[General] Now is the summer of our discontent

Dear teachers

Just wondering what does the sentence "Now is the summer of our discontent; made glorious winter by the artificial freeze" mean in the following passage. Your comments are highly appreciated:

Now is the summer of our discontent; made glorious winter by the artificial freeze. During this time, Singapore becomes humid and hot - so most people resort to air-conditioning when the heat becomes suffocating. But the artificially chilly indoor conditions hinder the dissipation of dampness in our body, leading to many skin problems.

Cheers

Holden

http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/now-winter-our-discontent

It's a play on the Shakespeare quote about the winter of our discontent.

The indoors is made cold, like the winter, because of the use of air conditioning. This causes problems ("discontent") for some because of the dryness of the conditioned air.

The use of "hinder" seems to be wrong. A/C doesn't hinder the dissipation of body moisture, it hastens it.

And the semicolon doesn't belong, either in the original or in this version.

Thank you very much. A follow-up question. As a non-native, I find the lead strange. Does it sound strange to you as well?

SoothingDave said:

http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/now-winter-our-discontent

It's a play on the Shakespeare quote about the winter of our discontent.

The indoors is made cold, like the winter, because of the use of air conditioning. This causes problems ("discontent") for some because of the dryness of the conditioned air.

The use of "hinder" seems to be wrong. A/C doesn't hinder the dissipation of body moisture, it hastens it.

Click to expand...

holdenenglish said:

Does it sound strange to you as well?

Click to expand...

I think it is unfathomable instead of strange to people unfamiliar with Shakespeare quotes, but I am not a teacher.

holdenenglish said:

Thank you very much. A follow-up question. As a non-native, I find the lead strange. Does it sound strange to you as well?

Click to expand...

I immediately recognized it as a play on Shakespeare. No, we don't normally write like that. The writer is trying to be clever, that's all.

There was a bad winter in the UK in 1979 when there were many strikes and rubbish was not collected in some places. This was known as the winter of discontent, and is still called that today. The reference is familiar enough in English-speaking countries.