Shakespeare, The Language Engine Of Empire

The first move is comparative. Source trail 0:001:205:486:44 Okay, good morning. So this class we are focusing on William Shakespeare. But before I do that, I want to give you an overview of how we will end the course. To end the course, we will focus on the four great modern civ...It is always being attacked and threatened by adversaries. Okay, the British, it's an island fortress. The Americans are the most interesting because it is a continental fortress. It is not only invincible, it cannot be... Russia, Germany, Britain, and America all claim Christian and Roman inheritance, but geography bends each inheritance into a different character. Russia becomes vast, cold, mystical, Orthodox, and defensive. Germany lacks natural boundaries and develops will to power and living space. Britain is an island fortress: practical, empirical, utilitarian, and imperial. America is a continental fortress that can choose isolation, yet imagines Manifest Destiny as divine control of the Western Hemisphere.

That opening matters because Shakespeare is not introduced as a school author. Source trail 7:569:04 So next class, we'll discuss America in greater detail. Today, we will focus on the British Empire, which is founded by William Shakespeare. So we will discuss William Shakespeare today. Next week, we'll start to focus...But understand the overall framework is there are four different civilizations that will drive human modernity. And they are in conflict with each other. And it's because of this conflict that drives human innovation. O... He is introduced as the founder of one of the four modern civilizational machines. The argument is larger than England. From roughly 1800 to 2000, conflict among these civilizations drives creativity, science, technology, philosophy, and culture. Shakespeare will explain how Britain enters that conflict through language.

The central question is how Shakespeare transforms English into the language of empire. Source trail 9:0410:13 But understand the overall framework is there are four different civilizations that will drive human modernity. And they are in conflict with each other. And it's because of this conflict that drives human innovation. O...When objectively speaking, it is not. You can make the argument that Russian and German culture is far superior to Anglo -American culture. But everyone, especially young people in the world today, believes that Anglo -... The answer begins with soft power. When people learn English, they do not only learn words. They learn a culture, a philosophy, an identity. That is why English can convince people that Anglo-American culture is superior even when Jiang says this is not objectively true.

Great art enters collective consciousness and changes how a civilization sees. Shakespeare does this through imagery, grammar, vocabulary, and especially diction: new uses of ordinary words. A dagger can become fat and short, a question can dagger a person, a voice can become daggerly. The point is not the dagger. The point is that a word can be bent until the mind must imagine differently Lens point poetry-civilization Poetry becomes imperial infrastructure when language enters memory, rewires perception, and travels as a platform through which a civilization opens the world while filtering it through its own assumptions. Source trail 15:5416:47 Now, the word dagger actually exists in the English language, but it means you carry a dagger with you, OK? So if I say, I am daggered, it means there's a bag in my pocket. And that's a traditional use of dagger. But th...he finds new ways of using it in his plays that forces us to reimagine the world in a different way, all right? That's the power of Shakespeare. Now, what this is saying is this. What Shakespeare understands is that lan... .

The lecture's strongest image is neurological. Language is a portal into the framework of the mind. By manipulating language, Shakespeare performs surgery on the synapses Lens point poetry-civilization Poetry becomes imperial infrastructure when language enters memory, rewires perception, and travels as a platform through which a civilization opens the world while filtering it through its own assumptions. Source trail 16:47 he finds new ways of using it in his plays that forces us to reimagine the world in a different way, all right? That's the power of Shakespeare. Now, what this is saying is this. What Shakespeare understands is that lan... . Poetry is not decoration; it is a technology for changing perception.

Shakespeare was not primarily read. Source trail 18:0119:08 When people spoke Shakespeare, it was as though they were singing. And also, there were lots of, like, dance routines within the plays as well. Remember, these are people who are extremely ordinary, OK? Who are going to...But if it's musical, then it's easy to remember because it becomes like a song, right? It's really easy for us to remember songs. So, flat iambic pentameter, Shakespeare's plays are memorable, beautiful, and resonant, m... He was performed. Ordinary people experienced the plays as music, dance, spectacle, and memory. Iambic pentameter makes speech sing, and because song is memorable, Shakespeare's language can enter people who do not read. That is why Jiang calls it surgery on the imagination of civilization.

The setting is important because it reverses the classroom image of Shakespeare. Source trail 20:2221:24 So what they do is, they force all the theatre productions to be placed in the suburb of London. And that's where Shakespeare is going to work. By doing that, Shakespeare is being introduced to all the major theatre of...They're also participating in something called, in a gambling activity called bear baiting. Bear baiting is really strange. But the idea is, you take a bear, you chain him up, you blind him, and then you have dogs attac... Theatre is low class. It sits near brothels, drinking, spitting, food, and bear baiting. The same place modern schools treat as high culture begins beside a blinded chained bear and gambling dogs. That vulgar setting is why it works: Shakespeare is educating the masses into a global imagination.

