LOGAN CRAWFORD: Wonderful. Well well we're glad you rewired and didn't retire because this book is wonderful. Um talk to us about what some of the questions you wanted to go back and forth with this the bard about. What were some of the dialogue you wanted to engage in?
MARTIN BIDNEY: Well, uh the most striking aspect of this book that is generally not uh uh heightened in high school discussions or selections of of uh isolated poems is the the pervasive bisexuality of of the mindset. Uh I wanted to emphasize that and in fact uh I can show it I can show you one poem that particularly grabbed me. It's almost a manifesto for that idea throughout the book. Is that all right?
LOGAN CRAWFORD: Absolutely. That would be great.
MARTIN BIDNEY: Sonnet 20 I'd like to read to you (3:47-3:50). A woman's face with nature's own hand painted hast thou, the master mistress of my passion. A woman's gentle heart but not acquainted with shifting change as is false women's fashion. I apologize for the misogyny. He's not up to date (3:51-4:11). An eye brighter than theirs, less false in rolling, gilding the object whereupon it gazeth. A man in hue, all hues in his controlling, which steals men's eyes, and women's souls amazeth (4:14-4:32). And for a woman, now this really gets me. For a woman thou first created, till nature as she wrought thee, as she created, worked on you, fell a doting. That could mean anything from uh absent-mindedness, momentary distraction to uh dementia or short-term memory loss. I'm 82 myself. I I think I know what's going on. and by addition me of thee defeated by adding one thing to my purpose nothing. In other words, nature set out to make the perfectly beautiful woman and she had almost succeeded had she not fallen into dotage or become a doard. These are not complimentary words. Uh and uh she did she made a mistake. She got distracted. She made an error and and she added an extra organ to them to the woman (4:33-5:23). And now I'll let Shakespeare explain that. But since she pricricked thee out for women's pleasure, mine be thy love, and thy love's use their treasure. Everybody's happy.
LOGAN CRAWFORD: Yeah. Wonderful.
MARTIN BIDNEY: I'm going to read my reply.
LOGAN CRAWFORD: Okay.
MARTIN BIDNEY: You can see how that would stimulate a reply, can't you? One added organ has the androgine, unneeded for the spiritual love the smitten poet cultivates. A fine summation is afforded. writing of the double-gendered rare attractiveness in the prodigious wizardry of one whom all admire will profit liar that is the singer's harp the poet's music no less than women's opportunity for fun the Mona Lisa Bakus Anne and John depict one riddling enigmatic smile I'm pointing out that Shakespeare isn't the only gender bender the major artists of the Renaissance did same thing. The ideal of um uh the of beauty in Leonardo is Mona Lisa, but a lot of people don't realize it. He doesn't just show it to you there. He gives the same face to Bakus and St. John who are emphatically male as well as to St. Anne (5:43-6:45). Leonardo doesn't care what gender you are labeled. What he what he cares about is that wonderful motherly smile. He can't forget that and he's going to show it to you often (6:46-6:57). Platonic Leonardo leads you on dualities that daunt to reconcile. Here man was woman first then changed in state. You start with the wonderful woman Mona man urs the cyine syibble lady late. I'm afraid that's a little too tightly packed. But what I'm saying is that Michelangelo is a gender crossing uh poet as well because gen generally of course his ideal of beauty is the superbly muscular man. But when he paints the cine chapel, he has also this the Roman symbols who were regarded as oracles, heralds of spiritual truth in riddling language and they are all women but they are very hefty and male ideal of beauty I think comes through strikingly with the requisite alterations which relatively minimal.
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online