Posted By Roger Stritmatter on October 23, 2011
What will we find when we turn the telescope of modern speech act theory on Shakespeare’s plays?
Keep reading and find out.
Hank Sanders, a regular on the most active authorship Facebook page ShakesVere, just posted an apt analysis of the “state of the debate” in the Shakespeare Question. The critique applies to the comments sections of many blogs and online reviews of Anonymous, especially the fanatically dumb ones like Stephen Marche’s New York Times editorial.
One of the predictable Stratfordian refrains is “I’ve seen no evidence that….” or “You haven’t shown that….”
As Sanders suggests, such arguments turn ignorance into a virtue, performing their critical function only
Because the statement, “What I do not know does not exist” – is unassailable from their point of view, and logically sound. It is particularly strong in this case because the things they “know” are arbitrary and have all been decided upon before hand.
Sanders goes on to quote the remarkable but apparently true statement of the “scientist” Francisco Sizzi regarding Galileo’s discovery of the moons of Jupiter:
As reported in Bruce Felton’s What Were They Thinking? Really Bad Ideas Throughout History, Sizzi dismissed the discovery on the grounds that Jupiter’s moons are invisible to the naked eye and therefore can have no influence on the Earth, and therefore would be useless, and therefore do not exist.
Sander’s analogy supplies a revealing synopsis of the Stratfordian argument. As someone, I think it may have been Randall McLeod (aka Random Clod, Random Cloud, Ana Mary Armygram, etc.) once said, “teleology wreaks all sorts of mischief.” Or words to that effect.
This is not to deny that sometimes Shakespeare traditionalists are making rational points. But more and more, desperation is giving way to the ridiculous as smart observers adopt a more nuanced position and leave the true believers to their own misguided devices.
Well done, Hank! — and many thanks, Dr. Sizzi.
About the author
Roger Stritmatter is a native liberal humorist who lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Contrary to rumor, he does not live on North Avenue. He does, however, work on North Avenue.
Comments
2 Responses to “Those Damned Invisible Moons of Jupiter!”
Lurking Ox says:
October 25, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Great Article. That Hank Sanders guy sounds pretty smart.
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October 25, 2011 at 9:22 pm
If you meet the scoundrel, pass on the invite to write a guest blog any time he wants. We need a few good men (and women) like him.
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