From: Sandwichman --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Economists in 21st century America bear an uncanny resemblance to physicians in 17th century France. ^^^ CB: Would "physiocrats" work into your rewrite somehow ? ^^ And it so happens that there is already a classical body of dramatic work satirizing those arrogant, "dysfunctional" doctors -- that of Moliere. So here's an idea I'm working on. If somebody steals it and beats me to it, well, c'est la vie! I have in mind a reworking of a play by Moliere -- interpolating an excerpt from another play -- whose title would be "An Economist in Spite of Himself". In the Moliere original, Sganarelle is a woodcutter whose abused wife tricks a pair of passers-by into believing is a brilliant but eccentric doctor who has to be beaten before he will consent to practicing his art. So they beat him up and he eventually relents and goes on to improvise a treatment for a lovesick young woman patient. In addition to substituting economist for doctor and making several other appropriate changes in the cast of characters and storyline, I would insert the scenes from another Moliere play, "Love is the Best Doctor", in which five doctors carry on an absurd "consultation" regarding yet another lovesick patient. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
