what I would read right now, but can’t

More Platonic dialogues.

Actually, I’ve also had the Norton Shakespeare out for awhile, but can’t find the time to read even one play.

A few days ago I was joking about Platonic dialogues as zodiac signs, and was reflecting on the possibility of a Platonic astrology of personality types. (I first called myself a Meno with Symposium rising, but that’s wrong. It’s actually Meno with Phaedrus rising, maybe a fairly unusual combination.)

Well, you could probably do the same thing with Shakespeare. Here I’m more predictable, a mainstream King Lear man. I’m afraid I’m one of those for whom Hamlet doesn’t work all that well. That has to be my problem, not Hamlet’s, but he simply annoys me too much as a character, and whenever I go to back to the play it’s not for sheer pleasure, but more because I’m saying: “There must be something wrong with me; I need to go back and try to get more out of Hamlet“.

The three that I haven’t read in the longest time (and there are a few I never read at all) would probably be The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which I haven’t touched since undergraduate years. But the clear winner is Romeo and Juliet, which they made us read freshman year in high school. Freshman year of high school was a long time ago, so I ought to give the play another shot (and no, I never went to the high-profile film version).

It’s a bit weird to get towards the age where you think: “That was pretty nice, but maybe I’ll never do it again.” You start to get that feeling with books, and even with places. For example, I used to spend time in Austin, Texas due to the presence there of someone I knew very well, and then later my youngest brother lived there for a few years. And I like Austin, as most people do (except for the allergy-inducing, pollen-laden air). But is it possible that I’ll never go there again even once? Quite possible, yes, unless some reason surges up out of nowhere.

And heck, I’ve still never been to Florida. I’m barely a real American.