All right! Coriolanus time.
This is a perfect play for thinking about all the ways we reduce state politics to simplistic powerplays.
As always, part of the essay is free-to-read: that includes analysis of the 2011 film, to connect Shakespeare's play to today's war-weary world.
Then paid subscribers get to dive into Shakespeare's version, Plutarch's version, Livy's version, and what each history reveals to us about what "the state" really contains.
(Hint: A LOT more.)
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/coriolanus-and-coriolanus-and-coriolanus
@MLClark Oooof. You hit a nerve here: "Can you not feel how much indifference to “the masses” persists in report of government actions between themselves? How many military and state forces are operating in a dialogue centrally with each other?" I definitely feel like the impotent crowd member, murmuring "lettuce and cabbages, lettuce and cabbages" on stage, as the main actors make their world-changing decisions.
Right there with you, EL Butterfield. 👍🏻 At least we're not alone!
@MLClark So interesting that you are working on a Coriolanus treatise as it relates to current politics. I just rewatched the RSC Sir Ian McKellen / Dame Judi Dench MacBeth and found myself thinking of Trump more than once.