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/lit/ - Literature

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21799776 No.21799776 [Reply] [Original]

You ain't lit if you don't read Shakespeare.

>> No.21799778

>>21799776
I don't want to become a theatre kid

>> No.21799785

>>21799778
become a writer not an actor.

>> No.21799812

I never understand what's going on when I read him. Only way I know what's going on is by reading the summary.
>inb4 retard
yes

>> No.21799816

>>21799812
Retard

>> No.21799824

>>21799776
i only read shakespeare to understand joyce

>> No.21799941

reading plays is more degenerate behavior than listening to novels

>> No.21799983

>>21799776
Based
>>21799778
Don’t be a fag
>>21799812
Mega retard
>>21799824
Acceptable behavior
>>21799941
Psued pleb who needs to read more

>> No.21799997

I have read and watch reproductions of hamlet, Macbeth, the Tempest, and Henry IV (vid related).
Where should I go next?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdI2jVJAyIE

>> No.21800010

>>21799997
Fallstaffs really got it all figured out

>> No.21800049

>>21799776
I've read three of his plays but unironically plays should be watched not read, or at least read only after they're watched

>> No.21800069

>>21800049
Sure but can't you admit Shakespeare's writing is so rare and remarkable that it deserves special attention and close reading? You can do both...

>> No.21800077

>>21800069
Yeah but I just think you should watch him first, although to be fair the Taming of the Shrew is one of my favorite light readings and I've never seen it

>> No.21800099

>>21799812
Leave this board and never come back

>> No.21800106

>>21800099
The zoomers need some patience, they'll come along

>> No.21800109

>>21799776
Shakespeare was a black muslim named Walim Shaks-pir

>> No.21800153

only anglos would peruse and idealize the equivalent of a TV show (not even using an original plot most of the time). You have to imagine 'to be or not to be' amidst people farting and clipping nails back in the day, with almost zero depth or interest relative to the other dozens of plays in that very same day.

americans are not prepared for this conversation unfortunately, even in their movies they talk as if of the The Immortal Bard as if it was Homer kek.

>> No.21800193

>>21800153
youre taking the predictable 4chan contrarianism way to far kid, form your own opinions.

>> No.21800196

>>21800109
Shakespeare was a Sufi, now it all makes sense.

>> No.21800198

>>21799776
IDGAF about anglo culture therefore Shakespear is pointless to me

>> No.21800205

>>21799776
I'm not Anglo so I just read Hamlet in translation(which was pretty good). Started reading King Lear but some psycho ex stole the book. Also saw the movie Much Ado About Nothing, it was fun

>> No.21800212

>>21800205
>I'm not Anglo
leave

>> No.21800219

>>21800193
That's my opinion. Shakespeare represents a relatively obscure genre (who reads actually theater?) that somehow became universal by angloboos,as the germans, or the anglos themselves, as the greatest poet ever.

He is entertaining, but I personally do not see 'the inmortal and absolute' for all the cultures of all time. Anybody majoring in English is unbearable in this regard. Feel free to paste here some samples of what you would consider of inmortal value from him.

>> No.21800230

>>21800219
>who reads actually theater?
stop reading here. you've exposed yourself as an ESL. You have no right to an opinion about his.

>> No.21800237

>>21800212
Nuh uh

>> No.21800258

>>21800230
kek, again, who 'does' read theater, clown? Dare to answer, you are just a pleb reading summaries on Shakespeare, aren't you? Your impotence to bring anything to the table on the inmortal value of Shakespeare in the internet era speaks volumes. You cannot play the game of, this is an stupid imageboard and at the the same not giving anything of value.

>> No.21800259

>>21800258
>e game of, this
that ain't how you use a comma, Sancho

>> No.21800408

>>21799776
i only ever read macbeth in school and now want to read some plays of his. i looked at the arden shakespeare in a store but the notes and essays were way too much for me and i find notes in general to be distracting more than anything. what are good editions to buy with as little additional text besides the actual play as possible?

