Sunday, December 1, 2024

Plays and other good things to read

 Michael Dirda has an excellent column in The Washington Post about the pleasures of reading plays. Like me, he likes works that can be read in a couple of hours.

I’d love to say we’re on the same wavelength, but I hadn’t heard of half the plays he recommended. (He made George Bernard Shaw’s In Good King Charles’s Golden Days sound intriguing.)

I have been reading plays, though. I set out to read the 33 surviving plays written by the Greek tragedians in 2024. Rhesus was the last one, which raised the question about a project for 2025.

I thought I might look at some Georgia writers. Or I might go back for another look at some Texas writers.

Frank Dobie, who taught a course on the literature of the Southwest, said people ought to know something about the place they call home. But he also thought it was a horrible mistake to study the memoirs of cowboys who rode the range while neglecting the wonders of the world’s literature.

I guess I’m trying to find a balance.

If you have suggestions, please post a comment or drop me a line at hebertaylor3@gmail.com.

• Source: Michael Dirda, “Want to read something different? A play’s the thing”; The Washington Post, Nov. 29, 2024. It’s here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/11/29/reading-plays-pleasure/

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