/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.11514261]

Can we have a thread dedicated to the greatest artist of the anglophone canon? What is your favorite play, besides Hamlet? What do you think of his poetry? Is Cervantes comparable to him?

[Anonymous No.11514668]

>>11514261
I think that both Montaigne and Cervantes are comparable with respect to the way they dominate their practiced literary forms, the essay and the novel, but not so much with respect to the impact either had on the development of their native languages relative to Shakespeare's influence on English. Shakespeare's also perhaps the only author central to a language's literature NOT his own, the German.
Antony and Cleopatra and Richard ii are favorites here along with the Tempest and HIVi. Othello is perhaps his most strangely beautiful play, the one tragedy with an overall comedy feel, which of course is what makes it feel all the more disastrous when it concludes.
Opinions merely.

[Anonymous No.11514678]

Did he really give up?

[Anonymous No.11514685]

>>11514668
/lit/ is so on point lately

[Anonymous No.11514802]

I made this picture.

[Anonymous No.11514907]

>>11514802
Bravo. Great thread, that one.

[Anonymous No.11514997]

>>11514261
Nearly all of his poetry, over a hundred sonnets, are quite good. Not to forget that he wrote his plays in verse and added songs in them as well. I like Antony and Cleopatra after Hamlet for his tragedies and Twelfth Night in his comedies. I must admit though that I haven't read all of his plays. I want to get his Complete Works once I've worked my way through the canon a bit more.

[Anonymous No.11515111]

>>11514261
Lear was better than Hamlet. His poetry is good, of course, but his dramatic verse is better.
Cervantes is comparable, Don Quixote can compete with Shakespeare's best plays, but I think Shakes outdoes him in range and diversity. Still, the two writers are unlimited and the pinnacle of modern literature.

[Anonymous No.11515142]

>>11514678
I always found his career development interesting. He seemed to taper off into laidback writing after his peak. Coriolanus, Timon, and the romances are all beautifully poetic but seem to lack a degree of engagement in his characters. I think the first half of The Winters Tale seemed to be his last seriously 'serious' effort. I don't think he gave up but pretty much said all he could on the pen by then.

[Anonymous No.11515284]

As someone who doesn't have English as my first language, I aways find myself at least three times more eloquent moments after reading an act of one of his plays. He is the greatest pick for someone to find vocabulary enrichment on the language, in my opinion.

[Anonymous No.11515307]

Where to start with shakesman?

[Anonymous No.11515414]

>>11515307
Start with any of his plays, I guess. Just read his work that sounds most interesting to you.

[Anonymous No.11515429]

>>11515307
Watch a production of one of his best plays, like Hamlet or Lear, at that point you should be obsessed enough to read the text the next day

[Anonymous No.11515444]

>>11514261
Bloomboys are a scourge. Following public intellectuals is just the superior-feeling retard's version of being a religion cuck.

[Anonymous No.11515452]

>>11514685
No it's not. He's just regurgitating Bloom.

[Anonymous No.11515488]

>>11515444
>>11515452
People recognized Shakespeare's genius before Bloom you third-world bugman.

[Anonymous No.11515491]

>reading some supposedly god tier clever wordsmith author from 20th century
>the best they can do is "use language evocatively," like any dime-a-dozen neo-realist post-postmodernist
>feels clever but limp and overripe
>pick up any shakespeare
>he's so innovative it's literally like being raped into submission
>despite being peak wit, everything is somehow also fresh and crisp
>eyes widen and pupils dilate as I realize, he's just fucking making it up as he goes, and it's STILL better than anything anyone else can do
>this is how moses felt when god spoke to him
>can't keep my cool
>each thrust of shakespeare's literary horse cock is making me more and more flustered
>realize i've been gyrating involuntarily since page 3
>now on page 8
>come in my pants
>tfw FUCKED by shakespeare

[Anonymous No.11515505]

>>11515488
You're regurgitating his talking points, little fag. Stupid little unoriginal bitch. "Hey guys, how does he compare to Cervantes and Montaigne, hee hee?" Fucking mongoloid. If you were here I wouldn't hesitate to beat the shit out of you. Fucking faggot.

[Anonymous No.11515517]

>>11515491
kek

[Anonymous No.11515563]

>>11514261
>Greatest artist of the anglophone canon.

I had almost forgotten what high school was like, thanks for this anon.

[Anonymous No.11515569]

>>11514261
nice bait op

[Anonymous No.11515577]

>>11515563
A serious contender, but does he have as much to read at the same quality as Shakespeare? I love some of his poems and Paradise Lost, but don't know about all of his work.

[Anonymous No.11515594]

>>11515505
Cervantes and Montaigne are certainly valid comparisons anyways. How about you contribute something you consider original to the thread?

[Anonymous No.11515598]

>>11515577
I mean the sheer magnitude of Paradise Lost dwarfs Bard's works collectively so I don't really know what you're talking about

[Anonymous No.11515616]

>>11515598
>I mean the sheer magnitude of Paradise Lost dwarfs Bard's works collectively
Blatantly wrong. Just because it's epic in nature doesn't make it automatically superior to normal dramas.

[Anonymous No.11515622]

>>11515616
Only a Bard faggot could take my use of 'magnitude' there as literal. Point made.

[Anonymous No.11515626]

>>11515622
In any other sense it's even more wrong.

