"The whole world is a stage, and all the men and women merely actors"
Gee thanks, SparkNotes 2009 Everyday Shakespeare Calendar! I could not possibly have figured out what "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players" meant without you!
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/2009-SparkNotes-Everyday-Shakespeare-Box-Calendar/SparkNotes-Editors/e/9781411409378
I'm afraid that I was really obnoxious in a bookstore the other day when I saw this thing on a display table. I kept laughing hysterically and pointing, while my companion stared on in bemusement (she didn't recognize as many of the quotes as I did). I suppose I am not really surprised (since I think they're the same "translators" who represented Hamlet's "Chap-fallen?" as "Sad?"), but I am still horrified.
Some other choice quotes from the box include:
--Shall I compare you to a summer's day? You're lovelier and milder.
--If every day were a vacation, playing would grow as tedious as working.
--Fresh beauty attracts thugs even more than money. (Really, SparkNotes? Thugs?)
and my personal favorite:
--I'm only crazy sometimes, other times I know what's what.
No, let me repeat that.
I'M ONLY CRAZY SOMETIMES, OTHER TIMES I KNOW WHAT'S WHAT.
Because Hamlet is, as we all know, the tragedy of a man who knows what's what.
Sometimes I really wonder why I am spending all this time in grad school, writing things (or, okay, not writing things) no one is ever going to read, when this is what so many people probably think of Shakespeare. They actually think they need stupid things like this to help them understand Shakespeare, or don't realize how such things actually strip away all the nuance that makes Shakespeare worth reading or seeing, and that kind of breaks my heart.
If only I knew how to engage in Shakespeare activism! I have no theater skills, alas, and I can't think of anything else I could do...
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/2009-SparkNotes-Everyday-Shakespeare-Box-Calendar/SparkNotes-Editors/e/9781411409378
I'm afraid that I was really obnoxious in a bookstore the other day when I saw this thing on a display table. I kept laughing hysterically and pointing, while my companion stared on in bemusement (she didn't recognize as many of the quotes as I did). I suppose I am not really surprised (since I think they're the same "translators" who represented Hamlet's "Chap-fallen?" as "Sad?"), but I am still horrified.
Some other choice quotes from the box include:
--Shall I compare you to a summer's day? You're lovelier and milder.
--If every day were a vacation, playing would grow as tedious as working.
--Fresh beauty attracts thugs even more than money. (Really, SparkNotes? Thugs?)
and my personal favorite:
--I'm only crazy sometimes, other times I know what's what.
No, let me repeat that.
I'M ONLY CRAZY SOMETIMES, OTHER TIMES I KNOW WHAT'S WHAT.
Because Hamlet is, as we all know, the tragedy of a man who knows what's what.
Sometimes I really wonder why I am spending all this time in grad school, writing things (or, okay, not writing things) no one is ever going to read, when this is what so many people probably think of Shakespeare. They actually think they need stupid things like this to help them understand Shakespeare, or don't realize how such things actually strip away all the nuance that makes Shakespeare worth reading or seeing, and that kind of breaks my heart.
If only I knew how to engage in Shakespeare activism! I have no theater skills, alas, and I can't think of anything else I could do...