William Shakespeare

       I absolutely disagree with BOTH Zeus and Anton. I love the Harry Potter series, and J. K. Rowling is a fantastic writer (now if zeus had said Twilight, I would have been with Anton in biting his head off), but she in no way can top Shakespeare.

       I also have to disagree with Anton in the fact that 10 to 15 year olds are too immature to care for Shakespeare. That is bull and you need to get that out of your head right now. Kids in school don't like it because it's treated like another assignment. Teachers analyze the shit out of it and it loses its worth to the students. I am 15 and ADORE Shakespeare, and I can give you two situations off the top of my head where 10-15 year olds liked/loved/adored Shakespeare as much as I do.

1) I was in 9th grade last year. In my Honors English class, my teacher had us read R&J. She decided no, sitting there and having them read is boring. Having them only analyze words on a page is even more boring. So she decided, the class was going to act each scene out in class every single day! So she got styrofoam (sp?) swords, assigned characters for each scene, set the desks in a circle, and we were off. After each scene we acted out, we sat for a little and analyzed it, and how it felt, how it sounded to read it out loud. Why might've shakespeare used this comparison? Why in this way? When we went home, we thought about it. Everyone in the class aced the final unit test and understood it much better. Why? because we had fun doing the unit.

2) I am a part of the Young Shakespeare Players, owned by Richard DiPrima, the greatest Shakespeare analyst in the U.S. today. The theater is unique, and nationally acclaimed, because it allows kids 7-18 to read Shakespeare with depth, understanding, and emotion greater than even literature students in college today. I know a 12 year old who is a fantastic actor, and is in no way "too immature" to handle it. Everyone there WANTS to be there, and wholeheartedly throws themselves into each scene as eagerly as a kid today would into sports. To us doing Shakespeare is a past-time that we love tremendously, and we understand Shakespeare more than, like I said before, students in college studying it now. I know 7 year olds who are more into this that older kids involved.

       The way it works is Richard records Tapes (it's been going thirty years, all recordings are on tapes) of him explaining your part thoroughly. Each line, how the line is spoken (pronouciations and such), what the line means, why you are saying it, how you would probably be feeling when you said it, etc., so that we fully understand our part. Then he has a tape of him reading all of your characters lines, so that you get a general idea of how to say it. Then it's up to you to bring the character to life. Read ysp.org for more explanations, if you want proof. YSP gets about 50-80 people per production, so there's always more than one cast (between 2-8).

       What I'm saying with all of this rambling is that just because a writer doesn't measure up to the Bards greatness, doesn't mean that he/she is a bad writer. On the flip side, just because Shakespeare is so great and mature doesn't mean kids can't enjoy it. I have been with YSP one year, and I've played Lady Macduff, Angus, Donalbain, Soldier/Messenger, and 1st Apparition in Macbeth (in my cast), and Hermia in Midsummer Night's Dream (and am doing Othello in the fall, hoping for Desdemona!!), and they have been the most rewarding times of my life. Also, my favorite family/ friend trips are, rather than to movies or the mall, to the American Players Theater to see works of the Bard in the forest.

       Also, my favorite books are Measure for Measure, Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, the Comedy of Errors, and Macbeth. I also adore Emma, and Jane Austen in general, but enjoy reading the works of J. K. Rowling on occasion (I also love Orwell's 1984, William Goldman's The Princess Bride, and Shaw's Pygmalion). And I'm only just turned 15. Immature, wouldn't you say (not)?

Review posted by: Emmaline

       Are there words to describe Shakespeare??

       However, one still wants to talk and talk about his life(of which very little is known and there are a lot many assumptions about it) and his plays and sonnets.

       English Literature would not have been what it is without Shakespeare. His influence is seen on everything. From his famous quotes like 'the milk of human kindness','cowards die many times before their deaths' and so on to the characters like Lady Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet, Rosalinde, Brutus, Caesar, Antony, Romeo and Juliet and so on make us wonder about the man with such art of creation. No wonder that scholars speculate about the authorship of his works.

       Shakespeare wrote almost upon every genre and seems to have mastered it. From Histories like Henry VIII and Richard II to comedies like Comedy of Errors, Taming of The Shrew to his great Tragedies like Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear, Shakespeare has made a mark in every genre. He would have been a man of passion and full of human emotions to have portrayed all the characters of diverse kinds in their profoundness. Marcus Brutus' stocism, Cleopatra's charm, Lady Macbeth's evil side of human nature, Romeo's passionate love for Juliet, King Lear's madness, Othello's jealousy. Everything is so well portrayed in its diversity that one is awestruck about the talent of the man.

       The supernatural elements like the witches in Macbeth, ghosts in Julius Caesar, Hamlet and Macbeth also appeal to us a great deal although we might never have believed in them.His portrayal of everything is just exquisite and in its profoundness!!

       One can go on singing his praises without ceasing!

Review posted by: Akshay Gururani

       Above me is perhaps the most idiotic comment ever made. Harry Potter is garbage compared (if comparison is even possible) to the Bard. Shakespeare is the greatest writer ever. Why? Because his talents were recognized by people who actually knew great writing when they saw it. Studying Shakespeare in school is criminal. Kids are stupid: they want to take the easy way out and read the crap that passes for literature these days, and teachers are too senile to understand that kids aren't mature enough for Shakespeare. Feeble-minded, talentless writers like Rowling will only gain a place on this list through popularity: not literary value. Popularity does not denote greatness. Hitler was popular once. Face it: Shakespeare is studied because he's great, because he is Universal. Rowling around in the mud of the hack literary efforts of today's writers is a no-no.

Review posted by: Anton

       Shakespeare was one of the greatest writers of all time. It is not a question of wether his books are  classy or not, its the fact that a man could put so much of his soul and so much depth and emotion into his books that truly makes a writer a great one. His works have inspired so many other books. Take Romeo and Juliette as an example, many other love stories have the same theme around them. You want something you cant have, you want it so much that it takes your life. Shakespeare in that sense was by no means smart, he was a genius.  And so he deserves to have the number 1 spot for the best author of all time.

Review posted by: Julia

       I know I know... Shakespeare.  I just don't get it though.  I understand that everyone's 7th grade English teacher forces them to read this crap and then later in life you talk about it at a classy cocktail party for work so that you will also seem classy.  What noone wants to admit, is that the person that you're trying to impress would also much rather be talking about Harry Potter or something of the sort.  Perhaps I'm wrong.

Review posted by: Zeus

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