[Anonymous No.11515644]

>>11514261
>the greatest artist of the anglophone canon
Shakespeare can't even make it out of the Elizabethan era without getting his path blocked.

[Anonymous No.11515650]

>>11515622
>>11515626
I agree that Paradise Lost is a better read than any single one of Shakespeare's plays, content wise at least, but Shakespeare seems to have more quality works than Milton, but then again I don't know much of his work compared to Shakespeare.

[Anonymous No.11515703]

>>11515594
>cant provide anything original
>trying to bait someone smarter than him to, as if people on /lit/ were bloom's grad student publishing mill slaves

not him but fuck off

[Anonymous No.11515714]

>>11515650
nah pl is below hamlet and lear.

[Anonymous No.11515744]

>>11515714
Why? I think PL is better because of it's theological subject matter and amazing scenes, like The Son defeating the rebellious angels for example. And then there's all of Satan's powerful lines as well. Shakespeare has many, many great lines as well, but the subject matter isn't as strong.

[Anonymous No.11515758]

>>11515703
>someone smarter than him
Merely saying something is Bloom regurgitation (when it's not even necessarily) does not make him smarter at all. It's just shit flinging and the guy hasn't proved anything. I don't know why you're defending low level discussion on /lit/.

[Anonymous No.11515779]

>>11515744
>subject matter isn't as strong.
I don't know what you mean - because he doesn't tackle theological themes? (and the theological themes arguably make paradise lost worse by constricting Milton). Shakespeare goes over a huge variety of subject matter and very profoundly. In the great tragedies alone - the jealousy and hatred in Othello, the terror and ambition and Macbeth, angst, breakdown and death in Lear and Hamlet. If were comparing entire collections Shakespeare outbeats Milton in breadth and depth.

[Anonymous No.11515792]

>>11515779
is this a troll or did you really not get any jealousy, hatred, terror, ambition, angst, breakdown, or death from pl?

[Anonymous No.11515807]

>>11515792
I'm saying that Shakespeare not having as strong subject matter is bullshit, and that he pulled off themes even beyond that in his corpus and did it great.

[Anonymous No.11515816]

>>11515779
>Othello
>reading BLACKED shit

[Anonymous No.11515862]

>>11515807
I like theological themes more I suppose. Not to say that his plays aren't fantastic, but I think the tale of Man's first disobedience and the rebellion of Satan are much more epic and profound than any setting Shakespeare uses.

[Anonymous No.11517327]

>>11514261
Venus and Adonis is based, his plays are also pretty great

[Anonymous No.11517372]

>>11515491
It was such a letdown to read Marlowe after having read Shakespeare. Everything in Marlowe's plays seem so dull and flat in comparison. I don't understand why anyone ever thought that he was actually Shakespeare.

[Anonymous No.11517388]

>>11514261
>Is Cervantes comparable to him?
This is not up for discussion. Shakespeare crafted some of the greatest poetry ever written, gave the world an entire range of now immortal lines and characters who influenced everyone from Freud to Lincoln, he had a monumental impact on the world’s modern lingua franca, his words and sayings are now spoken everywhere from Jamaica to Sweden, and his plays are so universal that they’ve even been enjoying a surge in popularity in China over the past few years.

Cervantes wrote a wacky novel about a knight which most people only consider good past the halfway point because that’s when it gets ‘meta.’

[Anonymous No.11517401]

>>11515862
So I was correct earlier in thinking 'magnitude' meant its epic qualities?

[Anonymous No.11517403]

>>11517388
This. I also have no idea why people try and compare Montaigne to Shakespeare either.

[Anonymous No.11517444]

>>11517403
probably because montaigne inspired & influenced shakespeare in a big way

[Anonymous No.11517461]

>>11517444
But as writers they’re so different. Philosophically they are both skeptics but apart from that.
>in a big way
Debatable. Shakespeare only seems to have read Montaigne fairly late in his career.

[Anonymous No.11517487]

>>11517388
>'wacky novel'
I know Shakes is better an all but you don't gotta dis one of the most profound texts in modern literature. The influence it had on the Spanish world is about as comparable to Shakes on the English world. Cervantes deserves his reputation.

[Anonymous No.11517578]

>>11517487
I’m not necessarily ‘dissing’ Cervantes, the Quixote definitely is a wacky novel in the same way that some of Shakespeare is quite wacky. There’s just too much of it for my taste.

[Anonymous No.11518033]

>>11517578
???
Quixote's not near so wacky as Tempest, Winter's Tale, Cymbeline....
What are the Duke and Duchess and their cronies but 4chan? Or a representation of 4chan's prevailing 'humor'?

[Anonymous No.11518037]

>>11515452
In other words, /lit/ is so on point lately.

[Anonymous No.11518121]

You mean the greatest of all languages

[Anonymous No.11518268]

>>11518037
Actually (first post since the one I made last night) though I have read Bloom- quite alot actually- I didn't feel I was 'regurgitating' him. Embarassingly, perhaps, I've actually read most all the plays, both Montaigne's Essays and Travelogue, and Quixote twice. Also wie meine Grosseltern sind Deutsch vielleicht enough Goethe, Schlegel bros, usw. to know the truth of what I wrote about German lit. Bloom marvels at Othello's comedic nature? Though I have encountered that opinion in a much earlier critic, it wasn't Bloom. I wrote it because I actually had that response and therefore felt it was, or feel it is, true. FWIW.