Saturday, March 15, 2008

Listen to them - children of the night. What music they make.

Just a brief post to those who have responded to the "Issues of Shadows" entry. Thanks for your comments, I'm glad I could draw a few of you out of your caves. As Varney the Vampire sang: "It's not easy being grim".I had a few people ask...privately and in comment form about the "mortal coil" reference.

It's from Shakespeare's Hamlet...the soliloquy in fact...you know, "to be or not to be" To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil...

Now some have argued that the term was used to mean the troubles of daily life, it used to be used to mean ado or disturbance. I'm not convinced that this alone was what Shakespeare had in mind. I actually think that he was metaphorically referring to the snake shedding its skin. The snake is often of symbol of the life cycle...i.e. Urobouros. It makes perfect sense given that Hamlet is at the moment of pondering life vs. death, and what may come beyond.

Just a footnote.

2 comments:

Prairie Gothic said...

I loved your last post, you expressed so eloquently how I feel also, about the contrasts in mood. I am such a fan of both yours and Judys work. Enthralling!

Unknown said...

Blog surfin' tonight...and stumbled on to your blog page! I remember running home from school every day to watch Dark Shadows! I watched it with my Gramma who lived next door to us, she said she was a vampire who could live in the day light, I believed her!

Anyway, love your art and...

Have a great hair day! Becci