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/lit/ - Literature


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22841325 No.22841325 [Reply] [Original]

Does anyone actually understand this shit? He talks like a fag and his shit's all retarded. "Forsooth", "methinks", "effulgence". I seriously doubt the majority of Americans understand maybe 30% of it and are just going along with it so they're not called out as illiterate.

>> No.22841327

>>22841325
Is there a word for people who think everyone must be as retarded as them?

>> No.22841330

>>22841327
"Shakespeare enthusiast"

>> No.22841345

>>22841327
Hegelians

>> No.22841387

>>22841325
the majority of Americans don't read and have a middle school literacy level retard. you don't understand him because you are also stupid and illiterate

>> No.22841409

>>22841387
You don't understand him either you just pretend to. No one understands that convoluted archaic poetry with made up words.

>> No.22841419

>>22841409
Shakespeare was a first Korean black nationalist author so watch your fucking mouth nigga

>> No.22841421

>>22841409
lol no, faggot. Not everyone is like you.

>> No.22841429
File: 124 KB, 1500x1403, 1693712259222521.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
22841429

>>22841409
you're embarrassing yourself

>> No.22841475

>>22841409
Sometimes I feel like people purposely act really dumb on here just so that some other anon can tell them off and feel a little bit better about himself momentarily. It's really rather heartwarming, thank you anon <3

>> No.22841482

>>22841475
Sometimes I argue back and forth samefagging taking up wild positions and I always draw a few short bus-ers in

>> No.22841515

>>22841482
Hegel would be proud

>> No.22841531

>>22841482
Once you get somebody latched on, they never let go - in my extensive experience.

>> No.22841685 [DELETED] 

>>22841475

SLY.
I’ll pheeze you, in faith.

HOSTESS.
A pair of stocks, you rogue!

SLY.
Y’are a baggage; the Slys are no rogues; look in the chronicles: we came in with Richard Conqueror. Therefore, paucas pallabris; let the world slide. Sessa!
Don't pretend you can make sense of this gibberish, that you understand what it means to "pheeze" someone, what "Sessa" (undefined even in the dictionary) means, or what the fuck these characters are even talking about in this exchange. You are a pseud.

>> No.22841700

>>22841475
SLY.
I’ll pheeze you, in faith.

HOSTESS.
A pair of stocks, you rogue!

SLY.
Y’are a baggage; the Slys are no rogues; look in the chronicles: we came in with Richard Conqueror. Therefore, paucas pallabris; let the world slide. Sessa!

Don't pretend you can make sense of this gibberish, that you understand what it means to "pheeze" someone, what "Sessa" (undefined even in the dictionary) means, or what the fuck these characters are even talking about in this exchange. You are a pseud.

>> No.22841825

>>22841325
I'm not even a native English speaker and I can make sense out of his words. Conside checking yourself in a doctor, maybe you are undernourished or got some alphabet syndrome that you can easily fix.

>> No.22841912

>>22841700
Sessa must be "c'est ça".

>> No.22841913

>>22841327
Americans.

>> No.22841933

>>22841912
Me again.

Considering also that using "baggage" for "hoe" comes also from french. And the character himself claim french descent (ref to Richard the Conqueror).

>> No.22841940

>>22841327
Nietzscheans

>> No.22841952

>>22841933
"Richard the Conqueror" doesn't exist you numbskull pseud

>> No.22841961

>>22841952
But the intention can be that. The character BELIEVES it does exist anyway, and might be trying to sound french.

>> No.22841984

>>22841325
I read Hamlet in my final year of high school, we used an annotated student edition that explained all of the archaic words. That much at least seems essential for starting to read his work. Now I can read them without this reference.

>> No.22842041

>>22841325
This is why retarded zoomers are reading Rupi Kaur. You don’t have to take time to “get” her, you read a poem and instantly understand it and get that gratification. Shakespeare takes some time, you read it, see a play, study the lines and connect dots and it’s rewarding to do so. But for most people that’s too much effort.

>> No.22842148

>>22841325
Hey little buddy, here's a little cheat sheet just for you!

Forsooth, or NO CAP FR FR ON GOD

Methinks, or SHIT BE LIVING RENT FREE IN MY HEAD FR

Effulgence, or SHIT BE LIT AF BRUH

>> No.22842172

>>22841325
Go back to eating crayons, inbred. Not everyone's education consists of half-assed public schooling and self-improvement literature.

>> No.22842183

>>22841325
Of course. Instead of scoffing and posting this immature thread, how about actually applying your mental energy to the great work of the Bard?

