*The Tempest

The Tempest -William Shakespeare, with introduction by Harold Bloom
Perplexing. Little direction. Seemingly misinspired. At no point did I ever doubt Prospero’s complete control, and, as there was no suspense, the “jokes” seemed to linger after said, or, even more eerily, present themselves before their just deliverance. My favorite parts were the original bickerings of the boatswain and Gonzalo and, later, the bickerings of Sebastian, Antonio and Gonzalo. As Bloom pointed out, Shakespeare created an unique creature with Caliban, which I agree with, but it felt such a shame that he had so little stage time, or was treated with such snub-nosing, even by Shakespeare himself. He, in fact, as much as claims airiness in this tale:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and out little life
Is rounded with a sleep…
… A turn or two I’ll walk,
To still my beating mind.”

This stout abjectedness hardly holds force to Miranda’s reaction to Prospero’s life story: “Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.”
So, enjoying the glimpse of Shakespeare, but, he never struck me in the heart. The “Anti-Faust”, though, is a idea worth contemplating.