Okay, so here it is. We just started reading Shakespeare's King Lear and I have to say that I am not loving it too much (that's me being polite about it). I do feel bad, though, because I feel as if I came into reading the book already hating it. See I have a little...resentment built up towards our old friend Will that goes back all the way to fifth grade.
My teacher, Mr. Englund, had us read Romeo and Juliet and perform it for the class. That play was burned into my brain (I can still recite my long lines) but I had no idea what the words I was saying meant. That is what bothers me about Shakespeare. Why write plays in a form of English that no real, normal person understands? If the only person that can read your work is you, why publish it and force people (like innocent fifth graders) to have to plod through it like trying to run through a chin-high mud pit with rocks in your shoes. There is no sense in it at all! That is why I have a hard time being excited about reading any works with Shakespear's name attached to them.
Whew! Glad I got all that out. Anyway, so I think that my already tainted views of Willy-boy had already ruined the chances of me liking King Lear. And now that I am a few acts into the play, my fears have been realized. Every two words you have to look at a footnote at the bottom of the page, which is nice because they help me to understand words, (that I will never ever know or want to know for that matter), but they force you to break up the sentences so much that it is hard to string all of the words together into an intelligible ( or maybe not intelligible) sentence. There is one thing that I have to say in favor of the play (as of right now at least). That is that the plot line of King Lear it seems to be okay. That meaning, if it was written in normal American English it might not be half bad. But, as of right now, I see Shakespeare, not as one of the most famous writers in the English language, but as a terrible man who wanted to make the lives of children miserable.
Furnace Spring Texas
7 years ago
1 comment:
I think you are missing some things in all of this:
1. If studying was fin they would call it vacation. It typically is work. Which is why they call it work.
2. Shakespeare wasn't meant for kids but b/c colleges/universities have certain criteria in order to be admitted we do it, cause, like, you know, we don't want you showing up dumb er nuthin.
3. Be patient. It will get better, Miss "I hate anything that doesn't make me laugh/giggle/cry in the first five seconds."
4. I am not so fond of "old willy" either but Lear is sublime compared to most.
5. That is all.
6. Please turn of the word verification option. Talk about maddening.
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