Fredrick Turner. Stop blowing my mind!

 A couple of days ago I received my copy of Fredrick Turner's book Shakespeare and the Nature of Time. Honestly the purchase of the book was accidental, I clicked purchase on my ipad by mistake and it couldn't be undone. Fifty bucks and a few days later the book came into my possession. Good bye Ted Hughes. The accidental purchase of Turner's book was the best book buying mistake in the history of my academic career.

As the title implies, the book is about Shakespeare and Time. The title got me excited because believe it or not I have almost zero background with Shakespeare and even less with his inspiring texts and theory inspired by his work. So I was glad to move into a more existential realm of analysis, one that focuses on Shakespeare's work and not everyone else's. Meaning, I don't want to talk about Greek mythology, Ovid, Borges or any other authors. I just want to read Shakespeare and talk about it. Believe it or not that is exactly what Turner does. He takes the text and talks about it. There is a little Eliot in there and a little Bible, but not enough to distract from the task at hand. It is almost like Turner mentions them as hypotheticals (read them if you want or don't. As you like it). What is so refreshing in terms of a theoretical text is that Turner's book reads nothing like a theoretical text. As a reader you can almost feel the excitement in his writing. There is a feeling of shared exploration and enthusiasm. He uses exclamation points for Christ sake. I have yet to see an exclamation point in a theoretical text.

At the moment I am only two chapters into Turner's book and I am floored. As I read I am continually letting the book fall into my lap as my mind goes running in a thousand directions (in a good way). It would seem that the topic of time would be a somewhat specific topic, but right of the bat turner divides it into the nine notions of time:

1. Objective
2. Subjective
3. The Agent
4. Realm/Sphere
5. Natural
6. Medium of Cause and Effect
7. Moments and Periods
8. The Revealer/Unfolder
9. Rhythm

These nine notions bleed into almost every conceivable aspect of the human condition (perceptions, ideas, actions, etc...) After Turner establishes these notions he moves on to chapter two entitled "Time the 'Destroyer' in the Sonnets. It is here in this chapter that I am just beginning to understand a part of Shakespeares' method and purpose. I am starting to see a method in the madness. I say madness because in some respects I read Shakespeare and have no !#$&ing idea what he is saying. I realized I am going about the reading all wrong. I was trying to use the metaphors as abstracts to describe the concrete, while I should be using the concrete in the metaphors to describe the abstract. That the images in his work are in and of themselves the meaning. I found that I have to read Shakespeare as myself (a living breathing person). I have to give up my analytical mind and go with my literary instincts (kind of like following my gut). I need to let myself feel what emotions, feelings and thoughts are created by the images within the metaphors.

That is all I can really rant about at the moment. More is to be uncovered. I am just glad that Turner could actually help me. So often I feel that I read literary theory only to be confounded even more. I'll read theory, all the while yelling, "Speak English! What are you saying? Just say it." This I feel is a new beginning for me, a period of illumination as well as appreciation.

Jim Croce - Time in a Bottle