Gstaad
The sun has returned, the snow is so-so, and exercise has replaced everything, including romance. What a way to go. After a wasted year that has done wonders for my health, the diet is about to kill the patient.
That is the good-bad news; the really great news is that Shakespeare has been cancelled by some woke American teachers because they think his classic works promote ‘misogyny, racism, homophobia, classism, anti-Semitism, and misogynoir’. That is a direct quote. All I can say is that, although I am perhaps overly attached to the past, it’s no wonder that so many people love Shakespeare.
In old Europe people can be arrested for saying mean things. But America is in a league of its own. If you comment, for example, on the size of a woman’s breasts, you aren’t just arrested; you’re cancelled. I’m not sure if Shakespeare ever dealt with women’s bosoms at length, but he’s been cancelled for his portrayal of Shylock (a bit money-minded) and Othello (dark and a bit jealous). The bard’s critics — and there are many in America, especially among women — are particularly annoyed about Romeo being presented as some kind of hero; they reckon the poor sod is suffering from toxic masculinity.
Whose turn is it next? Shakespeare has been denounced as a louse, but what about those ghastly Greeks? Now that young Romeo has fallen foul of the girls, what about Orestes? He killed his own mother for what she did to his daddy, and if that’s not toxic masculinity, then I don’t know what is. And it gets worse. Those American academics who have banned Willie have not uttered a word against Sophocles and his creation Oedipus, not to mention Jocasta.
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