If We Shadows Have Offended | Shakespeare Birthday Event

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Yo I don't have time to go to any of these events WUMester events so let's-a talk birthday parties. Particularly our man Shakespeare's and how our lovely guest speaker talked about people other than Shakespeare. No sarcasm there, it was great. A bit typical in this day and age of subverting all expectations, but that's fine. 

And I guess I could be talking about the fey while I'm at it. That seems to be a running theme with my posts. But hey, it works, right? Right? Let's just pretend it does. 

Whitney Sperrazza's talk on Archival Absence reminded me a bit of the ending of a Midsummer Night's Dream - and not just because I was half focussed on making sure I still had it memorized. If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended - that you have but slumbered here while these visions did appear. It's an interesting line, with Puck encouraging the audience to not take the events of the play with a grain of salt. 

If you're offended by it, simply forget about it, pretend it's nothing but a dream. One has to wonder if that played a part in the archival absence we see today. We see hints of it in more modern media. If I remember correctly, there's a scene in Wonder Woman in which a whole room of men were completely ignoring the title character until she revealed that she could read whatever language they were struggling with (apologies for being vague, it's been a minute). Parents tell their kids not to dress or carry themselves in ways that draw attention to themselves, in hopes that if a boogeyman is out there, they'll grab the next person. And while some use this lack of presence as a defense mechanism, we've also seen a plethora of examples of how diminishing the importance of an event is more counterproductive. Older folk like to use the line of 'Back in my day, ____ wasn't a problem.' 

Sorry, not sorry, Joe, it absolutely was a problem, you just didn't hear about it. 





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