Holy fuck

[Anonymous No.12162318]

I'm reading Shakespeare for the first time since getting into literature 3 years ago, and it is easily the best reading experience so far. I've read the best works of other greats like Joyce, Borges, Proust, Flaubert, Blake, Kafka, and more.

What can I do to get the most out of reading Shakespeare? I haven't read any analyses, seen any movies/plays based on his work, I'm coming into him completely new. I started with Romeo & Juliet and am loving it!

[Anonymous No.12162324]

>>12162318
>What can I do to get the most out of reading Shakespeare?
Read it while walking around, reciting in a pompous and altisonant voice

[Anonymous No.12162326]

>>12162318
you sound like a fag

[Anonymous No.12162346]

>>12162326
No, you're the fag

[Anonymous No.12162355]

The problem with Shakespeare is that he enthralls us less than exhausts us. I guess thats the problem with us though.

[Anonymous No.12162364]

i only read greeks, romans or germans. no anglos, french or even worse meds.

[Anonymous No.12162379]

>>12162364
Smart. I hope you read them in the original language though. Otherwise you’re a pseud and can get fucked.

[Anonymous No.12162389]

>>12162364

[Anonymous No.12162412]

>>12162318
Hahahahaha look at this fucking pseud. Shakespeare isn’t good at all. At best it is something we all just tolerate because society still pretends it’s “great literature” that only smart people read. But that time is already passing. More and more people are admitting that there is nothing special about Shakespeare, and that you’re not smart or deep for pretending to appreciate corny jokes from his time period.

[Anonymous No.12162437]

>>12162379
this

[Anonymous No.12162443]

>>12162318
Meh, Dante is better.

[Anonymous No.12162452]

>>12162443
So are Milton and Chaucer. Still, he’s damn good.

[Anonymous No.12162458]

>>12162452
Have you read Chaucer?

[Anonymous No.12162480]

>>12162458
Yes. He is essential.

[Anonymous No.12162487]

>>12162346
no OP is a faggot

[Anonymous No.12162491]

>>12162487
You all are.

[Anonymous No.12162496]

>>12162491
no

[Anonymous No.12162583]

>>12162324
>>12162326
>>12162346
>>12162346
>>12162364
>>12162379
>>12162412
>>12162437
>>12162443
>>12162452
>>12162458
>>12162480
>>12162487
>>12162491
>>12162496
literally nothing to do with OP's question you fucking faggots

[Anonymous No.12162699]

>>12162412
Yikes!

[Anonymous No.12162712]

4chan is slowly turning into 9gag

[Anonymous No.12162959]

>>12162318
Same OP, ive laughed and cried and had many gasps due to his unending wit and straight up fire dialogues, from shakespeare more than any other author.
Also amazes me how little english has changed

[Anonymous No.12162980]

>>12162318
>literature
Plays aren't literature.

[Anonymous No.12162982]

>>12162318
julius caesar is book kino

[Anonymous No.12163056]

>What can I do to get the most out of reading Shakespeare?
My rec would be read academic articles about concepts which interest you and pertain to the play you're reading. Write in the margins, underline (if the book is yours and your God does not forbid these actions) and make notes about your own observations in a dedicated pocket book. Would also suggest getting to know his background/moment in time (Elizabethan era etc) and reading into his influences, at least a little bit. I think these strategies apply to any writer but with Shakespeare you're pretty much guaranteed a big return on any investment you make.

[Anonymous No.12163066]

what's the best complete shakespeare edition to buy? i'd prefer a multi-volume set rather than one mammoth book. was thinking of getting the norton one but it's pretty expensive.

[Anonymous No.12163069]

>>12162412
you're an idiot and nobody of value shares your retarded opinions

[Anonymous No.12163077]

>>12162412
i love these because it shows how fucking unperceptive and dense a lot of people are and makes me feel better for genuinely feeling and relating to greats

[Anonymous No.12163418]

>>12162318

I have an archive filled with copy-pastas about Shakespeare on my office, but I'm at home right now. If this thread remaine alive I willpost them when I get back

[Anonymous No.12163949]

>>12163069
>>12163077
Fucking pseuds. This is exactly like the story where the emperor has no clothes but everyone pretends they can see a robe because they don’t want people to think they’re stupid. Ironically, the only smart person in that story is the kid who tells the truth :)

[Anonymous No.12163950]

>>12162583
no u

[Anonymous No.12163958]

>>12163077
>hurr durr I’m so fucking deep for pretending to care about some shitty old plays that aren’t even good
Shakespeare is fucking pleb shit for tasteless faggots like you to pretend to have taste. That’s literally it.

[Anonymous No.12163970]

>>12162412
This. I have never met a self-professed Shakespeare “fan” who wasn’t stuck yo their own ass. If you ask them why, they’ll answer vaguely about his “wit” or something they can’t explain.

I have more respect for people who admit they don’t care for Shakespeare than for “people” who just jump on this gay pseud bandwagon.

[Anonymous No.12163981]

>be Shakey's wife
>your beloved husband dies
>all he leaves you is his second best bed
wat do?

[Anonymous No.12164025]

>>12163981
Nap

[Anonymous No.12164034]

>>12163970
>everyone's just pretending to like what I don't like!

[Anonymous No.12164036]

Wow, what a miracle! You're reading the guy everyone tells each other is the best, in order to get pseud cred, and, like magic, you like him a huge amount as well, despite your tastes likely not being well correlated with other people's! You're definitely not just a pseud!

