Sunday, December 29, 2019

Writing News Another Work Co-written by Shakespeare

If somebody thinks that a poet who lived almost half a millennium ago cannot make today’s news, they are greatly mistaken. The mysterious nature of Shakespeare’s personality and history make him a very promising and interesting subject for literary scholars even today. It has been again proved by Professor Douglas Bruster from the University of Texas. In his paper which will be published in the September issue of Notes and Queries he presents irrevocable evidence (according to him, at least) of the fact that often debated lines from the 1602 edition of the play The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd were not borrowed (as it is generally believed) from William Shakespeare, but actually written by him for this exact work of literature. It is not the first time somebody tries to prove it – the last attempt has been made by British scientist Brian Vicker in 2012. His work was marked by extensive use of sophisticated computer programs aimed at plagiarism detection in order to single out linguistic patterns characteristic for Shakespeare in the ‘Additional Passages’ that created so much controversy over time. As it often happens, Bruster tries to prove the same thing using a completely different approach: instead of studying the language and its patterns, he instead pays attention to the handwriting in which the play was written, trying to find the evidence that it was Shakespeare who originally wrote them. What is today considered to be Shakespeare’s writing consists mainly of three poorly scribbled pages from the British Library – and it is the basis upon which Professor Bruster has built his work. According to Bruster, attributing these lines to Shakespeare solves another problem most previous studies of the subject have encountered: their poor writing. If you know that they were written by Shakespeare’s hand, Bruster argues, it is possible to eliminate the misspellings and typos and eventually recreate these passages in the form they were initially intended to be written – and when you do so, you understand that these passages are excellent, like one would expect from Shakespeare. However, not all Shakespeare scholars believe that it is time for his name to get into the news again – for example, Tiffany Stern, professor of early modern drama from Oxford, although being quite impressed by Bruster’s work, still thinks that news attributions to the Shakespearian canon are based not so much on real evidence as on the wish of this or that publisher to offer the readers yet another little piece of Shakespeare. And how do you think? Did the most important British playwright really take part in writing The Spanish Tragedy? Or maybe he never existed at all, like some scholars tend to believe?

Saturday, December 21, 2019

Oedipus the King and Mason’s Shiloh Essay - 908 Words

Oedipus the King and Mason’s Shiloh Shiloh, written by Bobbie Ann Mason, and Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles, contain extremely different story lines but jointly have one unique quality, the role of the woman. In each of these stories, the females struggle to overcome one major obstacle plaguing them by using their inner-strength. Norma Jean from Shiloh fights to leave a seemingly endless marriage, and Jocasta from Oedipus the King struggles against an ill-fate. Norma Jean and Jocasta believe that they are strong enough to conquer these challenges, but, in the end, they both realize they are not strong enough and commit suicide because of this defeat. Norma Jean and Jocasta strive to beat the one main obstacle†¦show more content†¦Norma Jean and Jocasta do not realize until much later that neither are strong enough to overcome these challenges. A point comes where both Norma Jean and Jocasta believe that they have defeated their obstacles. Norma Jean takes Leroy to Shiloh, a battlefield in the South, in hopes of telling him that she soon will be leaving him and the marriage they once had. While picnicking near a cemetery, Norma Jean builds up enough strength to finally tell Leroy, I want to leave you (500). Surprising Leroy with this bold statement, Norma Jean thinks that she has acknowledged the ending of their marriage, and the preparation for this moment has paid off. Little does Norma Jean know of what is about to happen in her life. Jocasta also has a period of time when she believes that she has won her fight. She refuses to let fate rule her life. Jocasta assumes that she has defied fate when her husband, Laius, was supposedly killed by a group of men, and she had her son killed to save her husband from this ill fate. Jocasta explains to Oepidus, one night, how she manages to defy fate: But Laius, so the report goes at least, was killed by strangers, thieves, at a place where three roads meet . . . my son- he wasnt three days old and the boys father fastened his ankles, had a henchman fling him away on a barren, trackless mountain (2, 216-221). What Jocasta does not realize is that both of her

