{"id":8570,"date":"2015-07-17T11:48:44","date_gmt":"2015-07-17T15:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=8570"},"modified":"2026-04-24T23:34:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T03:34:36","slug":"shakespearean-fury-twat-troll-usurper-unenlightened-highbrow-scorn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/17\/shakespearean-fury-twat-troll-usurper-unenlightened-highbrow-scorn\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakespearean Fury: Twat Troll, Usurper, Unenlightened, Highbrow Scorn"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am gratified that my Wall Street Journal piece on Silent Shakespeare<\/a> is\u00a0spurring thoughtful commentary from\u00a0D.C. cultural luminaries. Here are a few samples:<\/p>\n

* “Twat troll<\/strong>”\u00a0 was the honorific bestowed by a team of four reporters for\u00a0the Washington City Paper<\/a>.\u00a0 Hmmm…\u00a0 could not find term in my edition of Shakespeare’s Bawdy<\/em> (1947).<\/p>\n

* “Highbrow scorn<\/strong>” was how\u00a0a second Washington City Paper <\/a>piece characterized the WSJ piece.\u00a0 Hmm…\u00a0\u00a0I thought that being raised in the mountains of Virginia would make me\u00a0immune to that charge.<\/p>\n

* Unenlightened<\/strong> was the\u00a0verdict of Synetic PR chief Alysa Turner in a\u00a0\u00a0Washingtonian article <\/a>on the WSJ piece. Her specific comment: “We\u2019re hoping to have more enlightened audiences than Mr. Bovard.”<\/p>\n

* Usurper<\/strong> was the tag for me in a blog post by arts consultant Howard Sherman<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0Sherman was apparently offended that WSJ ran a non-adulatory piece\u00a0\u00a0by someone who was “not a member of the paper\u2019s arts staff, and certainly not their widely-traveled critic Terry Teachout.”\u00a0 Thus, I usurped.[full quote below]\u00a0 Sherman mentions that he assumes I am a “Shakespeare purist.” \u00a0I suspect\u00a0Sherman was especially pleased with his closing paragraph: “In Bovard\u2019s\u00a0slash and burn approach to Synetic, I can only imagine that, metaphorically, the theater company somehow killed his\u00a0father and married his mother, and after interminable dithering, he decided to seek revenge.” Hmm…\u00a0\u00a0maybe I am missing something, but where’s the “dithering”?\u00a0\u00a0 The bio for Sherman, who lives\u00a0in Manhattan, <\/a>mentions that he secured the first National Endowment for the Arts funding for the American Theatre Wing when he was their executive director.<\/p>\n

Seems like critics can’t decide whether I’m an unenlightened Philistine or a highbrow purist S.O.B.<\/p>\n

Why won’t they let me be both?<\/p>\n

*************************<\/p>\n

+++ Here’s the full quote from Sherman<\/a>: “If it is becoming the Journal<\/em>\u2019s policy to allow contributors to randomly allow contributors to slam the work of art, artists and companies they don\u2019t like, I trust they will also begin publishing pieces on work\u00a0that contributors particularly enjoy, even if both\u00a0seem to supersede the purview of their own critics. That said, I suspect the WSJ<\/em> critics and arts writers might have their own feeling about such usurpers, and the editors might reconsider such pieces in the future.”<\/p>\n

I’m still struggling to understand his point – maybe Synetic can “translate” Sherman’s work at some point.<\/p>\n

UPDATE:\u00a0 Rachel Sadon<\/strong> of\u00a0DCist.com<\/strong> emailed me seeking comments on Synetic. Here’s an outtake from her article<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Bovard: “I\u2019m opposed to any government program that places more of Americans\u2019 life under the sway of politicians and bureaucrats,” he said in an email to DCist. “Thus, I am opposed to federal subsidies for the arts\u2014and most other activities. Addicting the arts to federal handouts will have the same dire consequences that many other forms of dependency produce.”<\/p>\n

But, he says, that wasn’t really the point he was trying to make. “My article was an op-ed primarily about Shakespeare and the intellectual and literary cornucopia he continues to provide after four centuries\u2014and about what is irreplaceably lost when his words are expunged,” Bovard wrote.<\/p>\n

After seeing the production last night, he stands by his words. “Some of their actors, like Scott Brown, are very talented. Some of the comic scenes in the latter part of the play were amusing at times,” he told DCist. He was surprised that the show wasn’t actually silent\u2014”the actors shouted, laughed, sang, grunted, squealed, and cried”\u2014but said the style made “mincemeat” of the plot.<\/p>\n