[Anonymous No.12164051]

>>12163949
t. would be contrarian
it's funny how reversed things would be in a modern take on the emperor's new clothes, everyone thinking they have x-ray vision or something and the royal procession draped head to heel mummified in lead lined whatevers

[Anonymous No.12164091]

>READING shakespeare

[Anonymous No.12164098]

>>12163949
>when you shit on Shakespeare in a /lit/ board
Yeah you're a genius

[Anonymous No.12164102]

>>12162318
I read a lot of Shakespeare during a lit class I took in college and felt the same way as you. he's brilliant. i'd recommend looking up the historical context of each play before you read it to get an understanding of what was going on in shakespeare's world at the time. for example if i remember correctly The Tempest was partly a critique of the political climate of the time period which could help give you some insight into the characters and their actions. good luck on your shakespeare journey anon it's a fun ride

[Anonymous No.12164109]

>>12163418
please do

[Anonymous No.12164287]

>>12162412
Mate, Shakespeare is a god. And I say that as someone who thinks not all of his plays are good.

[Anonymous No.12164321]

>>12162318
I bet he smelled really good...

[Anonymous No.12164342]

>>12163056
This sounds great, thanks. Regarding reading into his influences, I actually arrived at him this way. I loved Seneca, then Montaigne had a huge impact on my life. I'll expand more though, he seems to pulls from many great minds worth examining.

[Anonymous No.12164359]

>>12162318
Imagine hugging William and touching his soft hair

[Anonymous No.12164435]

How should I go about getting into Shakespeare? I read Romeo and Juliet, Othello and Macbeth for school but I only started to actually enjoy his writing in my last year of school where I was doing Macbeth and passages like the 'Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow' one and the 'Was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself?' one blew me away. I want to reread those three as well as Hamlet and King Lear at least, but if its better for me to watch them how should I go about that?

[Anonymous No.12164467]

>>12164051
>>12164098
Shakespeare isn’t even that good. The only reason he still has such a reputation is because he’s usually babby’s first literature that’s isn’t just New York Times bestseller commercial garbage. And often he is their last, because they stop there and pretend that they have achieved literature enlightenment lmao.

Fucking pseuds. Shakespeare is entry level shit and honestly not that great compared to other, more accomplished writers. Tl:dr you are plebs who fell for the pleb trap that is Shakespeare

[Anonymous No.12164474]

>>12164091
this

[Anonymous No.12164482]

EVERY fucking Shakes thread some butthurt non-anglo third-world language nigger has to tell us how Shakes is overrated.

[Anonymous No.12164498]

>>12164467
This desu. If you think Shakespeare is a “god” you’re a fucking normie who just for the first time picked up a book that wasn’t Game of Thrones or Harry Potter.

[Anonymous No.12164510]

This whole thread. Yikes.
1000 years from now, future pseuds are going to be reading scripts from Seinfeld and holding Larry David up to the same regard that current pseuds hold Shakespeare.

[Anonymous No.12164524]

>>12164510
I'm reading Larry David for the first time since getting into literature 3 years ago, and it is easily the best reading experience so far. I've read the best works of other greats like Big Bang Theory, Friends, and more.

What can I do to get the most out of reading Larry David? I haven't read any analyses, seen any movies/plays based on his work, I'm coming into him completely new. I started with Curb Your Enthusiasm and am loving it!

[Anonymous No.12164536]

>>12164467
The best writer of all time was an Anglo - an ANGLO. deal with it, Continental.

[Anonymous No.12164571]

>>12164536
>oi mayte oi gowt a spowt ‘o bowthah, gewt tew use thah leew oi do
Being “Anglo” does not make you inherently well-read when the majority of that land’s current inhabitants talk like this.

Looking at how ugly everyone is in th UK, I’m struggling to see where you’re getting your racial pride from.

[Anonymous No.12164578]

>>12164536
>best writer of all time
Did you even read a single book besides Harry Potter?

[Anonymous No.12164592]

>>12164536
>Anglo
You’re a mutt. Barely even European.

[Anonymous No.12164621]

>>12164498
Shit, guess that makes Bloom, Nabakov, Milton, Joyce, and Johnson normies who didn't really read.

[Anonymous No.12164675]

>>12164467

[Anonymous No.12164743]

>>12162364
>not reading Shakespeare & Chaucer & Dostoevsky

You are doomed to eternal pseudery, which is a shame, because you're doing everything else right.

[Anonymous No.12164745]

>>12162318
You can get the most out of the plays by actually watching them obviously.
The Globe has recordings of non-abridged performances on their website if that's what you're looking for.

[Kat No.12165258]

With Shakespeare, one doesn’t need anything other than patience and insight. While having a solid understanding of Elizabethan history and politics certainly doesn’t hurt in terms of understanding fully what Shakespeare may have been saying, it isn’t necessary to appreciate the beauty of his drama any more than having a degree in art history is a prerequisite to enjoying, say, DaVinci. Patience is necessary for grasping Elizabethan era English. Insight allows one to perceive Shakespeare’s genius—that which makes his work timeless. I found Kenneth Branaugh’s films a particularly good introduction to Shakespearean productions if you don’t have access to a good live stage production. Good luck and enjoy!

[Anonymous No.12165269]

>>12162318
> I’m coming into him completely new

Shakespeare has probably had boipussy before

[Anonymous No.12165271]

>>12164745
>watching shakespeare

[Anonymous No.12165343]

>>12165271
>reading plays

[Anonymous No.12165408]

>>12162318
He was a true genius. I'm about to read Othello for the first time now. I may also watch some plays on the internet later.

[Anonymous No.12165491]

>>12163958
You just proved his point