Welcome back to another post, coming at you from my local park, and yes, I am under the shades of trees, and today we're going to talk about William Shakespeare, because Shakespeare is very tricky person to tackle. Shakespeare's, in fact, one of the trickiest authors I've ever read. Using the word read is aready—you know we're already starting on a wrong track if you use the word read for Shakespeare or Shakespearean play scripts.So, in today's post, I just really want to get across one thing, and if you can get this one thing right about Shakespeare, it's going to solve like 90% of your problems. Like, it's mad. So the one key insight, or the one critical mistake, or like amateurs of Shakespeare or novices of Shakespeare make is that they treat this thing as a novel, right? I think I've talked about this before in another post of mine, but I just feel like this is such an important point that it deserves another separate thread.Even though the form factor, when you go to a bookstore and you buy a Shakespeare, even the form factor is the same as a novel. I mean, this is Hamlet, so this is like, you know, it looks like a book that you can read. But the minute that you flip open this book, you realize that this is like—this is nothing like a novel. It's written differently, it's—the language is kind of weird, and there are stage instructions. You're just like, what the hell is going on?Most people struggle with Shakespeare because they don't understand this one point, which is that Shakespearean scripts are not novels for you to read. I mean, you can. You can read it as a novel, but fundamentally it is a blueprint for performance. And the form, novel, or the form, literature and performance, even though on the back of this thing it says Penguin Literature, but it's actually really different.Performance is more of a temporal form. That means it passes by—it just kind of goes, and it just kind of disappears. It's kind of like a musical performance. You never attend a musical with the purposing mind of dissecting a musical, right? You never attend, like, a symphony orchestra performance just to analyze the crap out of that piece. I mean, if you're a professional musician, fine, like you can analyze the crap out of the piece. But if you're just like a normal person that wants to enjoy the drama, or like the human elements, or like the Shakespearean elements, you don't have to analyze it that deeply.
It’s an instruction manual for a very temporary sort of performance. So just, it should be something that passes by you, but it shouldn't be something that's just kind of like you need to hold on to every word of it. But literature, on the other hand, is a bit different, because literature demands you to read between the lines, literature demands you to decode the meaning of the authors, literature demands you to, you know, analyze specific word choices—like, why not this word?But for Shakespeare, because this is performance, because this is actually not the performance itself—this is a playscript of a performance—that means you need to treat this thing like music. You need to let it flow through your ears, you need to imagine the performance in your head, and that's why it's probably crucial for you to actually see the play and performance instead of just reading it like a piece of literature.For Shakespeare, nothing's ever sitting stones. I mean, you can probably argue that, hey, like this is from the folio edition, like this is something that should be setting stone. Actually, Shakespeare shouldn't really be treated with that elitist lens. Like, the question of whether Shakespeare actually wrote his plays is still up for debates. Actually, the first quarto of Hamlet—they weren't written by Shakespeare. It's not like Shakespeare sat down to write this entire quarto of instructions.In fact, most of the first quarto, which is the bad quarter of Hamlet, was actually composed by the various actors on the stage. So there were a lot of silly mistakes in there. There were a lot of just, like, obscure things in there that's not in the final folio edition. And even when you consider it as setting stone—like I've got the Oxford Shakespeare—even if you consider that Shakespeare as something that's like setting stone, I'm sorry, it's not setting stone. God knows how many academics had their hands on the script. God knows how many times they've edited through the entire thing just to make it something that's readable or, like, performable.Every performance of Shakespeare is a different interpretation, and this right here—this is just a blueprint.So when you're tracing your eyes across the words, don't analyze every single sentence and every single word like—like they matter. i mean, they don't really matter. Like, all of the words on here, they're probably—this is probably not even the original Shakespeare. This is probably not the original script. So when reading Shakespeare, don't worry about the specifics, don't worry about the nitty-gritties. Don't do, like, close analysis of passages, or like—don't recite a bunch of stuff, because that's not going to help you.
