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From Harper's Magazine http://www.harpers.org/ : For Hans, it is hardly a surprise that much of Shakespeare does resonate so in Punjab. “For the English, Shakespeare is something sacred,” he tells me, “They are incapable of a natural response. Our response, on the other hand, is not born of ritual admiration. The plots make sense to us, you want to read King John, think of the story of Aurangzeb. Take the Two Noble Kinsmen, and the plot is no different from any Hindustani film. Two cousins fight over the same woman. One claims he has the right to her hand because he loves her more, the other says she is his because he saw her first. They both die fighting.” Hans doesn’t have to say it, but even as we speak, somewhere in a Punjab village, a similar story may well be playing itself out. There are other correspondences that may be mapped too. “We share an attitude with the England of Shakespeare’s times—it extends to matters such as wine, women, wealth and even sex. The psychology of death is similar.” There are differences as well. For one, Hans is quick to point out, Punjabis lack the idea of courtesy that is so central to English culture. –“Though This Be Madness, There Is Method In’t: After sixteen years of work, Surjit Hans’ mission of translating all of Shakespeare into Punjabi is nigh an end,” Hartosh Singh Bal, Open (via) http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/art-culture/though-this-be-madness-there-is-method-in-t Shakespeare and porn (Much Ado About Humping and A Midsummer Night’s Cream); & more Shakespeare; & the perfect combination of motorcycle tricks and guitar-playing Professor Richard Burt Department of English and Film and Media Studies Program and Co--Operator of the Press/Rejectionists 4314 Turlington Hall P.O. Box 117310 University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32611-7310 Phone: 352 373-3560 http://www.clas.ufl.edu/~burt/burtindex.html