Comments on: Thou art difficult to understand http://www.dystel.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/ Mon, 26 Jun 2017 15:15:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.15 By: Clix http://www.dystel.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/comment-page-1/#comment-16919 Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:12:04 +0000 http://032453b.netsolhost.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/#comment-16919 We've actually just started our unit on Julius Caesar. Today – in about five minutes! eek! – we'll be doing a performance workshop with a condensed version of the play. I've got my fingers crossed…

]]> By: DGLM http://www.dystel.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/comment-page-1/#comment-16859 Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:35:09 +0000 http://032453b.netsolhost.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/#comment-16859 GK, I had the same experience with Waiting For Godot.

Michael Gavaghen – sounds like you had an amazing teacher, and I agree it depends on who helps you get there as to whether or not you enjoy or "get" Shakespeare.

Excellent comments, everyone!

~ Rachel

]]> By: Sarah N Fisk http://www.dystel.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/comment-page-1/#comment-16856 Fri, 09 Apr 2010 02:02:07 +0000 http://032453b.netsolhost.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/#comment-16856 I'm with CS above. Reading Shakespeare is nothing compared to seeing talented actors perform it. Reading it kinda bores me, except for some small pieces.

I know there are people who disagree with me but I thought Mel Gibson's Hamlet was genius. There are so many jibes and jokes you would never get while reading that he really brings to life.

]]> By: David F. Weisman http://www.dystel.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/comment-page-1/#comment-16855 Fri, 09 Apr 2010 01:18:45 +0000 http://032453b.netsolhost.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/#comment-16855 I read and enjoyed some of them, but never got to the point where the language seemed natural. It's always fascinating how he manages to please so many opposing audiences.

]]> By: Tricia http://www.dystel.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/comment-page-1/#comment-16853 Thu, 08 Apr 2010 22:16:03 +0000 http://032453b.netsolhost.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/#comment-16853 As a junior my English teacher helped me fall in love with Shakespeare. He told us the history, what life was like for the people, what the stage looked like… It made it all real. We also read four or five plays. That summer after a two day workshop at the local college he took a bus load of us to a three day festival.

]]> By: michael gavaghen http://www.dystel.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/comment-page-1/#comment-16852 Thu, 08 Apr 2010 22:06:22 +0000 http://032453b.netsolhost.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/#comment-16852 It has everything to do with the teacher or professor who helped get you there. I had one at NYU who would "cast" each play before we read it (Pacino, Harry Dean Stanton, even Donny Most from "Happy Days"), and then again, with us, after we'd read it (DeNiro, Harvey Keitel, Bruce Davison from the Willard movies). He would fall down and play dead in the front of the classroom when reading a scene which called for it. It was impossible NOT to get Shakespeare in his course.

I am still in his debt.

]]> By: GK http://www.dystel.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/comment-page-1/#comment-16850 Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:59:17 +0000 http://032453b.netsolhost.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/#comment-16850 At my elementary school, each 6th grade class had to perform a Shakespeare play every year, and all the other grades had to watch it. I remember in 3rd grade falling absolutely in love with Midsummer Night's Dream. Of course, I found out much later that the 6th grade versions were heavily edited and rewritten, but for me, the point remained: you have to see it to understand it. I had very little trouble with Shakespeare (or, later, Chaucer) because I could see the humor playing behind the nearly-foreign language.

Same with Beckett in college. When I first read Waiting For Godot, I was completely lost. Then a couple people from my class acted out a scene, and it clicked; I'd had no idea before that moment that it was supposed to be funny.

It's all about perspective and understanding. Some people will "get" a work right away, whereas others need to view it from a different angle, and it make take the guidance of others to help them see that.

]]> By: Carole Chidester http://www.dystel.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/comment-page-1/#comment-16849 Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:55:50 +0000 http://032453b.netsolhost.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/#comment-16849 Love this post! So true that seeing the play is the best route to loving Shakespeare. I've found that if you can't see the play, reading Shakespeare aloud can help with understanding. It also helps you appreciate the beauty of his iambic pentameter.

The long prose sections, usually silly conversations featuring the comic relief characters (like the Fool in Lear) can be tiresome to the modern ear, but when I reread one of the plays I find myself skimming those if my attention wanders.

I took a year-long course in college in which we read and studied every play. A few years ago I found myself missing them, and have made it a point to reread one play a year. If possible, I try to read one that will be performed by our local Shakespeare in the Park troupe, so that I can enjoy the production once I'm done.

]]> By: CS http://www.dystel.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/comment-page-1/#comment-16848 Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:00:07 +0000 http://032453b.netsolhost.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/#comment-16848 the best way to enjoy and understand shakespeare is to see the play. i'm a theatre grad and i have been bored to tears reading shakespeare but once you see a good production it all just clicks into place

]]> By: Peggy http://www.dystel.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/comment-page-1/#comment-16847 Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:21:36 +0000 http://032453b.netsolhost.com/blog/2010/04/thou-art-difficult-to-understand/#comment-16847 I was in graduate school when I overcame the language barrier and finally understood why Shakespeare is such a big deal. His themes are timeless and the words are beautiful. And how in the world did he manage to make so much of it rhyme? It's all I can do to write a decent haiku, much less fit my thoughts into such strict constraints. Iambic pentameter, indeed.

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