{"id":14702,"date":"2021-09-07T10:32:12","date_gmt":"2021-09-07T14:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=14702"},"modified":"2021-09-07T10:32:16","modified_gmt":"2021-09-07T14:32:16","slug":"episode-450-robert-mccrum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-450-robert-mccrum","title":{"rendered":"Episode 450 – Robert McCrum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show 450:
\nRobert McCrum<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/virtualmemories\/Episode_450_-_Robert_McCrum.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

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“People should be free to do Shakespeare anyway they like: in 5 minutes, 5 seconds, 5 days, 5 hours, underwater, in a desert, on a mountain. It’ll always work; he’s indestructible, in that sense.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>With his new book, Shakespearean: On Life and Language in Times of Disruption<\/a> (Pegasus Books), author & literary editor Robert McCrum<\/a> uses Shakespeare’s plays, poems, life and history to examine how Shakespeare is a mirror of human experience, and why his lines continue to resonate 400+ years after his death. We talk about Robert’s history with the plays (beginning with his role as First Fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream<\/em> at the age of 13) and the 2017 performance of Julius Caesar<\/em> in Central Park that inspired the book, the ways in which the Plays and the Sonnets complement each other, and how those works influence our understanding of the self and self-consciousness. We also get into the vicissitudes of literary reputation, the way Shakespearean<\/em> fits as the capstone of Robert’s Disruption Trilogy, along with My Year Off<\/a> and Every Third Thought<\/a>, the first play Robert’s Shakespeare Club plans to see post-pandemic, the snobbery that drives Shakespeare denialism, how America became Shakespearean, and the urban myth that Shakespeare wrote King Lear<\/em> during lockdown, as well as the ways plague influenced Shakespeare’s entire career. Plus: where I should begin with Wodehouse<\/a>, what prompted Robert to finally finish Proust (and then re-read him), and the nightmare of interviewing Philip Roth<\/a>! Give it a listen!<\/a> And go read Shakespearean: On Life and Language in Times of Disruption<\/a> (as well as My Year Off<\/a> and Every Third Thought<\/a>)!<\/p>\n

“Any writer can tell you: if you write things down, you begin to make sense of things. If you’re surrounded by chaos and you begin to make notes, you begin to make sense.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n