Shakespeare Wrote Murder Mysteries

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by T.D. Griggs

Perhaps it’s worse in Oxford, like the weather.

Oxford, England, that is: a city stiff with history, bristling with dreaming spires, and teeming with writers. You can hear the scratching of their metaphorical quills even over the patter of the rain (and in Oxford, that’s saying something).

I’m talking about literary elitism. That’s what’s worse in Oxford.

Well, it shouldn’t surprise me too much. I have a background in history, and I ought to know that writing has always been an occupation for the privileged. In the Middle Ages literacy was virtually a form of shamanism, and could only be acquired by those adepts who had the money or the time – that meant churchmen and the nobility. Everyone else was too busy scraping a living and staying warm. The ability to write conferred and preserved power among those who mastered it. Continue reading “Shakespeare Wrote Murder Mysteries”