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From: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re:  critics, Shakespeare, art and all that
Message-ID: <425@rti-sel.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 27-Sep-85 09:25:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: rti-sel.425
Posted: Fri Sep 27 09:25:04 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Sep-85 06:34:44 EDT
References: <> <295@proper.UUCP> <863@udenva.UUCP>
Reply-To: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Organization: Research Triangle Institute, NC
Lines: 35
Summary: 

In article <863@udenva.UUCP> showard@udenva.UUCP (showard) writes:

>   Actually, most people who read Shakespeare in the 20th Century do it for one
>of two reasons:
>   1.) They have been taught (usually by English professors) that Shakespeare
>is, by definition, the greatest writer ever.  ...
>   2.) They want to show that they are "cultured"--even though they don't
>really enjoy it they feel they ought to, ...

My introduction to Shakespeare occurred as a child in the 1950s
through several productions on TV. I remember in particular Midsummer
Night's Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, and a production of The
Tempest. I found the stories fascinating at the time, although some of
the dialogue was too strange to my young ear and of course a lot of
the word play escaped me. The bottom line is that my siblings and I
sat through entire productions of Shakespeare's plays without having
our attentions lag. 

  1. No "English professor" told this 9-year-old boy that W. S. is
     the greatest writer of all time. I grew up in a working-class
     family and we watched Shakespeare because we WANTED to: i.e.,
     we related to the story lines in some way.

  2. 9-year-old boys do NOT worry about appearing cultured. Unless,
     of course, they're yuppie puppies.

  3. I find it hard to believe that other people haven't developed
     a taste for W. S. in exactly this manner. Many thousands of
     children across the country watched the same productions I
     did. 

Moral: generalizations are always dangerous, and reverse snobbery
ain't all that different from plain old snobbery.

                          -- Cheers, Bill Ingogly


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