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From: showard@udenva.UUCP (showard)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re:  critics, Shakespeare, art and all that
Message-ID: <888@udenva.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 8-Oct-85 12:59:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: udenva.888
Posted: Tue Oct  8 12:59:19 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 11-Oct-85 08:19:49 EDT
References: <> <295@proper.UUCP> <863@udenva.UUCP> <425@rti-sel.UUCP>
Organization: U of Denver
Lines: 44

> > 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
   First of all, I said "most."  Second of all, you watched the plays performed
but your article didn't say whether you currently READ Shakespeare or not.  I
never denied that Shakespeare was a good playwright, I was simply talking about
people who go around reading his plays and analyzing them as GREAT LITERATURE
when they are in fact entertainment meant to be performed.  I happen to feel 
"Taming of the Shrew" and "Midsummer Night's Dream" are the two best plays he
ever wrote, and two of the funniest plays in pre-modern history.

  --Mr. Blore, the DJ who would not die
  -- udenva!showard
  -- "They pelted us with rocks and garbage