I've had some interesting referrals to my website recently. The following searches have yielded my website as a result:
"Mansions of the Lord" used at Pres. Reagan's funeral (for those of you who hit my site from that search, click here and scroll down)
"obnoxious (or funniest) Christmas newsletters"
"rich kids"
"young italian guys" (from the Australian google, nonetheless...dirty Aussies)
On another note, a new version of The Merchant of Venice came to the big screen today. I'm very excited. I think I'll be seeing it this weekend. Joseph Fiennes is one of the stars, which makes it all that more appealing. If you haven't read that play, do so. It's an incredible story from which my website gets its name.
Posted by Portia at December 29, 2004 07:54 PMThe Merchant of Venice is also one of the most important sources of anti-Semitism in history.
Posted by: Ziggy at December 30, 2004 03:42 PMAnd THAT's why I like it!!!!!
You just won't get off this anti-Semetic trip will you? Are you pro-Israel? Because your politics clearly are characteristic of a group that is vehemently opposed to Israel(liberals).
Or, are you just determined to slander good Christians who love Israel? Either way, whatever.
Posted by: Emily at December 30, 2004 03:47 PMHey that's really funny. Why don't you make some jokes about Birth of a Nation or Triumph of the Will while you're at it?
Posted by: Ziggy at January 2, 2005 02:17 PMAgain, you don't answer my questions. This is becoming quite routine. You're just perpetuating the stereotype that not one liberal can answer a direct question. And, please prove to me that The Merchant of Venice is "one of the most important SOURCES of anti-Semetism." Wasn't Shakespeare, indeed, exploiting a problem? I highly doubt that those who hate Israel are fueled by Shakespeare. In fact, I highly doubt that many of them know and appreciate his work.
Posted by: Emily at January 2, 2005 02:57 PMIn my many years' experience (being much older than y'all:), liberals rarely, if ever, explain or answer their little vituperative hand grenades. They just like throwing them out there but take no responsibility for them.
Posted by: Dee at January 2, 2005 03:06 PMI don't think you can extricate cleanly the anti-Semitism in Shakespeare's London from Shakespeare's plays themselves. He was playing to an audience, but he was also influencing that audience's views. Shakespeare is a pretty influential playwright and arguably contributed to the very notion of Englishness itself by defining what was not English--i.e. Jewish.
I can't think of a more popular or influential Jewish stereotype than Shylock. Can you?
Posted by: Ziggy at January 4, 2005 03:47 PMZiggy, i see you used some pretty big words there...nice.
Is Shylock not quoted saying, "If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you wrong us, do we not revenge?"
This quote, as i can interpret, is Shakespeare's most compelling argument that Jews are indeed people, too. They are human. They can be English.
In all of Shakespeare's plays, one is hard pressed to find any one-sided persecution. He even goes as far to make a Black man the lead character in his play (see Othello). Albeit Othello is misled by Iago, but still, he is not a slave, nor is he the true villain.
How about Mel Brooks as a more popular or influential Jewish Stereotype?
Posted by: Peter at January 5, 2005 11:51 AM
