{"id":139,"date":"2026-04-08T16:21:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/?p=139"},"modified":"2026-04-08T16:34:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:34:05","slug":"hamnet-and-shh-dont-mention-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/?p=139","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Hamnet\u2019 and \u2026 Shh \u2026 don\u2019t mention it!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/open.substack.com\/pub\/donnordbergwriting\/p\/hamnet-and-shh-dont-mention-it-attend\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"341\" height=\"522\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Hamnet.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-141\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Hamnet.jpg 341w, https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Hamnet-196x300.jpg 196w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 341px) 100vw, 341px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4aGyQJ9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Hamnet<\/em><\/a> tells the story of the family of a boy who perishes in the horrible plague year in England of 1596. We readers know a lot of science that the characters couldn\u2019t have known, which might have saved young Hamnet. We have means of communication \u2013 of bodies as well as of information \u2013 unavailable to these personages. We have knowledge of language \u2013 reading and writing \u2013 that many of the people of that age lacked and might have helped them to communicate over distances and time. But they too had books and (physical) bookshelves, though fewer in number and more precious than mine, or ours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But not more precious than life itself, in this case the life of the eleven-year-old Hamnet. &#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/open.substack.com\/pub\/donnordbergwriting\/p\/hamnet-and-shh-dont-mention-it-attend\">More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>from <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"864\" height=\"205\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DNwriting-banner.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-140\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DNwriting-banner.png 864w, https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DNwriting-banner-300x71.png 300w, https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DNwriting-banner-768x182.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hamnet tells the story of the family of a boy who perishes in the horrible plague year in England of 1596. We readers know a lot of science that the characters couldn\u2019t have known, which might have saved young Hamnet. We have means of communication \u2013 of bodies as well as of information \u2013 unavailable &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/?p=139\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">\u2018Hamnet\u2019 and \u2026 Shh \u2026 don\u2019t mention it!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-don-nordberg-is-on-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions\/142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}