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A Reader's reviews
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-04 09:24:21 for Hamlet (The New Folger Library Shakespeare).
(Language: English)
  
I like the fact that there is still controversy over this play. I think people forget that the idea of ghosts at that the time was that they were as real as bridges and the main question was whether the ghost was who (or what) it claimed to be, as an evil spirit or demon could have assumed Hamlet's father's form.And for the people who think he was whining, how would you feel if the supreme ruler of your country murdered your father and shacked up with your mother, and quite possibly could have your head cut off at any time? Hamlets fears are quite justified, as he is murdered by the king's poison in the end. 
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-09-18 05:17:09 for 1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four.
(Language: English)
I thought this book was quite powerful, and in a lot of ways, prophetic. I think the rise of totalitarianism and constant monitoring as a reaction to terrorism is inevitable, although I hope that I am wrong. Looking at the gains made in the suppression of liberty in the name of security since 9/11 makes the kind of society depicted seem increasingly feasible. Keep people afraid and disorientated, at war with some undefined and fluid enemy, today Eurasia, tomorrow Iraq... In sydney over APEC, I was told that the central business district and many tourist areas were sealed off for anyone without photo ID. Now, I've never had any, and am unlikely to. I've never travelled, and can't drive, and am unlikely to do either. To get photo ID, i went to the post office. They said they could give me a passport but I needed photo ID from the RTA, who handle driver's licences and so forth. I went to the RTA, who said I needed a passport. I realised that without photo ID, without ever having a moment I could point to as transition, I had become an uncitizen. I read this book as a boy and brooded over it, but dismissed it as it depicted an inherently self-destructive society, one that assumed humanity was the only game in town. Change is coming, regardless of how we spin reality to ourselves and each other: global warming, nuclear wars, plagues, asteroids... only by staying sane can society adapt to our true enemies. A 1984 type society might be effective at crushing human opposition, but is hopeless otherwise. Now I don't think that's sufficient reason to prevent it's emergence.
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