Shakespeare, Harry Potter and Me, Gehayi

[gehayi]

I looked over the Shakespeare meme that's going around, but the problem with that is that it presumes that you've seen the plays both on stage and in the movies. I have never seen a Shakespeare play on stage or in the movies. The only adaptation of a Shakespeare play that I know I've seen is West Side Story. I've only ever read two plays for

Comments

[quizzicalsphinx]

I hate Shakespeare, and can back up my hatred citing many quotes. The Reduced Shakespeare Company takes the Bard apart very humorously and artfully and I highly recommend them: you get all your Shakespeare in an hour and a half, and they actually provide the comforting revelation that some of Shakespeare sucks and needs to be buried.

[gehayi]

I hate Shakespeare, and can back up my hatred citing many quotes.

I don't hate Shakespeare. If I did, I wouldn't have written about Lady Macbeth for femgenficathon.

But I will admit to an abiding hatred for Romeo and Juliet. I have two issues with that play:

1) The kids don't know each other. They meet at a party, talk for long enough to recite a sonnet, talk to each other after the party (her on the balcony, him in the garden, and probably every neighbor in Verona yelling, "Would you shut UP, we're trying to sleep!"), and the next day Romeo is tearing off to Friar Lawrence's telling him that he wants to marry this girl he met the night before. And they get married the same day. And they have sex that night. That's it. The sum total of the time they know each other breaks down to less than twenty-four hours.

Now, I don't believe you can love anyone in so little time. Be infatuated as hell, yes. Be in love, no.

2) Everyone and their brother claims this story is about true love. And I see no evidence of this. Romeo blathers about Rosaline

[lovefromgirl]

You'd still love the RSC. Trust me on this one. :-)

[gehayi]

Are you talking about the Royal Shakespeare Company version or the Reduced Shakespeare Company version?

[lovefromgirl]

Latter. Am lazy at 2am.

[terrie01]

I strongly believe that R&J is about how romance makes you a moron.

[gehayi]

I'll buy that!

[furikku]

I share your hatred of R&J. Although I read somewhere someone advancing the idea that it ISN'T supposed to be so much "OMG TRU LUV 4EVER!!!!" as "Yep, horny teenagers sure can be stupid. Often fatally so."

[gehayi]

I read somewhere someone advancing the idea that it ISN'T supposed to be so much "OMG TRU LUV 4EVER!!!!" as "Yep, horny teenagers sure can be stupid. Often fatally so."

Which would make a hell of a lot more sense.

[furikku]

I remember the first time I read/watched that play my chief reaction was, "OK why are they doing this harebrained scheme there are more sensible ways of doing this."

I was about the same age as them, possibly a bit younger.

Yeah.

[gehayi]

I remember the first time I read/watched that play my chief reaction was, "OK why are they doing this harebrained scheme there are more sensible ways of doing this."

I was about the same age as them, possibly a bit younger.

I was about a year older, and I thought that scheme was the dumbest thing ever.

I was also furious at Romeo for hearing that Juliet was dead and deciding, "Woe is me, I guess I'd better go buy poison." Dude, it's a RUMOR. Go get confirmation! Disguise yourself and sneak back into Verona. Talk to your herbalist monk friend about whether she's dead or in a coma. Talk to Benvolio. Send a message to Rosaline--Juliet is her cousin, after all, so she might know what had happened. Find out what is going on! You can always kill yourself later. There's no rush.

[aikaterini]

I was annoyed, too. I usually don't like stories like that - where a character learns one thing, immediately jumps to conclusions, and then rushes off to do something stupid without bothering to check if it's true. The idea that Romeo wouldn't even check to make sure that Juliet was dead - that he bought the poison *before* he got into her tomb to see her - just seemed really ridiculous to me.

[sunnyskywalker]

I am baffled how so many people read R&J as being "true love." I see it totally differently, probably due to early exposure to an essay on the play by Isaac Asimov. Iirc, his argument something like this

[gehayi]

Geez, I wish my teacher had presented it that way. Instead, she was all, "This is the epitome of romance and True Love!" Which I didn't believe, but at fourteen, I knew that teachers don't want to hear your opinion--they want to hear their own opinion echoed back. Preferably in their own words.

Yeah, I was rather cynical as a teenager.

Asimov's essay sounds familiar. I probably read it, as I read almost everything the man ever wrote. (Never could get through the Foundation Trilogy, though.)

[sunnyskywalker]

Like I said, it was good luck. I've heard more stories about your kind of English class, and I don't think my parents' English teachers taught much of anything.

I think I got through the trilogy when I was twelve or so, but don't remember much of it. Some of his short stories and essays are much more memorable to me.

[aikaterini]

You are absolutely right on both points. Even while I was reading it for the first time, I wondered how they could be so in love after meeting each other just once at a party. And I did notice that Romeo's lamentations about Rosaline were not all that different from his praises of Juliet, which made me wonder if he was really serious or if Shakespeare was pulling my leg. Funny how hardly anybody brings up Rosaline when talking about "Romeo and Juliet." Before I read the play, I didn't even that Romeo had liked somebody before Juliet