Nor,
showing, as the manner is, his wounds
To
the people, beg their stinking breaths.
-Junius Brutus
Coriolanus Act II, scene i Line 237
And once again we’ve got this Junius Brutus guy from Coriolanus. I don’t
know if you recall, but he’s a minor character in Coriolanus. He’s a sleazy
politician, and pretty much throughout the play he’s working against
Coriolanus. We've seen him before. Here's the link if you don't recall. I never quite got my head around this guy to figure out what his
deal was. The best I could figure is that Will just wanted to portray a sleazy
politician. And he did a good job with it.
Politician Junius is talking about Coriolanus in today’s
Totally Random line, and he’s telling us where Coriolanus is coming up short.
Remember, the thing that brought Coriolanus down in the end was his
unwillingness/inability to show humility and play the political game. And
Junius here is expert at playing the political game. He’s a politician! And
apparently in Coriolanus’s time some part of the game and the humility is to
show your war wounds, literally, to the public. That’s what Junius is talking
about. But you can see also what contempt Junius actually has for the people,
the voters, when he refers to ‘their stinking breaths.’ The guy is just a
sleaze ball. I can't help but think, based on this Junius character, that Will didn't think too much of politics or
politicians. What do you think?
Here's my latest war wound. I fell down and cracked my noggin on the tv table. So I guess you could say I got this is in the war of everyday living. But since I don't have any plans to run for public office I probably won't have to show the wound to the public. Just as well. It's not a very impressive wound.
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