Delvok

This guy can write one hellevua play. I like Macbeth, Othello, and Hamlet but couldn't really get into Romeo & Juliet (I enjoyed the backstory of the family feud but not the romance).

Other Shakespeare I want to read: some of his histories, Julius Caesar, Titus Andronicus, The Merchant of Venice, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Timon of Athens, Pericles Prince of Tyre, and Cymbeline.

So yeah. Anyone else like him?

VigorousMastication

It amuses me that on a writing forum, no one has anything to say on Shakespeare. I guess part of the problem is that there's not much to say. His stories are so timeless they've become cliches, and many people who are forced to study his work in school don't really appreciate just how good his use of language really is. Personally, I loved all of the Shakespearian plays that I had to study, even Romeo and Juliet . I also love his sonnets; I wish I could write poetry even half as good.

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Athnephiel

off topic, nice name VigorousMastication.


on topic: I'm not really a fan of Shakespeare, simply because I don't like plays. On the other hand, he IS a genius.

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Hawke

Love Shakespeare. One of my most treasured books is The Globe Illustrated Shakespeare - The Complete Works.

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ClancyBoy

I have the Yale Shakespeare. Tiny font and no bloody pictures.

When writers say there are no new stories to tell, I want to invite them to read more Shakespeare. Every single one of his plots is complex, original, and extremely compelling, and none of them rely on things like chosen children, plot coupons, or dark lords of ultimate evil.

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Korkskrew

I greatly enjoy the majority of his works, the Tempest being my personal favorite, though after sitting through five hours of a complete and unchanged
production of Henry V, it began to lose its charm. Though, their expressionistic Agincourt was very impressive.

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duston

I can't believe that they could take five hours to act out Henry V, even if it is one of the longest ones.

That must have been really poorly directed.

Mr Sci Fi

Actually, much of his work was adapted.

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CroZ

I can gain more literary insight from one of his plays than ten classic 20th century novels.

they say a lot of his works were based on preexisting plays.

that's just hack speak.

Hodge

Yeah, except for his comedies, which are very formulaic.

But his tragedies rock (even if many of them ARE based on prior works—the Shax added depth and genius to them), as do his histories.

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playerpiano

Its unfair to say that his plots are original. Romeo and Juliet among many others were adaptations of well known stories or even adaptations of other plays, as well as some political pieces picked from the headlines of the day. What is exceptional is the langauge, the way in which the stories were told. Written to be performed but poetry in themselves. That is a rare feat that has placed them in thier current stature. Though some plays are excelent works of originality. Midsummer Nights Dream has no known historic parralel and inveneted the benign role of fairys in modern myths.

Rumrunner

Don't wholly agree with that. Midsummer Night's Dream largely follows the patterns laid out in medieval romance, though it has a more pastoral bent. But that fusion seems natural, to me, because the romance and pastoral genres have quite a bit in common in their own way, anyhow. Even the generic Greek-inspired names of the characters, the human ones at least, are fairly common to romance.

Not that it's not a great play (though far from my favourite; I'm inclined to agree with Hodge that the tragedies are his best works), but it's certainly not totally without precident.

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Kittenification

I'm a pretty big fan of Willy Shake, although I have to say, Much ado about nothing was not my favorite piece of writing


And Titus Andronicus has the line "Villain I have done thy mother!" which is, in my opinion, hilarious.

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Mira

Delvok, I'd advice you to read King Lear as well. I never thought of my self as a Shakespear fan, but after reading this book over and over for a class, I discovered that it's just such good writing, with so many layers, and so many little bizzare and complex twists... Plus, the language is awesome I've personally only read King Lear, Macbeth (which I also liked) and Romeo and Juliet (in gr 9, as a girl, the story seemed very appealing... now it just seems somewhat cliched...)

Avor

I can't stand Shakespear, well, not his serious work anyways. I love his comedies, I enjoy watching them. But things like Macbeth and Hamlet just suck the same way Star Wars Epidsode 3 sucked, you're watching these character do stupid thingss and screw themselves over.

For example, I'm halfway through Macbeth and I want to reach into the book and just bitch slap him for being so stupid. It annoys me to no end watching people stupidly fuck up and ruin everything, I see what they're doing wrong, I know how it's going to get bloody, and then it happens and there is nothing I can or do about it other than close the book and tell my peer that it's stupid.