Continue reading Romeo and Juliet and the true nature of tragedy and comedy
Shakespeare isn’t a puzzle box to be unlocked or a cipher to be decrypted. He is instead a universe to be explored and in that regard, no one in history has even come close. Ultimately, your opinion is likely based on your opinion on the purpose of art itself. The 400th anniversary of the publication… Continue reading Shakespeare friends and foes, Falstaff, and the idea of art as a mirror to the soul
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 