I’m a great fan of Rebecca West’s Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. But West was also a Deep Thinker when it came to Literature. In The Court and the Castle (1957) West tackles a number of literary topics. The main one–which would interest Dan Stumpf–deals with the “problems” in Hamlet.

West makes it clear she considers Hamlet a stone-cold killer. Hamlet kills Polonius (it was an accident, but Hamlet shows little remorse) and later in the play forges a letter that will send Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths. But Hamlet’s mission to kill Claudius–the man who murdered Hamlet’s father–faces delay after delay.

Rebecca West moves on to analyze Jane Austen, the Brontes, Henry Fielding, Thackeray, Henry James, Anthony Trollope, Ibsen, Meredith, Shaw, Wells, Galsworthy, and Hardy in Part Two.

Part Three transitions from Henry James to Kipling, Lawrence, Proust, and Kafka. I was impressed by the variety of West’s reading and her original insights into the works and writers she examines. If you’re looking for wide-ranging and lucid essays that bring sensibility and a skeptical temperament to literature, The Court and the Castle provides graceful and gracious entertainment to tickle your brain! GRADE: A–

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

PART ONE: THE COURT OF KINGS — 1

1. Was Hamlet without Will? — 3
2. The Nature of Will — 18
3. The Will of Kings — 33
4. The Will of Usurpers — 43
5. The Unresolved Historical Argument — 59
6. The Resolved Theological Argument — 68
7. The Moral Reason for Misreading Hamlet — 72
8. The Historical Reason for Misreading Hamlet — 89

PART TWO: THE CROWED COURT — 85

1. The Great Optimist — 87
2. Optimism and Comprise — 103
3. A Nineteenth-Century Bureaucrat — 133
4. The Convention of Dissent — 165

PART THREE: THE CASTLE OF GOD — 201

1. Nonconformist Assenters and Independent Introverts — 203
2. Loose Metaphysician and Strict Moralist — 224
3. The Dissolution of the Court — 247
4. The Twentieth-Century Bureaucrat — 279

INDEX — 309

I was an early fan of Meat Loaf’s bombastic productions of Jim Steinman’s operatic songs. You’ll hear a lot of that music on The Very Best of Meat Loaf (2012). You won’t hear as much on Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose (2006) because only a few of the songs involved Steinman. Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose was released 2006, 29 years after Bat Out of Hell (1977), and 13 years after Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell (1993).

I didn’t know I owned Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose until I stumbled across it while searching for something else. I listened to it, and came away somewhat disappointed. Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose has only a little of the magic of Meat Loaf’s earlier albums–provided, I suspect, by Jim Steinman’s unique musical sensibilities. I did enjoy the duets on Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose: Meat Loaf and Maron Raven on “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now,” (a Jim Steinman song), “What About Love?” with Meat Loaf and Patti Russo, and “The Fire Ain’t What It Used to Be,” (another Jim Steinman song) with Meat Loaf and Jennifer Hudson. Yes, there’s some symphonic excess but that goes with the territory with Meat Loaf and Steinman.

Sadly, Jim Steinman died in 2021 and Meat Loaf died in 2022. They made some very unusual music together. Are you a Meat Loaf fan? Any favorites here?

The Very Best of Meat Loaf: GRADE: A

Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose: GRADE: C

The Very Best of Meat Loaf TRACK LIST:

Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose TRACK LIST:

Recently, Jeff Smith mentioned that one of his favorite mystery writers was Ann Cleeves. Then, the other day Jeff Meyerson sent me a link to an Ann Cleeves short story, “Missing in the Snow” (you can read the short story here).

I enjoyed this domestic mystery story where a search for a missing person produces some startling results. Are you a fan of Ann Cleeves? GRADE: B

“The truth is never pure and rarely simple.” That truism permeates Oscar Wilde’s classic, The Importance of Being Earnest. Diane and I drove into the heart of Buffalo to view this play at the Irish Classical Theater Company’s wonderful venue. It was a “masked” performance so all the audience wore face coverings.

The play concerns two Victorian gents who are friends who share a tendency to fabricate. Algernon Moncrieff (Ben Michael Moran), who says that truth is never pure and rarely simple, has invented a sick friend named “Bunbury” who he has to visit occasionally in the country (which gets him out of social occasions in London that he disdains). Algernon’s friend John Worthing (Josh Wilde) has invented a rascal of a brother named “Ernst” which allows him an excuse to leave the country and go the London.

Both men fall in love with women who share a similar passion: they want to fall in love with a man named “Ernst.” Melinda Capeles as Gwendolen and Renee Landrigan as Cecily are both dazzling as the love interests. Chris Kelly (no relation) is convincing as the formidable Lady Bracknell, mother to Gwendolen and the key to everyone’s possible happiness. This is a great play that in this case was very well acted. Are you an Oscar Wilde fan? GRADE: A

Megan Abbott foreshadows the extreme events in Beware the Woman when her main character Jacy thinks about a reoccurring dream she’s had since childhood featuring Captain Murderer. A very pregnant Jacy and her husband Jed travel to the isolated Upper Peninsula of Michigan. As soon as you read the word no Wi-Fi and no cell bars you just know Something is Going to Go Very Wrong.

