Favorite quote by Azimov:
He was on some talk show, and the host asked why he wrote Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare: aren't there already thousands of books about Shakespeare?
He said, "Yeah, but not by me."
My ranking of every Shakespeare play
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Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sounds like a more eloquent version of modern stone throwing against popular books. Hang out on r/books and you soon read similar diatribes against Project Hail Mary, The Way of Kings, etc.
Huh, PHM is unpopular? Artemis was fairly boring, but Hail Mary was a wonderful pageturner.
It's not unpopular, there are just people who dislike it.
Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play
#33> Romeo and Juliet ... A beautiful play, but I just don’t connect with its romantic core.
Anyone who has children understands that this play is 100% a tragedy and is in no way romantic. Two teenage idiots think they're in love and end up killing themselves stupidly to prove it. The adults are also doofuses. The play itself is brilliant, but horrifying.
Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play
#34Not trying to start any debate here with Shakespeare fans, just intend this as a supportive word for those of us who just don’t enjoy Shakespeare - Voltaire declared Hamlet a ‘vulgar and barbarous play’ and that ‘one would take this work to be the fruit of the inspiration of a drunken savage’ - George Bernard Shaw: ’. “There is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom I despise so entirely as I despise Shak…
>Tolstoy: ... "but having read one after the other, ..."
Do not read Shakespeare. Shakespeare wrote plays, not books. Shakespeare should be watched, either on stage or on screen.
Reading a Shakespeare play is like deciding to listen to the Beatles by downloading MIDI files and playing them through software. Maybe you get the broad strokes of the song, and maybe you even like it, but you're not listening to the Beatles.
Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play
#35Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play
#36Not trying to start any debate here with Shakespeare fans, just intend this as a supportive word for those of us who just don’t enjoy Shakespeare - Voltaire declared Hamlet a ‘vulgar and barbarous play’ and that ‘one would take this work to be the fruit of the inspiration of a drunken savage’ - George Bernard Shaw: ’. “There is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom I despise so entirely as I despise Shak…
George Bernard Shaw, as the kids say, said a lot of things. He probably meant some of them, too.
Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play
#37> Romeo and Juliet ... A beautiful play, but I just don’t connect with its romantic core. Anyone who has children understands that this play is 100% a tragedy and is in no way romantic. Two teenage idiots think they're in love and end up killing themselves stupidly to prove it. The adults are also doofuses. The play itself is brilliant, but horrifying.
They are in love. This is what makes it such a tragedy.
Romeo and Juliet are not idiots, they are clearly the most sensible persons in the play. And it is anachronisic to call them teenagers, since the idea of “teenage” as a stage between childhood and adulthood is a 20th century innovation. In the universe of the play, they are adults and of marrying age.
Apparently some teachers try to teach the play as a warning against young love - probably because they are afraid of students emulating the sex and suicide. But if you actually read the play, it is entirely on the side of the young lovers and condemns the parents and society. Radical, even today!
Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play
#38That was fun to read, even though I would disagree with much of the article. I generally like the comedies least, the OP likes them most, but it's nice to see people talk about Shakespeare in an article linked here. A couple of comments I would make: * "People will think I’m crazy, but yes, I’m placing Henry IV above Henry V." I doubt many people would think you're crazy, the Henry IVs are generally considered better…
Falstaff. Ah Falstaff.
I would recommend Orson Welles "Chimes at Midnight" as a wonderful setting of Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2.
Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play
#39I remember the teacher talking up Romeo and Juliet and being fairly unimpressed. But when I read King Lear, I was electrified- that scene with the king ranging around in the field while the fool says smart things is really good IMHO. I saw the Scottish Play put on by my high school theater and it was also great.
Over time I've come to appreciate his fragments: "But soft! what light through yonder window breaks? Tis the east, and Juliet is the sun..."
It came as a big surprise after reading and parsing out whole plays that other kids in my class were just reading some short guide and talking like they understood it.
THe best movie version of the Tempest is Forbidden Planet, which can also just be viewed purely as science fiction.
Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play
#40If anyone is interested in a retelling of King Lear as a samurai film, Akira Kurosawa has an interesting take on it in the movie Ran.