http://ronrosenbaum.pajamasmedia.com/2007/10/16/ No, this does not mean that if you accidentally drop a line you’re allowed to pick it up and eat it within three seconds. 🙂 Remember that post I made about audio examples of the “correct” way to do iambic pronunciation? Ron Rosenbaum, he of Shakespeare Wars (which I’m not finished with), has a lengthy article up on the habit of making the slightest pause between each line, and why that might be. Someone writes in to him with an interesting suggestion about how human memory is organized and experienced, and how it fits in quite nicely. A neat read.
48 Classic Books to Boost Your Learning Experience
So, I found this link on Life Optimizer about classic books to “boost your learning experience.” What’s that mean? I’ve always liked the idea (referenced in the post) that they “give you different lenses to look through.” The author actually explains how he created his list, looking at two references on the subject “How To Read A Book” and “The Well-Educated Mind”. His list is composed of those classics that are recommended in both books. Anyway, you just know that when somebody lists important classic books I’m gonna be there to see how our man Shakespeare does. This particular list has a category for “Drama”, which has 13 entries. Care to take a guess how many old Shakey is responsible for? 3(*) of them. For the next question, no, no other playwright is listed more than once. Which ones? Richard III, Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Hamlet. Interesting combination. (*) Technically 4, if you count “Sonnets” listed in the Poetry section.
BiblioShakespeare: Shakespeare Challenge
BiblioShakespeare: Shakespeare Challenge
Up for a challenge? Biblioshake’s got people worked up about 6 months to read four books *about* Shakespeare. That’s a little different. Can I count Shakespeare Wars, since I’m halfway through it already? I may have to invest this Christmas in a few of the more “novel” biographies that try to breathe a little bit more life into old Will and not just present everything as dry academic stuff.
Empathy, Defined
I am often fascinated by my children’s interest in the stories of Shakespeare. I can typically answer all of their questions off the top of my head, since they are really just variations on the classic “Why” game (i.e. “Why did the bad men put Miranda and her Daddy on the ship” and so on). But sometimes one comes out of left field that is truly a surprise. “Daddy,” my 5yr old recently asked, “If Miranda and her Daddy and Caliban and Ariel were the only people on the island, and Miranda and Ariel did not like to play with Caliban because he was mean to them, then does that mean Caliban did not have anybody to play with when he was growing up?” Ok, so, wait. Even though he is the acknowledged bad guy sea monster who is mean to everybody and wants to take over the island, my daughter is concerned that he not be lonely. I think that makes me kind of proud. “I don’t really know,” I tell her. I try very hard not to lie to my kids. If you stall, sometimes they answer their own question. “Maybe he played with the animals?” she asked. That’s certainly a common theme in the kinds of movies she’s seen. Seeing my opportunity, I embellish. “You know, I think that’s exactly what he did. I bet he played with all of the animals that Miranda and Ariel didn’t like to play with, like the snakes and the spiders and scorpions and the other scary creatures. Because he wouldn’t be scared of them, they would be each other’s friends.” “Yes,” she concurred, “I think that’s how it happened.”
Daddy, Can I Read Your Book?
That’s what my 3yr old asked me this morning while I was getting ready to go to work.
“Sure,” I told her.
The thing is, the book was King Lear. More specifically, it was one of the comic versions of Shakespeare that I have. I also have The Tempest as I’ve mentioned, Taming of the Shrew, and Romeo and Juliet. In general I have refused to actually read them the story of King Lear, as we don’t do that degree of violence in my house (hence my emphasis on the non-violent Tempest).
But she does like to look at the pictures. So there she sat, doing her morning business, flipping through the pages. Like any 3yr old she was also carrying around what if she were a boy I would call “action figures” – small statues of her favorite Disney princesses, including Belle and Ariel.
“Her name is Cordelia,” my daughter tells me, pointing at the Belle figure. Then she points to the cover of the book and asks, “Is that Cordelia with the red hair?”
I look at the cover and sure enough, Cordelia is in fact the one with the red hair. “That is Cordelia,” I tell her. “And those are her sisters, Regan and Goneril.”
I think I reached her limit, though, as I never heard the names of the evil sisters mentioned. She did go off playing, speaking of Cordelia’s friends Jossa, Brak and Ryda, which I thought was rather unusual. At first I thought she was getting in to the imaginary friends stage (her older sister’s imaginary friends were named Cartlyn, Neejin and Lonoze). But then I wondered if maybe hearing all the weird names in Shakespeare that she hears nowhere else, she’s tuned to thinking that names can in fact be any stream of sound, and not just repetition of the same names she’s heard over and over again.