And you would be right. Jacy has a health scare. Of course, being in the middle of Nowhere means very few medical options. Fortunately, Jed’s father, Doctor Ash, is there to provide medical assistance. But, Jacy senses Something Isn’t Right.

Family secrets, amped up tension, Jacy’s suspicions, and the extreme isolation all come together in a shattering conclusion. Megan’s new novel will have you losing sleep because you can’t put down Beware the Woman and then you’ll be losing sleep after you finish its haunting ending! GRADE: A

The production geniuses at Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Season 2 took a Big Risk with the first episode by sending Captain Pike (Anson Mount) to different quadrant of the Galaxy. Pike leaves Spock (Ethan Peck) in charge of the Enterprise which is getting much need upgrades and repairs at a space station.

When a distress call from a former Enterprise crew member is ignored by the Star Fleet bureaucracy, Spock decides to “steal” the Enterprise and check out the situation. Spock and the crew discover a “false flag” operation underway to restart the Klingon-Federation war.

I enjoyed last year’s First Season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (you can read my review here). This 10-episode season (new episodes will be released on Thursday from now to August 17) promises to be even better. A third season has already been ordered. GRADE: INCOMPLETE (but trending towards A)

The most moving moment of the first episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Season 2 was this heart-felt tribute to Nichelle Nichols at the end:

For Nichelle

Who was First through the door

and showed us the stars.

Hailing Frequencies Forever open…

In Blonde Bait (Black Gat Book #47) by Stephen Marlowe, 29-year-old ski instructor, Chuck Odlum, feels like sex toy. Odlum’s rich and beautiful wife, Inez, owns a ski resort, where Odlum teaches classes in skiing and helps to maintain the ski trails. But Odlum’s relationship with his new wife remains on the physical level only. He wants Something More.

The Something More turns up as ski resort newbie, Bunny Kemp. Bunny is a young blonde and likes men. Bunny first seduces the dog-sled instructor, Jack McCall. Then, she turns her attention to Odlum.

Odlum and Bunny begin a passionate affair, but Bunny offers more than sex. She confides to Odlum that her husband Orin has $117,000 in non-sequential bills in his possession: one of the missing bags of money from a recent New York kidnapping.

Bunny and Odium come up with a plan to take the money, avoid a crooked cop, and escape from the broken marriages they both are trapped in. But a massive snowstorm hits the area, and that changes the plan by introducing new deadly factors and dangers.

Blonde Bait delivers a crime drama full of erotic obsession, greed, desperation, and murder in one of Stephen Marlowe’s most intense novels. Blonde Bait will lure you into a story full of danger! GRADE: B+

80s Sight + Sound, a Time-Life CD/DVD set from 2006, captures some of the pop sensibilities of that decade. Several of the most popular groups–Duran Duran, Roxy Music, and Blondie–are included. Also, one of the most popular artists–Billy Idol.

In the 1980s, I watched a lot of MTV because I liked many of the creative music videos of that era. Of course, that mode of music marketing crashed and burned a decade later. But the DVD in this set offers some of the most popular music videos of that time. I’ve always liked Pat Benatar’s “Love Is a Battlefield” and J. Geils Band’s “Centerfold” (although my favorite J. Geils Band song is “I Do.”)

Do you remember these songs from the 1980s? Any favorites here? GRADE: B+

I started watching DOCTOR WHO on our local Public Broadcasting Station back in the 1970s and have stuck with The Doctor–in the many regenerations–over the decades. But, in all those episodes, some silly and some serious, the most frightening episodes to me involved the Weeping Angels.

The Weeping Angels are an incredibly powerful species of quantum-locked humanoids who resemble stone statues. The Weeping Angels can only move when no one is looking at them.

This explains why the Weeping Angels often covered their faces with their hands to prevent trapping each other in petrified form for eternity by looking at one another and gave the Weeping Angels their distinct “weeping” appearance.

In the DOCTOR WHO episodes where Matt Smith played The Doctor, The Weeping Angels were presented as “kind” murderous psychopaths, eradicating their victims “mercifully” by dropping them into the past and letting them live out their full lives, just in a different time period. This, in turn, allowed the Weeping Angels to live off the remaining time energy of the victim’s life. However, when this potential energy paled in comparison to an alternative power source to feed on, the Weeping Angels were known to kill by other means, such as snapping their victims’ necks.

In this “Quick Read” story, Magic of the Angels, Jacqueline Rayner complicates a vacation in contemporary London by The Doctor and his companions, Amy, and Rory, when they witness a magic show where a young girl vanishes. The Doctor discovers the magician is using a Weeping Angel to make young girls disappear. But, stopping a Weeping Angel is complicated. Are you a Doctor Who fan? GRADE: B