I choose--to be a literary moron.Sometimes I wonder if I should hide my many "weaknesses" from the world. However, despite the fact that most of the people around me seem to like [or pretend to like] and understand [or pretend to understand] Shakespeare, I haven't quite decided if my inability to comprehend Shakespeare can be classified a weakness. I'll let you be the judge.
I watched A Midsummer Night's Dream last night--apparently, this Romantic Comedy written sometime in the 1590s might have been considered pretty entertaining if I hadn't been asking myself the following questions:
1. Why can't I understand a word these people are saying?
2. Why do we keep switching between two seemingly unrelated stories--one with some strange love triangle + 1 female castoff in high society, and random dancing fairies in a forest? [Understand that the stage props never changed... and I seriously had no idea how the two stories were connected. As a result of this confusion, I actually thought A Midsummer Night's Dream might be a series of short plays. Turns out I was wrong.]
3. What is so funny about the stupid donkey mask on the dude's head?
Unable to answer the above-mentioned questions, I relegated myself to [rudely] chatting with Lyndsay on my Crackberry by shielding the blinding light from the screen with my program, and covertly trying type with the phone close to my body. I excused this behavior by accepting Lyndsay's offer to send me a summary of the play--thereby justifying the entire conversation by my desire to understand what was happening onstage.
To those of you who understand Shakespeare, I salute you. If I could only be so lucky...
6 comments:
I feel like I attended the play right along with you! If you have any desire to start enjoying Shakespeare, my guess is that A Midsummer Night's Dream is not your best way to begin.
My projected (not current) desire to read more Shakespeare is motivated entirely by my Jeopardy weakness in said category.
wroooong movie to watch! Love the play, couldn't get through 1/3 of the movie...and that was the new version w/ Michelle Pheiffer. try others first, sheeh :)
I actually do understand it! And I really do like it!
And it was written closer to 1590 than 1950! (I assume that was a typo).
But Midsummer's isn't one of my favorites, and I agree with Lyndsay-- you should start with something different, for sure.
haha--yes, typo. thanks, shiloh. also... melinda... it WAS the play!
Try much ado about nothing. The recent one with Denzel Washington.
Stick with Romeo and Juliet... it is all downhill after that
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