Something culture is good for

There is a delightful essay by the theatre director and writer Sulayman al-Bassam in the Guardian today on producing plays by Shakespeare in the Arab world. He makes the observation that many people have made before about the use of classic texts as a defense against censorship, but also goes on to discuss just how well suited these texts in particular are to examination of the contemporary Arab world, with their depiction of a pre-modern world about to be consumed in a great historical transformation, and all its attendant confusions and discomforts. It is a good starting point for understanding why anybody cares about dominant systems of storytelling.