I Talk to the Turkeys and They Do Listen to Me

On monday, we played golf at Indian Valley, a beautiful golf course in Novato, in the hills, and by the reservoir. It was a very nice golf course, and we both actually played fairly well. (for us!) We saw hills, horses, geese and turkeys as we were playing. No, they were not all on the golf course, but in the surrounding hills. I have learned to communicate with the turkeys, I am proud to say; when they gobble and I gobble back, they answer me! What a skill.

That night, we went to nearby Dominican University to hear Germaine Greer speak on her book, "Shakespeare's Wife." She was speaking to the students of the University as well as the general public, so her talk was a bit more academic than it normally would be. Here are my thoughts about it---Her whole premise was based on her "anger" at her male colleagues, and the Shakespeare "experts" of the 19th century who all assumed that Ann Hathaway was a sort of "hairy, illiterate older woman who seduced young Will". She is disputing that, but I thought she was motivated by her anger at men, and that she took a position and made assumptions to fit into this. Her saving grace, for me, was that she readily admitted this by the end of her talk, and hopes that we read her book to get curious about Shakespeare's wife and do our own research. Of course, she was talking to the students at Dominican U.

So i thought that was interesting, and i also remembered my feelings of ambivalence during the heydays of the feminist movement---i thought the outcome of their fervent writing, etc. was great, but it was hard for me to go along with them 100% because I can't ever take one side 100%, there is always another side.

I was surprised that Dan enjoyed her, and when i asked him why, he said it was because he found her thoughtful and challenging of what is assumed to be an accepted truth of Shakespeare's wife.