In yesterday’s tutorial, Crystal mentioned an article written by a friend of hers that expresses a jaundiced view of Shakespeare. It’s here, and is worth a look. Sample:
In my experience, reading or watching Shakespeare is, by turns, baffling, tiring, frustrating and downright unpleasant. It does not, as those suffering from bardolatry repeatedly claim, offer unparalleled insight into universal human truths (most “universal” things, when scrutinised, turn out to be specific to a dominant class anyway). Don’t get me wrong, Shakespeare’s writing isn’t exactly torture – it doesn’t possess the sheer, purgatorial dullness of a Faerie Queene or a Finnegans Wake – but it is out of date, out of touch, and we read him, I’m convinced, out of habit.