Read for the dramatic elements. Read for, like, the human stuff—like stuff like, um, how Shakespeare portrayed characters, how Shakespeare writes a comedy, or how Shakespeare frames specific, specific scenes. Because that's actually, to me—to Shakespeare—it's not the fancy language, it's not, like, the sophistication, but it's just very raw, kind of enjoyable theater experience.It's a performance, in essence. It's a performance that's designed to capture your attention. If you find it boring at first that means you just haven't found, you know, an interpretation that really speaks to you. And find contemporary films that look to Shakespeare so you can understand the dramatic elements. And if you read the play in conjunction with your hunt for great adaptations, that's just gonna enrich your experience of Shakespeare.When you meet people, you can just say, hey, I actually really love Shakespeare. I don't just—I don't pretend that I love Shakespeare, but I actually do like Shakespeare.In summary, don't read this thing like a novel. It's a performance, and you need to treat it as a performance. It's fleeing, it's designed to be enjoyed otherwise people wouldn't pay for it. And you need to give them the benefit of the doubt and just strap in, dive in, see what happens. Don't read close analyses before you tackle Shakespeare. I just like background knowledge before I tackle Shakespeare—you don't need to do that. Dive in. It's a very human experience. It's a performance. It's ever fleeing. I love it, and I think you'll too if you take my advice.Anyway, that's all i have for the Shakespeare video, and I hope you guys are having a great week so far. I'll catch you guys in the next one.
hilarious how this waldun guy is so much the archetypical midwit, and how disproportionate his sense of his own intelligence is. what a joke.
>>25156602Key aspects of reading comprehension deficits in psychosis include:Impaired comprehension of sentences and paragraphs, even when single-word reading skills remain relatively intact. Reduced reading rate and fluency, with slower, less smooth reading that affects overall understanding. Deficits in phonological processing, making it harder to decode words and recognize sound patterns, which underpins accurate reading. Difficulty using contextual cues to infer meaning, leading to challenges with grasping implied or abstract ideas in text. These issues often predate the onset of full psychosis, suggesting a neurodevelopmental component, and can worsen with symptom severity, especially during active psychotic episodes.
That sounds good, make sure you look up the definition for every word you dont know and go back over them
>>25156576>Anyway, that's all i have for the Shakespeare video>videoSorry for the typo. I meant to write "post"
>>25156676Alright sorry for that you take care
This reads like the script of a youtube video. Writing, especially on a message board, should be accomplished with a sense of brevity. The entirety of your idea could have easily been expressed in a paragraph, or even more ideally, a greentext. Watch:>Trying to analyze Shakespearean works in the same way you dissect literature>ISHYGDDT now you've invited conversation, and you've introduced an emotional element that will cause people who disagree with you to write responses to prove you wrong, while other people will inevitably respond to them to pick apart their arguments in turn. The best posts are written in a way that inspire engagement from others.
>>25156572Too many words for saying they're fucking plays, which should be self-explanatory.
[My post]
How to ACTUALLY understand Shakespeare>picrelYou read academic tier works. This has a bunch of context, translation notes, pictures, etc.This is how to understand his plays.
>>25157538Wrong. Bradley remains unsurpassed.
>>25157625Just read both, then.
>>25157538GOAT for context. Pretty sure they've been out of print for decades though.
>>25157303>This reads like the script of a youtube video.
>>25156572Dude, you're not being serious.The difference in world and language knowledge between those who were meant to watch the play and us is huge.I don't even dare read it without annotation and if I saw it performed 90% would be lost on me.
I only agree in that you should just read it through once without worrying about it and then read it again and feel everything you missed
>>25156572What is your opinion on interpretation of the text? Directors and theater companies have to make calls about tone, motivation, and character's inner lives that are not obvious from the text. Is Hamlet really mad, or just faking it? Does Iago have a motive for what he does (he did in the story the play is based on), or is he just plain evil, or doing it for the lulz, or something else ('Demand me nothing. What you know, you know')? Did Petruchio really break Kate or is she just playing along? If we are going to experience these stories as plays, we need to make these interpretive calls, but how should that be done? Decide as we go, possibly changing our reading throughout the play? Follow one establish opinion over others (or more unkindly, farm our imagination out)?
