I’ve always been especially fond of the moment in Shakespeare’s Hamlet when Polonius asks Hamlet what he’s reading and Hamlet replies “Words, words, words” (II.ii.192). The line comes while Polonius is trying to discover the cause of Hamlet’s possibly-feigned madness and it can be played in a number of ways. In Kenneth Branagh’s rendition, the line serves to show Hamlet’s disdain for Polonius:
David Tennant uses the scene to emphasize Hamlet’s potential insanity:
Lawrence Olivier’s version is matter-of-fact, and Derek Jacobi flips through the pages as if checking to make sure there is nothing more in the book:
But I’ve always been particularly fond of Mel Gibson’s rendition (available at the end of the clip above), because it inevitably makes me laugh.
With so many version of “words, words, words,” it’s perhaps unsurprising that I would choose the line as the title of my blog. I’ve been in love with words for as long as I can remember. As a child, then a college English major, a technical writer, a graduate student, a college English professor, an academic writer, and now a soon-to-be published fiction writer (Waking Up Dead, forthcoming from Solstice Publishing, and Legally Undead, forthcoming in 2014 from World Weaver Press), I have always loved the malleability of words—how they feel, sound, taste, smell.
This blog is designed to examine words in all their manifestations. I will write about writing, post academic essays, host other authors, review books, share fiction excerpts. My hope is that, like the many versions of Hamlet’s line, this blog will careen wildly from matter-of-fact, to serious, to unexpectedly funny.