The Hamlet Project

There’s a song that always made me laugh called “Railroad Bill”. In it, the folksinger is trying to get the subject of the song to cooperate with his wishes. He wants Railroad Bill to climb up a tree and rescue a kitten but Bill refuses. They go back and forth for a bit until a series of violent events sweep through and kill Bill. The cat comes down and has some milk. Bill is survived by a wife and two small children. I think of a violent author of his own remove like this – as if Railroad Bill sang the song about himself.