>> No.21800413

>>21800049
I don’t agree since Shakespeare needs extensive annotation to get a lot of his jokes and nuance. Better to read and then see performed

>> No.21800578

WELL, THEN YOU AIN’T BLACK

>> No.21800585

English is not my primary language and I never quite liked poetry so reading poetry in an archaic form of English language is not for me.
Call me a pleb, if you want.

>> No.21800602

>>21800585
>English is not my primary language
holy fuck another one

>> No.21800608

>>21800602
Yes some people speak more than one language anon

>> No.21800614

>you ain't lit if you didn't read the mandatory school reading

>> No.21801004

>>21799997
>vid related
If you watch any reproduction of Shakespeare's plays that aren't in black and white you should end yourself.

>> No.21801008

>>21800219
He has tons of actual poetry, you know. He's not all plays.

>> No.21801031

>>21799776
>wash le hands before you le eat
Holy shit the Shakespeare troupe invented it!
I'm a teasing seething recovering STEMfag. He/they was/were legendary and epic. "Sound and fury"? Kino./spoiler]

>> No.21801722

>>21800099
No one understands Shakespeare. Don’t pretend that you do

>> No.21801815

>>21800230
Native English speakers consistently make far worse mistakes than that. Telling if someone is ESL just through their grammar is impossible- it's the standard to have retarded grammar these days, after all.

>> No.21801847

>>21801815
no native english speaker would ever mix up word placement that badly. especially not one who's clearly trying to use capitalization and punctuation.
plus "inmortal" and "feel free to paste here some samples"

>> No.21802169

>>21801847
Shakespeare's translations of his theater plays don't miss anything that is only possible to understand in english. kek, he must be the most controlled anglo writer ever. I guess we should trash your opinion about anything greek or roman. For that matter you better don't have any german or french references. Or does it apply only to the ESL these rules? Anyway, this discussion is sterile...there are greater authors in english and yet we have to endure this repetitive thread over and over.
btw, I developed this opinion thanks to /lit/, that with all its defects, it helps relativizing the meme-mainstream taste.

>> No.21804172

>>21800408
just download the straight .txt files and read them on your phone or on a kindle or whatever.

>> No.21804407

>>21799776
>read all of the western canon (ish; certainly all the English poets)
>including the entirety of shakeyspearies extant works
>still dont 'get' him
There are clearly marvelous bits, but having to read the entire play for bits a few lines that could be put into a single poem is just so dull. Why would I read it rather than an actual poem?

>> No.21805165

>>21802169
NTA but I refrain from commenting on the prose of any translation I read for this very reason. The only valid criticism I feel I can have is on the story.

>> No.21805711

>>21799776
I despise reading books in old English.

>> No.21805823

>>21799785
It can fuck with your head.

>> No.21805878

Which versions have the best annotations for a non native English speaker?

>> No.21805907

>>21799776
But he's overrated.

>> No.21806134

He's the most normie, basic bitch writer of all time. You study (forcefully) his melodramatic shite in middle school, then fucking shelf it forever after.

>> No.21807625

WE
WUZ
PLAYWRIGHTS
AN
SHIET

>> No.21809021

>>21799776
I read romeo and juliet in high school
Am I lit?

>> No.21809180

>>21799776
I'm okay with that.

>> No.21809873

>>21805823
This is a psyop the fat demiurge worshipping spooks want you to believe. Your consciousness is a temple and you mustn't grant the satanic pedophile elite access to any of it.

>> No.21810696

>>21799997
>Where should I go next?

Read the histories in order, from Richard II to Henry VI & Richard III. I don't care if they're Tudor propaganda, Shakespeare's histories are motherfucking based. It's a 1000+ page epic, broken into 8 plays, that starts with the usurpation of Richard II, victory over the French, and ends a few generations later with the Yorks and the Lancasters giving it all away and killing each other (and their kids). The whole thing is just bananas, definitely something you read more than once.

The histories as a whole are like a massive Greek tragedy, with England itself as the tragic hero.

