David Sedaris on Air Travel & Whit Stillman on Shakespeare
A priceless quote from Sedaris' characteristically hilarious "Standing By" in this week's New Yorker (ht BE):
Very much in tune with that brilliant scene toward the end of Whit Stillman's Last Days of Disco:
"We're forever blaming the airline industry for turning us into monsters: it's the fault of the ticket agents, the baggage handlers, the slowpokes at the newsstands and the fast food restaurants. But what if this is truly who we are, and the airport's just a forum that allows us to be our real selves, not just hateful but gloriously so?"
Very much in tune with that brilliant scene toward the end of Whit Stillman's Last Days of Disco:
posted by DZ at
5:05 PM
3 Comments:
Money, as usual, Dave. Nice work
Love this! It's funny... I vividly remember studying Hamlet in graduate school, and having my professor tell us that Polonius' speech to Laertes had been completely misunderstood by modern readers... that while we all tend to read it as wise, profound advice, Shakespeare's audience would have recognized it as a list of empty, airy platitudes (especially knowing the character of Polonius). If you poke around online, you'll see people debating that question to this day... (I was in a performance of Hamlet about 7 years ago, and our Polonius did the speech as a pompous fool... )
But all that aside... I wonder if there's another way to read the line, "To thine own self be true"? I think most people (like the character in Stillman's movie) take it to mean, "Know yourself, and don't pretend – or even strive – to be somebody you're not." But couldn't it, instead, simply mean: "Be honest with yourself about your condition"? Perhaps, in this scene, Des is following Polonius' advice for the first time, by recognizing his own sinful nature and how it keeps him from doing the right thing. Might not this honesty be a first step toward... something?
I just reread my comment and realized it doesn't quite make sense. What I meant to say was that most people interpret "To thine own self be true" as "Follow your instincts... do what comes naturally to you." Based on THAT interpretation, we Christians would say it's a bad piece of advice. BUT... if you take the phrase to mean, "Be honest with yourself... recognize that your instincts are flawed'... then it becomes GOOD advice.
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