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I have always found Shakespeare to be... well... mostly unreadable; but something magical happens when S. hits the stage!


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Having picked myself up after fainting again, Tsuwm,
I am (figuratively) on my knees in gratitude. How I
got up the nerve to admit to such heresy, I don't
know, but at least now I know there are 2 heretics alive.


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or it could just be a typical reaction to being force fed "...Julius Caesar" (or the like) in middle school (junior high, to us ;).


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Yep--I was (force-fed it). The only Shakespeare that I can quote is, "Is this a dagger I see before me, the handle
toward my hand?", and that is because in my mind I can still see my FRIEND who used to say it. I don't even know
(or really care) what play it's from, although it was our
class assignment.


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I commend to you a novel called "The Marlowe Chronicles." I cannot remember the name of the author, but he mainly writes mysteries, if I recall correctly. Midway through it there is a flashback where the aged actor (Marlowe) relives the scene in which he seduces the very young lady whom he would later marry.

The dialogue of the entire scene consists of exchanges of quotes from Shakespeare. It is so funny I could be persuaded to grab it from the stack on my bedside table and offer it up for everyone's delight.

The rest of the book is a must-read as well. What IS that guy's name???

Ted wanders off to Amazon



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Marlow without an e. The Marlow Chronicles by Lawrence Sanders (First Deadly Sin, Second Deadly Sin, etc.)



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>>or it could just be a typical reaction to being force fed "...Julius Caesar" (or the like) in middle school (junior high, to us ;).<<

A classic and unfortunately common recipe for disaster. The only book of all those I was 'force-read' at school that I can feel anything for these days is 'Pride and Prejudice.' Possibly because I had read it by myself before the teachers got near it.
I have never understood how taking something like Shakespeare, which is relatively complex language, designed to be spoken aloud in a flowing show, then breaking it up into chunks and putting it in the mouthns of bored thirteen-year-olds, is meant to create a love of the English language.

My advice, go and see a Shakespearian play performed live. Preferably with a director who believes in a simple set with minimal props and cleverness, but prefers to concentrate on the words and ensuring the actors know how to speak them as if they meant something.


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>>or it could just be a typical reaction to being force fed "...Julius Caesar" (or the like) in middle
school (junior high, to us ;).<<

I know this feeling.. it happened to me about "La Divina Commedia" of Dante Alighieri.

Emanuela


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Wow, Emanuela, it's interesting that you should say that!
We were given Dante's Inferno, in English of course, when I was probably 13, and for some reason I really enjoyed it!
Perhaps if I'd been given a translated version of Shakespeare, I might have liked him, too!


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The interesting question is: when a language is SO CHANGED with time to be ANOTHER language? and need to be translated ?
I heard last month some religious medieval songs - in old Italian, so that I could understand approximately 50% of it: is it the same language?
And, also: when a dialect is a part of a language, or a different language?
During the First World War , the Italian Army used people from Sardegna (an island) for radio-transmitting , because their dialect is impossible to be understood even from other Italian people, so it was safe against the possibility of interception.
Ciao
Emanuela


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