Hamlet supplies the first demonstration. Source trail 22:3023:3224:3625:40 They hate alcohol, they hate fun, they hate theatre, especially theatre. They hate Shakespeare. So they banned it. So during this time, Shakespeare is extremely controversial. So having gone into history, let's discuss...It is your responsibility as my son to seek vengeance against Claudius. So that's the mission of Hamlet. The problem is that Hamlet, he is a very analytical person. He thinks too much. Paralysis is analysis. So he spend... The story is simple: a son receives a ghostly command to avenge his father. The problem is consciousness. Hamlet thinks too much. Analysis becomes paralysis. The famous soliloquy is smooth, musical, and memorable, but its real force is that it turns hesitation into a structure of thought.

Jiang insists Hamlet is not as deep as Dante, but it is still powerful because the same line can hold several realities. Source trail 26:3827:2828:2229:0830:02 Okay? The fact of the matter is that in England, you're expected to read and know Shakespeare. Right? So it's Shakespeare that allows the British to have amazing English. All right. So this is very complicated. But it's...And that is what frightens me. And that's why I continue to bear the misfortunes around me. It is my own mind that has made me a coward and why each time when I become determined, my resolve breaks apart and I cannot ac... To be or not to be can mean to live or die, to kill or not kill, to follow fate or defy it, or to ask why existence exists at all. All four readings can be true. Shakespeare's language is not a single door; it is a prism.

It is also visual. Oral audiences see pictures: slings and arrows, a sea of troubles, the sleep of death, a ship whose current turns awry. Source trail 30:0231:0132:01 Should we suffer or should we fight? Okay? So this is the deepest meaning where he's actually asking what is existence? What is the point of all this? How do we get here? What is the purpose of existence? Okay? So there...of outrageous fortune or take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them, the audience is seeing these pictures. They're seeing a movie in their heads. Okay? That's the attraction of Shakespeare. Okay? Do y... Thought makes clear resolution dark. The moment you think too deeply about what you are doing, the ship collapses. Shakespeare turns psychology into images the crowd can carry.

Julius Caesar gives the political version. Source trail 33:0834:1235:0937:0238:00 They're worried that he'll become king. So they plot to kill him. And Brutus and Cassius and all the conspirators kill Julius Caesar. And then Brutus and Cassius think this is over. Okay? But Mark Anthony, who is Caesar...Brutus will be the first to give a speech. And then he'll be followed by Mark Anthony. So the strategy of Brutus is to use a rhetorical strategy called the antithesis. Okay? The antithesis is basically very simple. You... Brutus uses antithesis: honorable Brutus versus ambitious Caesar, freedom versus slavery. Mark Antony answers with chiasmus, a rhetorical mirror that collapses the opposition. Ambition and honor reflect each other until Caesar and Brutus no longer stay separate. This is speech as brain surgery. The crowd's moral structure changes.

The conditions that make Homer and Shakespeare possible are not elite seminars. Source trail 39:0340:1241:14 Okay? Now, as we discussed way back at the beginning of this course, Homer did the same thing. So let's compare Homer and Shakespeare. How was it able that they were both able to be founders of great civilizations? All...That's why they're able to sit through three hours of Shakespeare at one go and visualize his language. And this is like the most common person in Britain. Okay? These are not the elite. These are just commoners. And so... They are blank-slate moments, rapid cultural change, oral memory, open competition, democratic audiences, and market feedback. Common people decide whether a performer is good by listening, remembering, returning, and paying. The free market forces imagination to sharpen.

The poet is now raised to prophet. Source trail 42:0643:0544:0945:15 Right? And it turned out that because of the free market and open corporate competition Shakespeare proved to be the best. Okay? And the last idea is poet as prophet. Okay? This is a really important idea where okay yes...They were driven by a divine messianic mission to transform the world. Does that make sense guys? This is really important to understand. Great artists are driven by um a messianic mission to change the world for the be... Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare are not finally driven by money, fame, or power, though Shakespeare becomes rich and famous. They are driven by a divine messianic mission to transform the world. Homer opens the human soul. Dante opens the mind of God. Shakespeare opens language as a reality unto itself.

Keats shows what that means. Poetry creates a world you can enter Lens point poetry-civilization Poetry becomes imperial infrastructure when language enters memory, rewires perception, and travels as a platform through which a civilization opens the world while filtering it through its own assumptions. Source trail 48:33 It is activating all your emotions, all your senses. There's the visual, okay? There's a sound, there's a smell, there's a touch. And gathering swallows twitter in the sky. Okay? That's what poetry is. Poetry is the exp... . It activates sight, sound, smell, touch, emotion, and imagination. It is not only a picture but a moving world. When you enter it, it changes your soul and your capacity to think, feel, and imagine.

