/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.14252814]

Where to start with Shakespeare?

What are his most /lit/ approved works?

[Anonymous No.14252828]

Try reading some of his plays you wanna read. You can read any one of them you want because they are not long. Haha or talk about potentially reading them at some point on the internet and don't actually read them

[Anonymous No.14252849]

they aren't meant to be read, they're meant to be watched. so watch a fuck ton of his movies. macbeth is his best cause it has so many by kino directors

[Anonymous No.14252857]

>>14252849
>they aren't meant to be read, they're meant to be watched

midwit opinion

[Anonymous No.14252868]

>>14252849
They cut so many fucking lines, you'll only be able to understand half the play

[Anonymous No.14252869]

>>14252849
>they aren't meant to be read

You literal midwit.

[Anonymous No.14252940]

>>14252857
>>14252868
>>14252869
the art form of plays is meant to be performed fool

[Anonymous No.14252997]

>>14252940
My imagination performs the play when i read it midwit

[Anonymous No.14253026]

>plebs coping with the fact they aren't patrician enough to go to the theatre
Everytime. Yes darling, your imagination is just as good

[Anonymous No.14253042]

Start with easier high school stuff, I did Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet (although Hamlet is still really good).

[Anonymous No.14253049]

I forgot how hot Joseph Fiennes was as Shakespeare. Woof woof.

[Anonymous No.14253054]

>>14252940
>>14253026

Shakespeare resented the theater and the fact that he had to make a living writing plays rather than poetry. He compromised by writing plays that were meant to be read slowly and thought over by posterity.

[Anonymous No.14253065]

>>14252940
In theory. Shakespeare's language is so complex the average viewer doesn't understand a lot of it while watching. Consider this: often, the actors saying the lines don't even understand what the words mean. The very words they're saying, they haven't a clue.

Shakespeare is better read.

[Anonymous No.14253080]

>>14253065
>the actors saying the lines don't even understand what the words mean. The very words they're saying, they haven't a clue.

The best professional theater actors who specialize in performing Shakespeare certainly do. The average Hollywood hack doesn't, which is why you shouldn't watch Shakespeare movies staring meme actors.

[Anonymous No.14253090]

>>14253080
>The best professional theater actors who specialize in performing Shakespeare

If you have access to these productions, good for you. The vast majority of people do not.

[Anonymous No.14253124]

>>14253054
Even the Bard had to cope.

[Anonymous No.14253129]

>>14253054
any source?

[Anonymous No.14253320]

>>14253054
how can we possibly know this if he existed thousands of years ago and theres no documents about his personal beliefs

[Anonymous No.14253340]

>>14253054
You do realize shakespeare didn't come up with the use of blank verse in plays right? That was marlowe

[Anonymous No.14253342]

>>14253320
>thousands of years ago

[Anonymous No.14253376]

>>14253320
>thousands of years ago

[Anonymous No.14253399]

>>14252849
cringe cumbrain take

they are meant to be read

Aloud of course

[Anonymous No.14253404]

>>14252997
>when i read its like a movie in my headd!

[Anonymous No.14253455]

You can always find a Shakespeare performance somewhere. Even a community theater doing A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the park is worth your time. Bring a text and follow along if you want or read it before, or after.
Shakespeare on film varies wildly and some of the adaptations veer far from the original but capture the spirit, like Kurosawa. I like Orson Welles’ Shakespeare, especially Chimes at Midnight, a mashup of the Falstaff plays was th Welles playing the fat man. Again, read the book before during and after if you want.
Before Shakespeare, play scripts were just that and were closely guarded property of the theater companies. Rogue publishers started bootlegging with “bad quartos” and companies figured they might as well monetize their old scripts. It became a thing to sit and read play scripts, and publishing Shakespeare's collected works in the First Folio solidified the trend.

[Anonymous No.14253483]

>>14253455
>Bring a text and follow along if you want

[Anonymous No.14253515]

Question: How do I get used to Shakespeare if I'm not native in English? I have no problems with books written in English but the his language just seems confusing on top of it being written as aplay ('ENTER this', 'EXIT that'). Am I just too low IQ?

[Anonymous No.14253544]

>>14253515
Shakespeare is difficult even for native English speakers. If you don't want to devote the time and effort to it, just don't bother.

[Anonymous No.14253556]

>>14253515
You get an edition with a glossary.
Though I'd say it's also important that you familiarise yourself with the "standard" translation of your native language. (As in, with the version that supplied the commonly used versions of Shakespeare's most important catchphrases in that language.)

[Anonymous No.14253710]

People say don't read Shakespeare but he's the greatest writer of all time.

Lol make ure minds up brainlets.

[Anonymous No.14253811]

>>14252814
Just read Hamlet 2 days ago and reading King Lear right now.

[Anonymous No.14253827]

>>14253515
How often do you use English?
If you are really used to using it I think a dictionary will be enough. That's what I'm doing right now as an ESL, though I live in the US and read almost exclusively in English.

[Anonymous No.14254414]

>>14253090
Anyone who is serious about literature moves somewhere where they have access to top quality productions

[Anonymous No.14255545]

>>14253455
>theatrical actors are good at Shakespeare
No. Never. Not once.

[Anonymous No.14255882]

>>14253515
This. I'm on the same boat as this anon. I've already read Hamlet and Othello in the original. But I don't think I get it. I don't think I see the beauty. When Hamlet finally finished I was happy that it was all over. The play and over my head.
I'm planning on reading Macbeth next. Show me a good individual edition. And also some sources you shakespeareheads use.

[dick reckard No.14256032]

Dude Shakespeare is not for reading, at least in the silent comfy quicky way. They're plays, I mean, meant to be interpreted; rendering out loud.There are a reason for that great variety of alliterations, assonances and the like.

[Anonymous No.14256065]

>>14253129

[Anonymous No.14256095]

>>14253042
>classifying the quality of Shakespeare by the grade it is taught in the Anglo educational system

[Anonymous No.14257318]

>>14252849
reddit retard