"Mirth In Funeral, Dirge In Marriage": President Hamlet
This morning's title is pulled from an incredible essay written in March 2009 by Sam Schulman. I cannot overstate the power and excellence of Mr. Schulman's "President Hamlet" published in The Weekly Standard after the Obama administration's first 40 days in power. In fact, I would be understating the case if I averred that if I was a Democratic leader or operative, I would fear Mr. Schulman and not Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity or Dick Cheney; I would fear Schulman's criticism more than anything else.
Permit me to put it this way. If you read this essay by Mr. Schulman you will find his pointed comparison of Obama and Hamlet to be ineluctable and indelible: Mr. Obama is Hamlet and his term in office is naught but a play, and you won't forget it. Mr. Schulman has found a near-perfect, if not perfect, parallel between the Prince and the man who is haunted, it seems, by Dreams From [His] Father.
I had never read a single line of Mr. Schulman's until this past Monday night. His skills impress me; I find his style of prose and polemic inspiring. I don't know if you'll agree nor am I sure if I care you agree. I just know that he has shown me that there is still much to aspire to as a thinker, writer, witness and, perhaps most importantly, a reader not only of the literature of the world, but of the human drama unfolding before my eyes this very day.
One last note. I will guess that readers around the planet have misinterpreted the last two lines of Mr. Schulman's essay. Perhaps those who do so are accidentally obtuse, but I suspect a willful blindness to Mr. Schulman's meaning.
______________
From T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock":
Peace through dissent.
©2009/Contratimes. All Rights Reserved.
Permit me to put it this way. If you read this essay by Mr. Schulman you will find his pointed comparison of Obama and Hamlet to be ineluctable and indelible: Mr. Obama is Hamlet and his term in office is naught but a play, and you won't forget it. Mr. Schulman has found a near-perfect, if not perfect, parallel between the Prince and the man who is haunted, it seems, by Dreams From [His] Father.
I had never read a single line of Mr. Schulman's until this past Monday night. His skills impress me; I find his style of prose and polemic inspiring. I don't know if you'll agree nor am I sure if I care you agree. I just know that he has shown me that there is still much to aspire to as a thinker, writer, witness and, perhaps most importantly, a reader not only of the literature of the world, but of the human drama unfolding before my eyes this very day.
One last note. I will guess that readers around the planet have misinterpreted the last two lines of Mr. Schulman's essay. Perhaps those who do so are accidentally obtuse, but I suspect a willful blindness to Mr. Schulman's meaning.
______________
From T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock":
No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool.
Peace through dissent.
©2009/Contratimes. All Rights Reserved.
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