Then comes the cost. Shakespeare turns English into the world's linguistic internet, a platform where cultures and worldviews meet and cross-breed. Source trail 48:3349:57 It is activating all your emotions, all your senses. There's the visual, okay? There's a sound, there's a smell, there's a touch. And gathering swallows twitter in the sky. Okay? That's what poetry is. Poetry is the exp...the first time, all cultures are able to meet together within the English language and communicate with each other. Okay? There's a problem with this. There's a problem with this. The problem is this. But this exchange... But the platform is mediated through Anglo-American civilization, whose heart is utilitarian, skeptical, and empirical. English opens the world, but it also filters the world through Britain and America.

That is why the lecture can admire Shakespeare and still doubt him. Source trail 51:0852:1953:2054:35 -American culture, even though it dominates the world, it's pretty lackluster. It's very narrow -minded. It's very practical. It's pretty mediocre. Okay? And if you want to know what I mean by that, think about, think t...But with Shakespeare, you're like, this is beautiful, but is it a pretty nothingness? Okay? That's a question I have. And again, to be fair, it's been a long time since I actually read Shakespeare. I've read most of his... Compared with Dante, Shakespeare may be beautiful but not divine, a pretty nothingness. Paradise Lost receives the same suspicion: beautiful in places, but narrow as an epic vision beside Homer, Virgil, and Dante. Britain dominates the world, yet its culture may remain practical, limited, and less grand than the cultures it overpowers.

A student asks why Shakespeare is still performed and assigned if he did not publish his plays. Source trail 55:3556:1557:2058:26 okay yeah so okay so the question is what is like like so Shakespeare's isplayed off is performed all the time and you are forced to read Shakespeare in school so where is where do we get these place from okay so let me explain to you what's happening all right okay so Shakespeare's place all... The answer brings the oral argument back. There was no copyright incentive, little reading market, and no complete authorial archive. After his death, friends and actors preserve him through notes and memory in the First Folio. Shakespeare's monument is partly built from performance memory.

A question about the white man's burden makes the imperial mechanism explicit. Source trail 1:00:401:02:071:03:17 figure out what was shakespeare's original intention and i mean shakespeare think of him as a musician okay he's i mean like he's trying to um sing beauty and truth but a lot of it is not intentional a lot of it's not c...and in china and other places um what's the connection to shakespeare okay first of all shakespeare was not interested in the world okay he he was very provincial he was interested in london and that was about it i'm no... Shakespeare himself was not a globalist or imperialist. He was provincial, interested in London and theatre. But imperial Britain can co-opt him. We have Shakespeare; you do not. Therefore we are civilized, you are not, and we will educate you. Literature becomes a credential for conquest.

Another student asks about Othello through race, identity, and culture. Source trail 1:04:231:06:321:07:521:09:07 right okay but we'll discuss this when we enter the age of imperialism which is towards the 19th century and and then this will lead us into the great wars world uh world war one and world war two okay all right any mor...and so the question is So, he was stealing it from everyone, okay? Remember, this is a huge market for theater. There are dozens and dozens of really talented playwrights in London, in England, who are producing wonderf... Jiang's answer is sharp: Shakespeare's question is psychological before it is racial. Why would a man who loves his wife kill her? Why can pride, honor, achievement, and jealousy become fatal? Modern cultural readings can be imposed because the theme is universal, but Shakespeare's own interest is what drives humans.

The most personal answer comes when a student asks how Shakespeare could focus on human psychology without elite education. The answer is that not being educated protected him from elite prejudice. He could observe humans as they are. He could see ordinary people as equal to himself. Truth is not in books but in people Lens point fictional-heroes-self A fictional figure becomes psychologically alive when inherited legend is fused with observed human behavior, so the reader can become the character and test ordinary motives inside a heightened story. Source trail 1:13:40 something that I've observed I'm you're much better off talking to an individual who has a passion for history and who spent his entire life asking himself what is history but never really got a formal education never g... . Shakespeare is first an anthropologist and psychologist of people.

The last answer explains Shakespeare's method. He steals known legends, but he combines them with observed people Lens point fictional-heroes-self A fictional figure becomes psychologically alive when inherited legend is fused with observed human behavior, so the reader can become the character and test ordinary motives inside a heightened story. Source trail 1:15:54 question is how does Shakespeare develop his themes okay so so Othello sorry so Othello Hamlet King Lear Shakespeare all these plays are well -known stories okay there's many well -known stories but Shakespeare he is cu... . Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear become psychologically alive because they are no longer only stories Lens point fictional-heroes-self A fictional figure becomes psychologically alive when inherited legend is fused with observed human behavior, so the reader can become the character and test ordinary motives inside a heightened story. Source trail 1:15:541:17:03 question is how does Shakespeare develop his themes okay so so Othello sorry so Othello Hamlet King Lear Shakespeare all these plays are well -known stories okay there's many well -known stories but Shakespeare he is cu...get you get a lot of interesting psychology all right so let's imagine you become Hamlet and you become Othello and you were in the circumstance where your father has come and told and give you a mission to go kill your... . They become people. Othello, in this reading, is not finally a racial issue. It is a human issue: accomplishment provokes envy, and envy looks for a way to destroy the accomplished person.