Auden on Shakespeare

[fahye]

I recently finished reading W.H. Auden's 'Lectures on Shakespeare', which is essentially the collection of transcripts of a lecture series he gave in New York in 1946-7. I have a habit of flagging and then writing out interesting bits from books that I read, and I thought there might be an interested audience in this case.

Comments

[svilleficrecs]

"It becomes important to my existence that you exist, and I want my existence to be important to you. I want to know you."

*swoon* And possibly steal (with citation) for a current fic.

[fahye]

Steal away! One of the main reasons I keep a notebook of quotes like this is so that I can plunder it later for writing inspiration.

[aeternitasbeach]

thanks for sharing! I really need to get my hands on this text <3

[nextian]

I disagree with that first point very, very enthusiastically, but these are certainly thought-provoking as hell.

[fahye]

It's an interesting one, isn't it? He goes on to make some points about how films can tell some stories that books can't, and about how stage plays are a whole other ballgame because they're ENTIRELY remarks.

[foreverdirt]

OH AUDEN <3<3

[fahye]

If anyone's going to write a poem about the love of mathematics, it's going to be you, right?

[schiarire]

Second, what do you want, falling in love? Not simply possession. It becomes important to my existence that you exist, and I want my existence to be important to you. I want to know you.

... wow.