/lit/ - Literature

>>4690816

My is on the pic: William Shakespeare.
Why?

His language is the most inventive, beautiful and awe-inspiring in the world. Hi is, by far, the greatest poet of all time. I have read almost all of the English poets, and of the poets of my native language (Portuguese), as well as Spanish poets. I have read the Italians (Leopardi, Dante), the French (I’m a Rimbaud fan), the Germans (Goethe, Heine, Schiller, Hölderin), the Greeks (Homer, Hesiod, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Sappho, Anacreon, Alcman, Pindar), the Latin (Virgil, Horace, Lucretius, Ovid), the Russians…hell, I have even read the Japanese (Ono no Komachi, Basho, Hitomaro, the folk songs of the kojiki and Man’yoshu), the Chinese (Li Bai and Du Fu) and the Indian (Kalidasa, Tagore, the ancient epics), always searching for the same metaphorical feast and imagistic orgy of Shakespeare’s work, but in vain: nobody has ever done the same with words. Nabokov is right when he says that “The verbal poetical texture of Shakespeare is the greatest the world has known, and is immensely superior to the structure of his plays as plays” and Stephe Booth: “Shakespeare is our most underrated poet. It should not be necessary to say that, but it is. We generally acknowledge Shakespeare’s poetic superiority to other candidates for greatest poet in English, but doing that is comparable to saying that King Kong is bigger than other monkeys. The difference between Shakespeare’s abilities with language and those even of Milton, Chaucer, or Ben Jonson is immense.”. This guys is the greatest master of language of all human history.

Also: he managed to lead a calm and steady successful business like life. He saw his art as work, and tried to maintain a routine of productivity. He was able to prosper with his craft, and did not search for problems in politics and other stupid things. It seems that he lead a peaceful life, integrated with the community, even trying to be socially important. I like the marriage between and extreme artistic power and a normal private life.

Who is the greatest artist of all time?

In any category of art, not just literature.

Also, is there anyone in a particular field who is just leagues above the rest?

Who is second to Shakespeare?

What do you think about the thou/you distinction. Should it be brought back in modern English?

Personally, I think it should. After learning French and currently working on Russian, I feel that English is lacking because of the lack of the distinction between the formal/informal.

What's the best collection of Shakespeare's plays? I'm looking for one that would be intended for students, with a good amount of notes.

>>2241089
Yes, what dost thou want?

Billy Shakes begs to differ.

Shakespeare thread

Excuse me, gentlemen, but I'll just leave this here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNdGOxESkTE&feature=related

@2:29

Shakespeare has swag. Don't deny.

>>1778540
>>1778542


Excuse me, but do you know who I am?

>>1698214
You know nothing of plays.

Who here does NOT think Shakespeare is the world's greatest writer, why and who you would pick instead?

I'm very curious.

Where do you guys stand on the whole Shakespeare Authorship question?

The more I research it, the more logical it seems that Shakespeare was probably the pseudonym of Edward de Vere. de Vere passed away in 1604, the same year William Shakespeare's last plays are proven to be published.

Christopher Marlowe actually being the real Shakespeare is a load of bullshit.

I mean, *arguably* the world's greatest writer being the pseudonym of another person might seem like total bullshit to many, but...what do you guys think?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_authorship