>> No.21810735

>>21799776
>hurr durr muh shakespeare
Imagine your culture is based around little faggot island.

>> No.21810843

>>21805711
Read the contemporary translation then. Duh!

>> No.21810875

Shakespeare is UNDER-rated, if anything.

>> No.21810938 [SPOILER] 
File: 338 KB, 640x800, make-bacon-great-again.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
21810938

>> No.21811404

>>21800408
Get the Folger editions. They're cheap as chips and easily the most readable. The annotations aren't extensive, mainly just explanations of words and phrases modern readers won't be familiar with. They also include a short summary at the beginning of each scene which is helpful to go back to if certain passages trouble you.

>> No.21812188
File: 2.44 MB, 2448x3264, shakespeare.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
21812188

>>21811404
>Get the Folger editions. They're cheap as chips and easily the most readable.

I credit Folger's with getting as far with Shakespeare as I have. The annotations on the facing page, instead of at the bottom as footnotes, is so much easier to read. At times I find them slightly lacking, ie. "is this the common meaning of this word in early modern English, or are they being metaphorical?" After reading 22 plays, I notice Folger's sometimes skipping an explanation of a word, whereas in another play it was explained in depth.

HOWEVER, Folger just makes the plays readable and enjoyable. I suppose once I'm done I'll have to double back and start collecting the Arden editions, with it's walls of footnotes in 6 pt font, to really understand the minutiae. But then my wife will probably have me committed.

>> No.21812255

>>21800219
>He is entertaining, but I personally do not see 'the inmortal (sic) and absolute' for all the cultures of all time.

I call bullshit, ESL midwit detected. You can't get to the "entertained by Shakespeare" phase without first (and long before) passing through the "whoa that was some epic shit I just read" phase. (And before that, comes hours and hours of struggling with Shakespearean wordplay, where the parts of speech slip and slide, where English grammar is no longer a strict system of rules, but more like a tool to he uses to tickle the audience's brain, and your own mind is twisted into knots until...you suddenly just get it.)

If you managed to finally find Shakespeare entertaining, your brain would already be infected by certain epic immortal unforgettable passages...Othello Act 1 Scene 3 Iago's monologue..."Thus do I ever make my fool my purse, for I mine own gained knowledge should profane if I would time expend with such a snipe, but for my sport and profit..." Henry V opening monologue "Oh for a muse of fire to ascend the highest heaven of invention..." Julius Caesar "cowards die many times before their deaths", Shylock "If you cut me do I not bleed"...the jester's hilarious lewd love poem about Rosalind in As You Like It...Falstaff's insults...turns of phrase either iconic and fundamental to English language and culture, or some so novel and clever that you feel compelled to keep them in your brain like keepsakes.

But it isn't, so you don't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zbGMcsCtjg

>> No.21812308

>>21812255
I love you anon you make me want to read more Shakespeare and make it a focus

>> No.21812317
File: 1.46 MB, 1140x1500, 79_l_12.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
21812317

>>21799776
You ain't literate less you read Fingal an Ancient Epic Poem in six books, dawg

>> No.21812341

>>21812255
>Thus do I ever make my fool my purse, for I mine own gained knowledge should profane if I would time expend with such a snipe, but for my sport and profit
uhh.. in english please Doc?

>> No.21812388

luv me shakespeare

'ate everyfink else

simple as

>> No.21812463

>>21799776
I only listen to him sorry

>> No.21813512

>>21812341
>Thus do I ever make my fool my purse, for I mine own gained knowledge should profane if I would time expend with such a snipe, but for my sport and profit
>uhh.. in english please Doc?

"I'm using this guy (Rodrigo) just for his money; because I'm so knowledgeable and wise, it would be beneath me to waste my time with such an idiot, except for fun and profit."

The fun part is when your brain starts to do this translation automatically, or rather, you understand it fluently without any translation; your brain gets adept at holding more grammatical "variables" and keeping everything in play until you hit the sentence period and its full meaning is "compiled", if I might make a terrible analogy.