Early modern reading was more intensive than expansive. Books weren't cheap. He probably only read a couple hundred books from cover to cover in his life, along with snatches of hundreds more, but he read the same books over and over again, memorizing passages, transcribing beautiful phrases into his commonplace book. This modern thing about reading thousands of books once and never again seems like a mistake, if your aim is to be a very good writer. Better to read the very best stuff over and over and internalize it as much as you can, no?
definitely
yep
>>25161575I always make sure that I read slowly and I reread passages constantly. There's a decent chance that whatever book I'm reading I'll never revisit again, so I want to make the most of my time with it.As for rereads, that's reserved only for the best of the best. Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Dante, Shakes, Milton, Goethe. My "plan to reread" list for novels is a lot shorter: Melvile, Joyce, Mann, Pynch. Maybe Flaubert and Nabokov.Thanks for reading my blog.
What I wanna know is, how was his shit so Shakespeare without ever having read him?Sus
>>25161605>PynchNo! Don’t do that, you’ll realise how bad he is!
>>25161706Maybe… hmm maybe he knew him? They lived around the same time I think.
>>25161575I’ve never seen Hamlet, spearshaker I’ve decided is much better on the page than on the stage.
>>25161575Though there is no proof, Shakespeare must have had access to the a wide array of international books. I was comparing the Tempest to Eslava's Noches de Invierno (fourth chapter), which have similar stories, and a single passage describing the return of the exiled magician and his daughter contains the names of Shakespeare's Prospero and Miranda: >y con próspero viento fueron navegando al puerto y ciudad de Delcia, adonde con gran recocijo fueron recebidos de toda la gente de Grecia, admirados de ver al viejo rey Dárdano con tanta riqueza y majestad
>>25161575I wonder, had he lived just a hundred years later, he’d likely have access to more translated works by Pope and such. But even then, who’s to say they wouldn’t be completely different?
>>25161575Wasn't Shakespeare friends with some publishers, writers, and translators? I figured his access to books, even unpublished ones, was a lot better than the average Joe.
>>25161763The guy was a big celebrity in London during his later years so you’re likely right. perhaps even his actors had come from other parts of the world with knowledge of other literature that would otherwise have been completely unknown in England.
>>25161575>if your aim is to be a very good writerI am not aiming for this. Your new cope, pseud?
>>25161890He’s not talking to you personally, you solipsistic prick.
>>25161575I fear not the man who has read 10,000 books once, but I fear the man who has read one book 10,000 times
>>25161890>"if">does not consider the if>cope, pseud>fosters a termite mound in the deep brain
