Shakespeare dumbed down in comic strips for bored pupils

[Reptillycus]

My Aunt Lera took me to see Richard Burton performing "Hamlet", when I was 12 years old. I didn't sleep that night, I saw him speaking on the wall next to my bed in her library, where I slept when I spent the night with her, which was often. When I went home, my Mom bought me a series of books that had all the Plays and Sonnets in them, and I memorized all of Hamlet's Soliloquies, and the Sonnets, they were all memorized by the time I was 13. I read every page and every word from those books. I derived so much joy and pleasure and fulfillment from it. It hurts me to think that our young ones may not be allowed to experience this.

[Mira]

I think this is a good thing. BOTH texts should be studied, side by side, just as presented. To draw the students in, the easy speak comes first and a teacher could go on to facilitate a discussion of the original text, breaking it down in pieces, until students get a feel for how Shakespeare wrote and a feel for the rhythm and tone of old English.

It isn't just this generation that has been bored by the original text. It's old English, and it's long been difficult to understand. The important thing is to facilitate the study of the themes first, and the writing will follow for some.

[NoDayButToday]

I generally disagree with the dumbing it down. When I read Shakespeare in high school we were never given anything like this, with the exception of maybe a short glossary of some word meanings from when it was written since connotations and definitions change over time. Not that many kids struggled to understand the words, and the ones that did were just too lazy to read anything. The best exercise to help understanding it was when teachers would make students get up and do it as a theater run-through so that the words could be heard, which makes all the difference with Shakespeare.

[Mira]

I think you make good points, NoDay (and others) but we seriously have a dumbed-down pop culture and I think something like this can inspire people to delve further or at least get through the course understanding what the hell Shakespeare was about.


Back in the day, my generation's "drawing" in was CliffNotes No pictures, let alone cartoons!

[Grimmlok]

It's an easy way out for stupid or lazy kids. Make them fecking read the original text and make a damn class play out of it.. SOMETHING other than some crap that will let them breeze through it.

Oh poor dears, shakespear isn't explained to you in terms a retarded 3 year old could understand, waahh. Expand your minds and TRY for fucks sake.

God.

[twitchy]

Comic versions of the classics are nothing new though. They've been around since the 1940s.

[Mira]

Originally Posted by Grimmlok

It's an easy way out for stupid or lazy kids. Make them fecking read the original text and make a damn class play out of it.. SOMETHING other than some crap that will let them breeze through it.

Oh poor dears, shakespear isn't explained to you in terms a retarded 3 year old could understand, waahh. Expand your minds and TRY for fucks sake.

God.

:raiseshand: I am going to be the first to admit that Martin Buber is about as dense as it gets, and if it were not for the brilliance of the SparkNotes writer I would have been lost. Same goes for Paul Tillich. There are cases when cartoons, cliffnotes, sparknotes, etc. are a valid pedagogical tool. (pedagogy: Andragogy/Pedagogy :: Ageless Learner)

[MakeMe]

Hell, if I was able to sit through Shakespeare, why not them?
No need to dumb anything down .. it only encourages them to be lazy and wait for "translations"

[Bijoux]

This is truely sad.