how do i get into shakespeare?
How do i get into shakespeare?
Jose Flores
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David Lopez
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Nathan Jenkins
Have you tried reading any Shakespeare?
Henry Rodriguez
try watching a play maybe
Tyler Phillips
wtf is book
Evan Jackson
No. Most of my experience just comes from film adaptions. But i have heard many people say that Shakespeare plays shouldn't be read, they should be seen. At least the first time.
Austin Wood
>Shakespeare plays shouldn't be read, they should be seen
Yes and no. They were certainly made for the stage, but the problem is that 90% of modern film and stage productions are horrible. The actors can be great when doing not-Shakespeare, but because they were never trained to specifically perform Shakespeare they usually can't understand the language well and say every line like, "words words words." Not to mention that many directors like to put a dumb new spin on the plays ("Let's set it in the future and make everyone gay!").
Elizabethan theater goers were great listeners and were accustomed to Shakespeare's language but dummies like us really do need to take our time with the lines. Shakespeare really works well with close reading and it's just a pleasure to delight in his language at your own pace.
Also it's worth noting that no one cares about Shakespeare's plots. Everyone knows they were all stolen from earlier stories. But that's not the point. Even his remarkable language isn't the main point. What makes Shakespeare unique and always relevant are his characters. He invented a deeper psychology for them unmatched in previous literature. Harold Bloom conjectured that they were the first characters who developed out of pure introspection. When reading his plays, ask what makes his characters change, and pay particular attention to the soliloquies which are always a turning point for the speaker.
Kayden Johnson
>Harold Bloom
What's the deal with this dude? Are his criticisms legit at all? I read a blurb wherein he called Thus Spoke Zarathustra a "gorgeous disaster" and immediately wrote him off as special. Maybe he just figured out a bunch of stuff that was simpler in nature than that book?
Adam Gomez
shakespeare got fancier as he got older, so his easiest plays are the earliest ones. and among the genres, the history plays are easier than the tragedies and comedies.
so id say the early histories. start with henry vi and richard iii.
Camden Brooks
rap genius