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Pholon's Book Reviews #1:
William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream
Literature and reading, although a hobby that appears to be at least somewhat present among TL's members, doesn't really have a place on TL. Apart from the divination of 1984 (which everybody appears to have read) no literary discussion is apparent on a regular basis. Searching "book", "books" and "literature" yielded a couple of topics and, apart from the "recommend me a book" or "help me find x book" topics (that were shortlived), the only real effort was made in the TL Bookclub. It appears though that said club was also shortlived as it only made it through a single book.
The topic did have quite some people who expressed their interest in reading, they just never followed through. As I'm a fan of reading good book I'm gonna try and launch a little project I named "Pholon's Book Reviews". Basically I pic a book I read, write a little blurb about it and hope to get some discussion going. We'll see if it'll fly. I've got like 3 more books lined up for this and I guess we'll see how the response is after that.
Comments in this topic would be great. If you guys feel like reading along or suggesting books it would be great, get a little discussion going. The first book I picked up is Shakespeare's Midsummernight's Dream which you can read in a couple of hours. So if you feel like joining please pick it up, read it, and come share your opinions. I'll try to anounce the 'next up' as well.
Anyway, seeing the viewers trend in my former blogs this one will have an estimated 0,98 replies, so my hopes aren't that high. I'll tr to keep this up weekly thouh, and at least I got to make a banner.
The topic did have quite some people who expressed their interest in reading, they just never followed through. As I'm a fan of reading good book I'm gonna try and launch a little project I named "Pholon's Book Reviews". Basically I pic a book I read, write a little blurb about it and hope to get some discussion going. We'll see if it'll fly. I've got like 3 more books lined up for this and I guess we'll see how the response is after that.
Comments in this topic would be great. If you guys feel like reading along or suggesting books it would be great, get a little discussion going. The first book I picked up is Shakespeare's Midsummernight's Dream which you can read in a couple of hours. So if you feel like joining please pick it up, read it, and come share your opinions. I'll try to anounce the 'next up' as well.
Anyway, seeing the viewers trend in my former blogs this one will have an estimated 0,98 replies, so my hopes aren't that high. I'll tr to keep this up weekly thouh, and at least I got to make a banner.
Pholon's Book Reviews #1:
William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream
Good old Shakespeare should require little introduction as his works are renowned all around the world. Perhaps most famous for his tragedies (Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet), he also wrote a good number of comedies. Last week, I read A Midsummer Night’s Dream and it was absolutely delightful.
Anyone who’s read either of his works will agree Shakespeare is a very, very good writer. Despite the text being ages old it in no way alienates me as a 21st century reader. The lighthearted characters sweep you up right from the start and the dialogue and jokes are witty as fuck. When Hermia’s father only consents to marrying his daughter to Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia’s lover, remarks “if you like him so well, why don’t you marry him?” (only in ye olde English and a perfect meter). This certainly made me bark a laugh (trans: "lol irl"). And even though Shakespeare was revered, even in his day and age, he doesn’t refrain from the mundane boob and bum jokes our modern day American Pie humour loves so well. When a character is transformed into an ass (that is, a donkey), even Bill can’t help himself and makes every corny remark one can think of. Of course, this is all done with the grace and style suiting world’s best (arguably) writer.
The Phyramus and Thisbe theme is, again, used. One might be tired of it by now, but it didn’t bother me as much since the twist it has been given is sublime. At first I felt the 5th act (there usually are 4) was a bit of an appendix, not really adding to the story and kind of dragging on, but besides the clumsy play itself, the Waldorf and Statler type remarks of the audience are gems. I was hoping for a bit more mischief from the puck, but he isn’t really the main character anyway.
When you come down to it, I imagine Shakespeare just thought of the most eloquent way to say “I can’t see; your hairy balls are in the way” and wrote a play around it just to support that. That’s what literature is people: well-phrased vulgarity. If you imagine Shakespeare being too high class, too old or too difficult for you, this play will prove you wrong. To those who haven’t read this yet: go get a copy now.
Pholon’s grade: 9/10
Next Up: John Boyne – The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
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