booked

finished the story of english by robert mccrum, william cran and robert macneil. i only found out after starting it that i had the 3rd edition and the first came out in 1980s: everything in it is pre email and internet, which makes the book oddly outdated already.

the book is about the evolution of english and the future of english; how english survived the romans and normans; the spread of english via the potato famine, slavery, imperialism and hollywood; to new variants of english such as american, australian, jamaica, singapore and india. some people think that english will become a world language, and survive in a simplified standard form. others believe it will break up and form independent languages, like latin did in the middle ages.

i can't help thinking that english, as we know it, will break up. witness the word coffee. in england, where i'm from it is pronounced: co fee. in japan, it is pronounced: cor hee. someone from new york might say: cquwor fee. in hong kong: gar fe. could i order a gar fe in new york or cor hee in london? maybe not. and who's to say who has the correct pronunciation? even in england, the home of english, someone from glastonbury differs from someone from newcastle to someone from norwich. and couldn't you argue that american english is the most familiar due to the movies ergo an american accent should be standard? (of course there is the same problem with regional variation in the usa too).

dr samuel johnson said english is a living, growing language anyway so it may be beyond our parental control.

ps. on the subject of pronunciation, you may think foreign tongues corrupt the sound of english, but doors swing both ways: karate is pronounced ka la te in japan; not kaara tea. sumo is pronounced su mo; not sue mow. karaoke is ka le o ke; not karry okey.


hamlet

i read hamlet twice. i had to read it twice because i couldn't understand it the first time. i still feel i should read it again still.

rather that write a brief ill conceived discourse, i will leave it with other writers far more qualified than i. i will just say a few words though, and if you do not want to know what happens at the end of the play, stop reading now.

the first time i read it, my favorite part was when hamlet's mother drinks the poison. not the big soliloquies about life and death and revenge and duty, but a simple slice of treachery. i just couldn't believe it: she was just beginning to bond with her son again too. oh well, she probably deserved it anyway.

in fact they all kind of deserve it for being stupid. hamlet is surrounded by morons. idiots. why would claudius marry the widow so soon? it smacks of gulit and stupidity and parades your motive. and why would gertrude say yes after only two months? has she no concept of gossip? why is laertes such a willing dog; has he no brain? ophelia: why are you so sad? you dumped him, remember! horatio, you bloody dummy! hamlet is your friend! advise him, talk to him: do something! rosencrantz and guildenstern: well, if you were alive today, you'd make very good middle managers of a small to medium sized company.

ps. a petard is a bomb. to be "hoist" by your own "petard" is to be blown up by your own bomb. some people may be interested in that fact.