Great Men.

I was thinking about Shakespeare. What is it about the works of one man that enables them to endure through the ages, when so much else is lost, forgotten or fades into irrelevance? Certainly the list of reasons to admire Shakespeare’s work is endless: the universal themes, the clever use of language (to the point where so many phrases we commonly use in English today are attributed to him), the innovation. That he was a genius is indisputable, although I’ve never liked that word. It implies some mystical quality that only the anointed can hold, unrelated to any skill acquired through years of effort. Not to mention it is a label far less readily assigned to women.

Shakespeare is essential in way that little else is. We take it as read that Shakespeare’s plays must be studied at school, and that we’d have to take the complete works of Shakespeare if we were marooned on a desert island (though I don’t imagine they’d survive the journey, and may well end up a substantial source of kindling). Can it really be that nothing else over the past few centuries has come close to equalling their cultural value? Or is it that we simply have access to so much now, readily at our fingertips, that nothing awes us like it used to? Perhaps it’s the diversity we have nowadays. We don’t all have to agree upon what is culturally significant, whereas in the 16th century there was far less choice on offer to the masses. What will endure of our time for future generations? Is it even possible for the 21st century to have its own equivalent of Shakespeare?

There are other significant historical cultural figures too, of course. Da Vinci. Mozart. Van Gogh. See what they all have in common? Shakespeare’s work seems uniquely embedded into cultural life, somehow. To be clear, I am not disputing the value and wide-ranging influence of Shakespeare’s work, or any of these others. But I do wonder about the invisible geniuses we’ve missed. The ones who didn’t have access to the education, the resources, the PR, the special blend of aptitude and opportunity. And yes, the ones who weren’t privileged white men. I don’t believe there was something so special about Shakespeare that no one in all of the successive centuries could come remotely close to his talent. Or rather, I believe that there were (and still are) many more people who are just as special. Each person brings their own unique perspective so, of course, Shakespeare’s works could only ever have been written by him, and we are all richer for that having been the case.

What Shakespeare left us is a priceless gift to be cherished. There is still so much more wonderful, unique human creativity to discover.