If you petition the Muses of the Interwebs for their cyber-support, will they magically make a blah book better?
OR
What I found out about Charles Lamb.
He's the Charles Lamb who co-wrote Tales from Shakespeare – that illustrated children’s book so beloved of my buddy Matt. And Lamb penned the epigraph for To Kill A Mockingbird, “Lawyers, I suppose, were children once”.
Two degrees of separation X 2 = Muses intervening?
So a wish plus 10 minutes of research changed my mind:
I read the e-articles on Lamb with relish; had I not begun this book, I wouldn’t have cared a whit. And now I'm thinking about a friend and a favorite writer: All's OK with the world.
Maybe we're looking at a better book than I forecast. Maybe we're not going to be stuck with a Cinderella story and Juliet won't wind up with Sidney in the end. Even so, will we take a progressive twist on a destructive fairy tale or just a short meander sideways along the same ole Prince Charming path?
Either way, I'm ready to read again. Thanks, Muses.
L
Pretty interesting bonus info for lit. lovers:
Charles Lamb lived in London/Edmonton his whole life and Coleridge was his best friend. His sister Mary stabbed his mother to death (mental illness ran in the family), but eventually came to live peacefully with him for decades. She co-authored the Shakespeare book and together they held salons for the famous authors, dancers, and actors of the time. Lamb too had a pen name (Elia), so that’s a parallel w/Juliet, and he stuttered, as does Farmer Dawsey. Another potential parallel? He was a well-respected author, but always unlucky in love: He pursued one woman in his youth and another at age 44, but both rejected him. Prediction Question: Will somebody die of strep after they fall down in the street and cut their face? He did.
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