From: Chris Taylor (Christopher.Taylor@man.ac.uk)
Date: Thu 24 Oct 2002 - 11:44:47 GMT
Vincent Campbell wrote:
> Just to clarify for non-Brits, the vote is being conducted on a short list
> of ten people who got most votes in a long pre-selection voting process
> that's been going on for a while now.
>
> I don't recall if Newton is on the list, although John Lennon and Princess
> Diana are, as are Brunel and Churchill.
Yeah Newton's there the freak. I knew the apple story was apocryphal but
I didn't know that he apparently made it up himself to 'prove' that he
thought of gravity before Robert Hooke (a much nicer guy all round, but
very anti-evolutionism as I recall).
The biggest travesty is to have Shakespeare on there - I watched
something recently that more or less proved that Shakespeare (who died
leaving two illiterate daughters, without a book in the house, and who's
bust in the local church showed him on a woolsack (=merchant) not on a
book with quill (this version was a later 'improvement')) was a rich (he
was very rich too, unlike most artists) merchant theatrical 'angel' - a
producer not a director, and *certainly* not a playwright. The plays
were written by the irritatingly political (atheist actually, in a
period when catholics and protestants were burning each other by turns)
but prodigously gifted Christopher Marlowe (not Bacon, that's just daft)
who was run out of Britain under guise of being murdered, to live out
his life in Italy (some documentary evidence) - the 'fight' he 'died' in
was after a six hour meeting with three other employees of his own
patron in a pub by the river; and Elizabeth herself put a cap on
investigation of the 'case'. Basically it looks like they wanted him out
of the way, but didn't want to kill such a talent. Marlowe had the
education etc, many of 'Shakespeare's' plays do have a very Italian
feel, NO tributes were paid by other literary figures on Shakespeare's
death. Also in the programme no Shakespeare scholars could answer any of
these points. Marketing momentum eh?
So 'Shakespeare' is a carefully constructed meme
- how's that for bringing it back home! :)
Hooray for BBC4 :) I love it.
Btw the list was Brunel, Churchill, Cromwell, Darwin, Diana, Liz 1,
Lennon, Nelson, Newton, Shakespeare (ack ack).
Me, well... If Darwin hadn't someone would've (Wallace for example
although Darwin did the Rolls Royce version), same for Brunel. Newton
was just too damn odd. Cromwell badly lost the plot. Nelson hmm, ish.
Diana/Lennon = ephemera. SHAKESPEARE?!?
I dunno I'd probably go for Liz 1 for facing off against the pesky
continentals, then Churchill (same thing but for less long with more
support).
Churz, Chris.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Taylor (chris@bioinf.man.ac.uk)
http://bioinf.man.ac.uk/ »people»chris
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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