Friday 2 December 2011

A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing

My memory is defective. Or my education. Or both. I thought of the line above, and connected it with the clip below, Richard E. Grant reciting from Hamlet at the end of 'Withnail & I':



My more erudite readers will know that the title of the post comes from Macbeth act 5 scene 5:

MACBETH:

... Wherefore was that cry?

SEYTON

The queen, my lord, is dead.

MACBETH

She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

But wherefore, wondereth thou, dear reader, mention I this?

Take your own pick, but for me it is the 'furore' over Jeremy Clarkson's comment and the ever-more irritating Lady Gaga and her latest piece of shit video and song, two examples from a multitude of meaningless trivia we are supposed to think important, whilst the world lurches around like a drunk on a parapet.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

We're surrounded by it TT.

BBC radio and TV news are my favourite villains - soma for the brain dead; I feel guilty for listening to or watching it.

Trooper Thompson said...

Try to resist temptation! I suggest watching the new Lady Gaga video it its entirety as a suitable penance, indeed it may have a similar effect to the treatment Alex got in 'A Clockwork Orange'.

Anonymous said...

MSM is more or less unwatchable presently. Schedule goes:
1. Ultra-lighweight news analysis, Beeboids giving it a left-wing slant,
2. Scare-story no-one actually bothers researching, oranges make you shrink says new report etc Government spokesman pledges ten zillion pounds to tackle 'problem' Ed Balls says government not doing enough
3. Uncritical Green story, planet is dying as shown by decline in numbers of May-flys in December says Beardlsey Weirdsworth so stop breathing out CO2 you plant murdering bastards
4. Who was kicked off Strictly or X-Factor or Jungle or ice skating or other talent show
5. Endless sport even if none was actually played, montage of players jogging, voice over 'training has gone well and the lads are confident although we are not favourites' says unimaginative manager repeating boring cliche
6. Celebrity comes on to promote book, show, film, fitness DVD,
7. Annoying kid doing something pointless, boring but above all, annoying.

Repeat every thirty minutes