Friday, December 13, 2019

The Argument on Obesity Being a Disease Free Essays

Brad Ward English 152 Dr. Reiter 10/13/2011 The Argument on Obesity being a Disease Roughly, in the United States, there are 60 million people with the problem of obesity. Uniquely, this disease affects women in the United States more than men. We will write a custom essay sample on The Argument on Obesity Being a Disease or any similar topic only for you Order Now Obesity is a problem because both men and women of all ages are exposed to a large amount of food in their everyday lives. He or she should lose weight because Obesity it can bring on a lot of health issues. This issue is a â€Å"big’’ problem in the U. S and that issue is why some people say that they believe obesity is a disease and why another set of people that think a person chooses to live the lifestyle of obesity. One reason some people have problems with obesity is they live very convenient lives. â€Å"Does the family have clearly stated rules and are punishments logical consequences for rules that are broken (Kelly D. Brownell John P. Foreyt)? † Many people don’t have to exercise and do not eat healthily at all. Most people take the easy way by taking elevators instead of climbing the stairs, or if they are hungry they go to a fast food restaurant instead of preparing a low fat meal at home. For example, in my family if nobody wants to cook, we usually go out and pick up something to eat, usually high calorie fast food. People today can also become so busy they don’t even attempt to exercise or eat health foods. The reason I know this is because I am busy almost every day. With school work, my job, and family duties I find little time for exercise or food preparation. Eating healthily and staying fit is a lifestyle that everyone needs to switch over to so they can have more energy and also live longer. Most of the time it is not people’s choices that make them obese; it is either hereditary or a slow body metabolism. ‘’Obesity has become a highly contentious issue in part because the United States not only has one of the highest obesity rates in the world but has also led the industrial transformation of society to produce the ‘toxic environment’ now accepted by most governments as the problem† (WPT James S125). Obesity is so toxic that octors are finding obesity is liked with depression. †We found that a self reported doctor diagnosis of depression was modestly associated with obesity, as well as significant genetic components to depression and obesity in female twins(Afari, Niloofar). † Sometimes a certain gene in people’s bodies can cause them to be obese. For example, most of my family is big boned people. Some people have hypothyroidism or an underactive thyroid. This condition can make a person sluggish and out of energy so they will not be able to exercise or eat healthily. With obesity, many restrictions follow, for example wearing certain sized clothing, or assigned particular seat on a bus, plane, or amusement park ride. If a person is obese they usually have a hard time to find clothes. For instance, most of time my dad goes to Shreveport to the Big Tall men store. This is where he buys his shirts and pants at cheap price. This group of people feels that being obese is a lifestyle and that too much cost goes into providing the coverage for obesity. But yet, people in the middle school system give Body /Mass index exams. â€Å"Doctors use the BMI mainly to categorize patients, into ‘overweight’ or ‘obese’, using either data from reference populations or drawing upon the U-shaped association between BMI and both, morbidity and mortality (Muller, M. J. ). † So, why does the government not help do something for obesity? I believe that government is holding out on us and we can’t do anything about it unless we elect people that can fight on our behalf. This is the one problem that gets to me because the government has the guts to sent all are jobs overseas but they are so skeptical about helping us as American to pay to â€Å"knockout† this obesity propbelm. Obesity can affect a lot of people’s health by causing diabetes, sleep disorders, heart complications, and breathing problems. For instance, a man named Joe who appeared on the TV show The Biggest Looser started the program weighing at 450 pounds and having to take medication for his health problems. He stayed on the show for three weeks and he lost a whopping 215 pounds. Since he lost all of that weight he did have to take the medication anymore. If people worked on having the will power to exercise and eat healthily, they could have more energy and not feel exhausted. I know it is not always people’s fault for being obese but that does not mean they have to stay fat for the rest of their lives. All we need to is keep positive and Believe we can fight the better life. If a person was to take their time and try it out they might get good results. Work cited (James, W. P. T. ). â€Å"WHO recognition of the global obesity epidemic. † International Journal of Obesity 7 (2008): S125 (Kelly D. Brownell and John P. Foreyt). â€Å"Handbook of Eating Disorder† Basic Books, Inc. 513 (1986): 432 (Afari, Niloofar). † Depression Anxiety (1091-4269); Sep2010, Vol. 27 Issue 9, p799-806, 8p, 1 Diagram, 4 Charts (Muller, M. J. ). â€Å"Obesity Reviews; Aug2010, Vol. 11 Issue 8, p612-618, 7p, 2 Graphs How to cite The Argument on Obesity Being a Disease, Essay examples