Bovard’s\u00a0conclusion: “Synetic offered dry humping in lieu of Shakespearean dialogue<\/strong>. Synetic also rewrote the play to showcase the presumed strengths of its cast\u2014perhaps what director Paata Tsikurishvili means when he says he takes Shakespeare ‘to the next level.’ Maybe Synetic believes that its East European-style pantomime is superior to the words Shakespeare wrote. I disagree.”<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/strong> Synetic Theater put out a new mission statement on Tumbler – “Shakespeare Beyond Words; The history of ‘Wordless Shakespeare’ at Synetic Theater.”\u00a0\u00a0This appears to be inspired in part by my WSJ piece.\u00a0 The opening line declares, “At first glance, the phrase ‘Wordless Shakespeare’\u009d seems oxymoronic.”\u00a0Synetic is now explicitly claiming that its silent productions are “deeper” than Shakespeare’s original works.\u00a0 Or at least that seems to be the gist of this mystifying sentence from their Tumblr\u00a0posting: ”\u00a0The ensemble’s willingness to [sic – words\/phrase missing?] allows casts to delve deeper into the motivation of Shakespeare’s more complex\u00a0 characters, such as their exploration of Iago’s inner life in Othello (2011).”<\/p>\n

UPDATE<\/strong>: A former member of Synetic’s board of directors, Howard Ruble<\/strong>, joined the fray with a blog post entitled “Physical Theatre and Public Policy Hooliganism.”\u00a0 Ruble apparently believes that I am a\u00a0Libertarian Soviet Commissar Bigot<\/strong>.\u00a0His commentary is so convoluted that it requires pantomime to comprehend. He apparently thinks that I am guilty of pro-Soviet bias – or maybe anti-Soviet bias – or maybe I am simply acting like a Soviet commissar and repressing art.<\/p>\n

Ruble writes, “There would be no need to draw attention to this small kerfuffle had Bovard\u2019s denunciation remained limited to artistic concerns. Instead, he gratuitously notes that Tsikurishvili was ‘raised in Soviet Georgia,’ and concludes: ‘But perhaps we should not be surprised that the city that pioneered obfuscation is now exalting expunging English altogether.\u201d He thereby transforms dramatic critique into political cause….\u00a0\u00a0Bovard\u2019s reference to the \u2018Sovietness\u2019 of Georgia has no aim other than to taint public opinion by innuendo. The Tsikurisvhilis certainly are aware of Bovard\u2019s purpose as such ad hominem attacks were standard fare of the Soviet cultural overseers whom they sought to leave behind when they came to the United States.”<\/p>\n

My WSJ article merely mentioned in passing that Synetic\u2019s founders were from \u201cSoviet Georgia\u201d but apparently that makes me a an anti-immigrant cultural commissar.<\/p>\n

Considering the caliber of Ruble’s writing, I can understand why he prefers silent theater.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

UPDATE: July 18<\/strong> –\u00a0 Critics of my article have endlessly invoked the Helen Hayes awards to refute my comments.\u00a0 My article noted, “The Synetic Theater has harvested a bushel of Helen Hayes Awards (the local version of the Tony Awards)…”<\/p>\n

Tomorrow’s Washington Post has a long article bludgeoning the\u00a0Hayes awards<\/a>. The Hayes awards program this past April, which the Post says are “normally produced with a touch of glitz and long dubbed the District\u2019s ‘theater prom,'” were a debacle.\u00a0\u00a0“No plan was developed to dispense twice the prizes in two hours. Winners were commanded to race.\u00a0 The result was an ignoble spectacle, with fashionably dressed actresses sprinting to the stage<\/a>, toting their high heels in their hands.” The article notes that “the big theaters have complained that the bizarre judging system killed the awards\u2019 credibility.”\u00a0 The author of the piece is a former Hayes award judge.<\/p>\n

The piece notes that Theatre Washington, the organization that bestows the Hayes awards, has an annual “Summer Hummer<\/strong>” fundraising concert.\u00a0 Hmmm…<\/p>\n

UPDATE<\/strong> JANUARY 2016.\u00a0 Washingtonian Tags my WSJ Silent Shakespeare Piece as \u201cDefining\u201d D.C. in 2015\u00a0 https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/05\/washingtonian-wsj-silent-shakespeare-defining-dc\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am gratified that my Wall Street Journal piece on Silent Shakespeare is\u00a0spurring thoughtful commentary from\u00a0D.C. cultural luminaries. Here are a few samples: * “Twat troll”\u00a0 was the honorific bestowed by a team of four reporters for\u00a0the Washington City Paper.\u00a0 Hmmm…\u00a0 could not find term in my edition of Shakespeare’s Bawdy (1947). * “Highbrow scorn” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[274,638,630,641,639,640],"class_list":["post-8570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-buffoonery","tag-highbrow","tag-shakespeare","tag-summer-hummer","tag-unenlightened","tag-usurptation"],"yoast_head":"\nShakespearean Fury: Twat Troll, Usurper, Unenlightened, Highbrow Scorn - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Wall St Journal Silent Shakespeare article spurs critics to label me "twat troll," usurper, unenlightened, "highbrow scorn"- It's time to rewrite my resume\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/17\/shakespearean-fury-twat-troll-usurper-unenlightened-highbrow-scorn\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shakespearean Fury: Twat Troll, Usurper, Unenlightened, Highbrow Scorn - 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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