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[JimmyRustler]

Anyone here familiar with the plays of Shakespeare? Ever since started reading no fiction books I found it hard to avoid two things: The Bible and Shakespare. Both are endlessly quoted and referred to.

Now the Bible I've read a few times at this point but I never got around to properly read Shakespeare and when I did, I found his plays a bit hard to follow because they are obviously intended to be watched on stage and not only read. But end of last year I found this amazing audiobook collection Arkangel where all plays have professionally (think the latest Harry Potter audiobooks) recorded and alongside with AI explaining to me what happens in the scenes I thought I'd give it a go.

Boys, let me tell you... It's bloody amazing. I always used to wonder why Shakespeare was so revered and now I understand it. Given what happens at times it's hard to imagine that this was written for a stage play. Must have blown folk's mind that they managed to pull this off. And once you get into the flow of the dialogue... Unparalleled... Such a shame the Jacobanean English vanished. Prolly the most amazing language there ever was. You have comedies, dramas, connected historical plays... every single one amazing in their own regard. I'm almost through all of them and my favourites have prolly been Macbeth and King Lear so far. Pure art! Give it a go!

TLDR: Read Shakespeare you peasant brutes!

 

[Soodanim]

I'd like to go see them performed in Original Pronunciation, as that's what makes the rhymes work.

You study them in school and none of it lands because you're meant to analyse comedy as if it's deep melancholy.

I'd be interested to read them with additional context going in i.e. Romeo & Juliet is overly dramatic because it's teenagers and that's the joke

 

[kanjobazooie]

Noth, I don't readeth.

 

[Ovek]

Reading Shakespeare is quite a trip once you get in to it. The language used help convey emotions in a way say straight English can never do it's quite remarkable.

Watching it be performed on stage though it where it truly shines.

Personal favourite of mine is The Merchant of Venice, I managed to see it performed on Broadway with Al Pacino and a cast of amazing stage actors.

 

[Trilobit]

I've never read Shakespeare. Most of what I know comes from Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck stories where they play the characters. Maybe I should check out if there are good recorded videos of theater plays.

 

[cormack12]

What happens in the Bible? Does Zeus ever get back to Olympus

 

[PatriciaFG]

Anyone here familiar with the plays of Shakespeare? Ever since started reading no fiction books I found it hard to avoid two things: The Bible and Shakespare. Both are endlessly quoted and referred to.

Now the Bible I've read a few times at this point but I never got around to properly read Shakespeare and when I did, I found his plays a bit hard to follow because they are obviously intended to be watched on stage and not only read. But end of last year I found this amazing audiobook collection Arkangel where all plays have professionally (think the latest Harry Potter audiobooks) recorded and alongside with AI explaining to me what happens in the scenes I thought I'd give it a go.

Boys, let me tell you... It's bloody amazing. I always used to wonder why Shakespeare was so revered and now I understand it. Given what happens at times it's hard to imagine that this was written for a stage play. Must have blown folk's mind that they managed to pull this off. And once you get into the flow of the dialogue... Unparalleled... Such a shame the Jacobanean English vanished. Prolly the most amazing language there ever was. You have comedies, dramas, connected historical plays... every single one amazing in their own regard. I'm almost through all of them and my favourites have prolly been Macbeth and King Lear so far. Pure art! Give it a go!

TLDR: Read Shakespeare you peasant brutes!

By the way, I recommend checking this out. It has everything you need for a vacation.

Macbeth and King Lear are peak Shakespeare. Macbeth has insane pacing, literally not a single wasted scene, the whole plot just hits the gas and doesn't stop. And Lear just completely guts you by the end. If you're into that dark, heavy vibe, you definitely gotta check out Othello and Hamlet if you haven't gotten to them yet. Also using AI to break down the scene contexts is actually a solid move, might have to give that a shot myself.

 

[IlGialloMondadori]

Love some Shakespeare. Dude is the bomb.

Tangential but Chimes at Midnight is well worth watching for Shakespeare fans and if you dig Falstaff.

 

[Major Insano]

I've tried a few times, but the form of English makes it too difficult for me to click with it.
I will have to find a modern translation someday.

 

[LyricalShrike]

What happens in the Bible? Does Zeus ever get back to Olympus

God gets a little bit soft in the new testament but comes back hard af in the sequel .

 

[JimmyRustler]

I've tried a few times, but the form of English makes it too difficult for me to click with it.
I will have to find a modern translation someday.

Nah man, this can't be translated I think. The rhyming would be extremely hard to pull off otherwise.

Speaking of, I love how most scenes end with a rhyme and found it interesting to learn that this was done as a cue for the audience back in the day that a scene is finished.

 

[EviLore]

It's now normal to think about humans as having a vast internal world in tension with itself, but if you read most literature prior to Shakespeare you don't often have an internal lens that evolves its own understanding through internal monologue and dialogue. There are philosophical texts but that's a bit different.

It's an interesting read and good for appreciating Shakespeare and inspiring further reading, since Bloom includes many quotations and a deep love of the subject.

 

[Idleyes]

"Inner life barely existed before some nigga wrote about it" is a wild claim.

 

[Bombolone]

We live in a simulation.
I have had exposure to Shakespeare throughout high school. The reading of the works for class.
They are books that I come back to every now and then, even at 41 years old.
I literally started my day today with some meditation and the first page of Romeo & Juliet.


Fake Edit.
lol, Good morning Idleyes

 

[LyricalShrike]

We live in a simulation.
I have had exposure to Shakespeare throughout high school. The reading of the works for class.
They are books that I come back to every now and then, even at 41 years old.
I literally started my day today with some meditation and the first page of Romeo & Juliet.


Fake Edit.
lol, Good morning Idleyes

The topic caught me off guard. I assumed everybody studied Homer, Chaucer, and Shakespeare in some form. I wonder if it's a location/streaming difference.

 

[Bombolone]

With the new movie out, I have been wanting to read Homer.
The only things I know of it are from references used in pop culture. I guess we just did not have enough time to get to other notable writers during my time in school. I also did not attend any formal post secondary institution where it could have been required reading.

So it's definitely a curriculum/region and possibly era thing?
Maybe the younger members or Family Men/Woman can chime in. Do kids going through school today still study literature like this in English class?
I was speaking to a student from my work earlier and I remember them saying they have not been exposed to it just yet. It is scheduled for Grade 10 or 11.

 

[jason10mm]

The topic caught me off guard. I assumed everybody studied Homer, Chaucer, and Shakespeare in some form. I wonder if it's a location/streaming difference.

I think for older Americans this stuff was pretty standard in "Western Civ/Literature" classes, usually somewhere in 9th-12th grades at least. I watched the old Romeo and Juliet film in 8th grade (AWESOME due to the bit of [age appropriate for 14 year olds, I guess?] nudity) but I was in AG/AP classes so we had a harder curriculum than the run of the mill student.

So theoretically most every high school graduate should have had at least a passing familiarity with these authors. But these days, seems VERY unlikely. Between just a general lack of literacy and the 'need' to include authors divergent from the 'classics' that forged our educated monoculture of liberal arts, the basics are shoved aside for more recent "inclusive" authors.

Brits, I'd imagine, being the indigenous peoples of some of these guys, would get more of it?