Tag Archives: Shakespeare

Listening to and later reading
President Obama’s
inaugural
speech (20 January 2009), one phrase struck me as familiar:

“We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished.”

I eventually remembered the words in Kate’s speech at the end of Shakespeare’s


The Taming of the Shrew (Act 5, Scene 2, written around 1590):

“Come, come, you froward and unable worms!

My mind hath been as big as one of yours,

My heart as great, my reason haply more,

To bandy word for word and frown for frown…”

I don’t think Obama was scolding the way Kate is in her speech but
there is the same circumstance of reestablishing a basis for comparison
after much change. Obama has earned his reputation as a great speaker
and I look forward to hearing his addresses for many years to come.

My husband and I frequently go to lunch or dinner at

Dashi, a good family-owned Japanese restaurant across the street from Sun’s
Menlo Park campus. Dashi has recently been the target of online community abuse,
with an attacker using several names on the popular
Yelp review system. Fortunately, the loyal and enthusiastic Dashi patrons have
contributed positive reviews. Also, it looks like Yelp has recently taken down some
of the racist negative postings.

In one sense, the community system worked for Dashi – valid positive reviews
swamped hateful attacks. However, it was a painful process for Dashi’s owners
and things could just as easily have gone wrong for them.
Listening to John, Dashi’s owner, talk about his frustration with this difficult
problem made me realize how vulnerable to abuse community-based rating systems
can be. In his own words, John joined with Cassio of Shakespeare’s Othello
in saying:

Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost

my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of

myself, and what remains is bestial.

Act II, scene iii

Dashi’s situation reminded me of why eBay recently changed their rating system.
An Old House Journal magazine article by Tony and Celine Seideman in the
November-December 2008 issue said of eBay’s rating system:

“There are some not-so-nice people on eBay, as there are everywhere. But one
of the site’s more brilliant features is its rating system for people who buy
and sell. We’ve found anything below a 97-percent favorable rating is getting
into risky territory. Though that may sound like perfectionism, the reality is
that once bad people start getting negative ratings, they simply create new
identities. So a small number of negative responses can send a big, clear
message.”

This is good advice. I rarely even consider buying something from an eBay seller
with less than a 98% positive rating. How did eBay’s rating system get so skewed
that 96% is too bad to consider?

EBay used to have a system where both buyers and sellers left each other
positive and negative feedback. The system worked well enough but a small number of
sellers would routinely bully buyers into giving them better feedback than they
deserved by threatening to leave negative buyer feedback. (I had this happen to me
when I dared to complain about a terrible packing job.) There are badly behaved
buyers too – particularly people who do not pay after winning an auction.

EBay’s new feedback system only allows sellers to leave positive feedback. Here
is what eBay’s FAQ says:

Why are sellers only allowed to leave buyers positive Feedback?

Buyers can only receive positive Feedback because of their role as a customer. In addition, when buyers received negative Feedback, they reduced their activity in
the marketplace, which in-turn harmed sellers. If and when buyers abuse Feedback,
sellers can notify eBay via the Seller reporting hub and immediate action will be
taken against those buyers.

(from the eBay Feedback FAQ, updated July 10, 2008)

Community rating systems have great value. They provide a common vocabulary
and provide a context for trust in the electronic world. But online communities
are becoming as complex as normal human societies as more people join in.
I am glad to see eBay’s rating system evolve to protect buyers as well as
sellers. There is another passage in Othello about reputation. In
reading it, remember that Iago who says the lines is the greatest scoundrel
in Shakespeare’s plays and is using these fine words to lure Othello. In
Shakespeare, as in eBay, things are not always what they seem.

Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,

Is the immediate jewel of their souls:

Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;

‘Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands:

But he that filches from me my good name

Robs me of that which not enriches him

And makes me poor indeed.

Act III, scene iii

My brother Peter and I share a love of literature and an interest
in law. On his last visit, he gave me a delightful article from the
ABA Journal, published
by the American Bar Association:

Author! Author!

Great books mean great decisions

By Richard Brust , June 2008 Issue

“College lit majors, review that book report you did on 1984, and brush up on your Shakespeare. It could help you brief your next federal case.

University of Chicago assistant law professor M. Todd Henderson searched federal appellate and U.S. Supreme Court opinions for citations to the great works. A student of the law and literature movement, Henderson chose literary passages that gave a decision emotional heft, discounting passing comments and references to an author’s legal problems—for example, James Joyce’s censorship battles.

In his essay, ‘Citing Fiction,’ in the winter 2008 edition of The Green Bag, Henderson lists the most frequently quoted writers. So take notes. Oh, and don’t just rely on the CliffsNotes—the judge will be grading you.

George Orwell (35 citations)

‘The black-mustachio’d face gazed down from every commanding corner. There was one on the house front immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said.’

• From: 1984

• Cited in: Florida v. Riley, 488 U.S. 445 (1989)…”

Quotations from Milton, Homer, Donne, Bolt, Camus, and Shakespeare
are also in this most quoted-in-law list. My favorite:

“… Homer (11)

‘Then I witnessed the torture of Sisyphus, as he wrestled with a huge rock with both hands. Bracing himself and thrusting with hands and feet he pushed the boulder uphill to the top. But every time, as he was about to send it toppling over the crest, its sheer weight turned it back, and once again towards the plain the pitiless rock rolled down. So once more he had to wrestle with the thing and push it up, while the sweat poured from his limbs and the dust rose high above his head.’

• From: The Odyssey

• Cited in: City of Carmel-by-the-Sea v. U.S. Dept. of Transporta­tion, 123 F.3d 1142 (9th Cir. 1997)…”