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https://opensea.io/collection/books-39
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7858
@7858.eth
Hamlet Shakespeare tells a tragedy. I’m not going to wax poetic about the play. Its influence and power are well established by the mere fact that we’re still talking about it at all. Very briefly: it’s great. Almost 25% of the lines have become cliches, for good reason. Instead, I want to propose a path for going from zero (can read) to one (can read Shakespeare) for people who want to read Shakespeare but find the language intractable. Here’s what not to do: Don’t read a modernized text. A lot of the impact comes from the words themselves, not just the stories. And don’t just sit with a dictionary tab open looking stuff up, because that breaks your flow to the point where you experience a slog, not a story. Instead, mix 25-50% pre-1930 books into your rotation. Eventually your fluency in older and older language increases. Jumping all the way back to Middle English from Jane Austen is still jarring, but way less than the jump from modern English.
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tldr (tim reilly)
@tldr
Wonderful to see this come up in the timeline. There’s no other work where I can take such pleasure simply by hearing the words delivered. It is an astounding feat of poetry. I continually puzzle over what it’s “really” about. It’s clearly some profound diagnosis of the misery of inaction. What’s fascinating to me is that this specific case is accompanied by such miraculous language. What’s the relationship? The other question for me is always “Why did Shakespeare choose to explicate this malady in THIS character?” (What is it about youth? Talent? Sensitivity?)
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7858
@7858.eth
I get the feeling, based on little knowledge of Shakespeare’s work, that there’s no meaningful relationship between the subject matter and the language. I think he was just firing on all cylinders at the time. Open to contrary evidence of course. And I feel like he picked the character because gifted kids are always good vehicles for pain. We’re still telling coming of age stories that echo Hamlet closely. Overthinking yourself into paralysis is an evergreen mistake, especially for bright young people. True then, true now.
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tldr (tim reilly)
@tldr
Well I would ask a simple question: Why does hamlet’s language so clearly outshine everyone else’s in the same play?
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7858
@7858.eth
Half heartedly rejecting the premise: Pound for pound polonius has the best lines But yeah, maybe Shakespeare wrote the role for himself or someone he loved, most of the bangers belong to hamlet
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