Devenish

Part II Having established the logical point that Shakespeare’s characterization of love could be mistaken, even while he ever writ, it is time to tackle the central challenge of demonstrating how and why Shakespeare is wrong about Love in this sonnet. This discussion will only be of value if I can somehow develop a proof, such that it is is more than a matter of subjective opinion, but rather an analytic truth: that is, I will need to show that if my intuitions and analysis are correct, then Shakespeare is wrong by logical necessity.

For anyone who cares, the Love and Death post will be completed next week. Meantime, we should celebrate the end of the rainy season in this part of Japan. Had it lasted one more week I might have lost the will to live (less melodramatically, the will to live on Rokko): after weeks of living in thick swirling cloud, the sunshine has broken through... Thanks too to Kayo and Nathan for a great end-of-rain barbecue!

It really is coming soon. Should have been now, but the distraction of gnat bites, plus the need to find 15 multiple choice questions on Child Language for a makeup midterm tomorrow morning, have combined to delay this effort for one or two more evenings. In the meantime, two trivial notices from a day spent taxiing children around Kobe: Click to play The first is that one insect bite may not be a bad thing—even if it's not John Donne's Flea —since the itch reminds you forcefully that you are human with a real body, and not a brain in a vat. (Or at least that you were human once—it's hard to exclude the possibility that you are now an envatted brain with a recollection of having been bitten. But then I realise that in my memory, I was much younger and fitter than this, and my flesh a good deal more perfect, so this itch must be real, for better or worse). The same principle as a hairshirt, I suppose, without the self-hatred. However, though one bite may be sobering, seve...