FoxTrot Classics by Bill Amend for November 04, 2021

It once took me 2 hours to read 6 pages in an advanced math book. I wanted to understand what I was reading.

Imagine Peter Otterloop, Jr. reading William Shakespeare at the same pace he reads Little Neuro comics.

Why do people make such a big deal of reading Shakespeare? The language is a bit old fashioned, and a bit convoluted at times, but usually it’s clear enough. When it isn’t, it just needs a bit of mental effort to work it out.

Forsooth, me thinks the lady doth protest too much.

I hated being forced t o read the classics in high school. I did not have the necessary life experience to appreciate them.

I get it, forcing kids to read a variety of literature is like forcing them to eat vegetables: you don’t know what you like or don’t like until you try it.

I never did get into Shakespeare which puts me at a distinct disadvantage when playing along with Jeopardy. That and my general lack of knowledge in opera … and my disinterest in movies and TV and celebrities or British royalty or sports starts or pop culture …

Come to think of it, I don’t know why I enjoy watching Jeopardy at all.

That’s not Shakespeare. That’s James Joyce.

When I was in grade school I read “Julius Caesar”, thought I could wright a book report (right) Got a B just for reading the thing.

\\//_

it’s probably:

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

She could claim to have Autism or ADHD. That lets you get away with a lot of crap.

The only way to truly read Shakespeare is aloud. Too much of any play is lost by simply reading it, like a novel.

I’ve read a couple but much prefer a movie version. Preferably set in period and with closed captioning.

Thank goodness in high school I only had to read one Shakespeare book. Romeo and the Twelve Shrews (or something like that☺️). It was readable but unfunny. I never got the allure or why we HAD to read it.

I never understood Shakespeare.

I took Shakespeare in High School and I liked it, of course it was so long ago it was “current events”. (haha)

… To die, to sleep,To sleep, perchance to Dream; aye, there’s the rub,For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,Must give us pause. …

I always found that the footnotes, while important to comprehension (as what you think words and phrases mean in a modern context may be very different in Elizabethan times), are what slowed down reading the plays.

Yeah, Shakespeare was tough reading , but when done, you felt like getting a second book. Now poem or poetry was torture.

Shakespeare’s not that bad… try a novel by Thomas Hardy or E. R. Eddison

Shakespeare didn’t write especially long sentences as a rule, nor very hard ones to understand. I think the gag is that she’s stupid. It’s Hamlet; the first sentence is “Who’s there?”