Friday, May 26, 2017

Hailey's Novel Diary – 5/26/17

Current events are tricky. Mary Tyler Moore died in January. I was thinking about her, so I put in a reference that makes perfect sense right now. But by the time this book is finished, it could be a year or more after her death. People might read it several years later.

Is that a bad thing? I don't think so. At least, it does not have to be. Shakespeare has current events all over his plays. Most of them don't mean much of anything to us now. But it still works. The original audience for Macbeth was well aware of the Gunpowder Plot against King James I. We know it today because of Guy Fawkes, but Shakespeare's audience was more familiar with the religious superstitions and sorcery that run through the play.

I don't think about Guy Fawkes when I watch a production of Macbeth, but I also don't wonder what he is babbling on about either.



The Mary Tyler Moore Show
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