I'm American, btw.

>> No.22842186

>>22842041
>You don’t have to take time to “get” her, you read a poem and instantly understand it and get that gratification.
Nothing bad about that
You wanted your time learning how to read some drivel, what an achievement!

>> No.22842189

>>22841700
>Don't pretend you can make sense of this gibberish, that you understand what it means to "pheeze" someone, what "Sessa" (undefined even in the dictionary) means, or what the fuck these characters are even talking about in this exchange. You are a pseud.

Not only are you unwilling to learn, but you also have no standing in any of what you say. What dictionary are you even referring to? How pedantic is to willingly disregard the vast array of books on historical linguistics, or even assume your tiny Oxford's pocket dictionary should have the definition for every word?

>> No.22842192

>>22842186
wasted*

>> No.22842196

>>22842189
>What dictionary are you even referring to
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/sessa

>Not only are you unwilling to learn
Imagine wasting your time "learning" to "enjoy" outdated entertainment

My point still stands, the majority of burgers confuse your and you're regularly and don't understand Shitspeare

>> No.22842232
File: 17 KB, 558x614, Brainlet-wojak.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
22842232

>>22842196
>the majority of burgers confuse your and you're regularly and don't understand Shitspeare

>> No.22842282

>>22841409
Omg this; im much smarter than most people and I can’t understand Shakespeare at all. It’s all medieval nonsense for people who died from their teeth in puddles of their own shit. Surface to say; I’d rather read a Nobel Prize winner like Bob Dylan, or perhaps someone more modern who deals with contemporary issues like the Climate Emergency or the evils of transphobia.

>> No.22842328

>>22841327
OP (also doubled for 'faggot')

>> No.22842350

>>22842196
>My point still stands, the majority of burgers confuse your and you're regularly and don't understand Shitspeare

/thread

>> No.22842452

>>22841409
>I'm retarded, so everyone else must be
Stop being lazy and study more. If you cannot do that, then you have no right to an opinion.

>> No.22842453

>>22842282
Honestly good, if satire.

>> No.22842548

>>22842453
honestly mediocre, good until
>Bob Dylan
that part and
>evils of transphobia
need to be replaced by something like
>Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
and
>evils of capitalism
which is of the same calibre as before but more believable

>> No.22842554

>>22841325
>methinks
This one is great

>> No.22842558

>>22841409
bruh it ain't that hard. Watch a 30 minute video on Middle English if you need to. After that, you should be good. His Comedys are literally old sitcoms. Woul the hit show "Friends" be hard to understand if they all had weird accents? That is basically Shakespeare.

>> No.22842559

>>22841327
Stupfignican

>> No.22842924

>>22841700
I was going to take pity on you and spoonfeed you some resources but if as you imply in >>22842196 you just want the most efficient possible path to "entertainment", then you should probably just get back to gooning. It's more immediate than Shakespeare and less shameful than picking fights on /lit/.

>> No.22842932

>>22841325
I’ve always associated “methinks” with Thoreau for some reason. Anyway, it’s a good word

>> No.22842936

>>22841327
Go with a portmanteau of "retard" and "word for people who think everyone must be as they are themselves".
I don't know it and I'm cooking potatoes right now have to keep an eye out on those

>> No.22842940

>>22841327
Retard-projection

>> No.22843019

>>22841700
do my homework the post

>> No.22843025

>>22842936
myopicile.

>> No.22843034

>>22842558
Shakespeare is not middle english you huge retard.

>> No.22843042

>>22841700
Filtered by one antiquated word understood through context and a latin phrase easily glanced over.

>> No.22843066

>>22842558
Bad bait. Your feigned retardation and far fetched comparisons of Shakespeare to fast food goyslop are amusing, however.

>> No.22843072

>>22841325
>I seriously doubt the majority of Americans understand maybe 30% of it
I do too. Americans are retarded and 30% is generous.

>> No.22844278

>>22841325
>the majority of Americans
Who cares for Merderica?

>> No.22844284

>>22842282
nice Dogberry

>> No.22844383

>>22841325
>Does anyone actually understand this shit?
Yes, many people do.
>He talks like a fag and his shit's all retarded
If this were true you should've enjoyed it.
>I seriously doubt the majority of Americans understand 30% of it
No one is learned on topics they've no interest in.

>> No.22845115

>>22843042
>easily glanced over
modern Shakespeare audiences glance over 90% of the play

>> No.22845926

>>22841984
Yeah, like Spencer's Faerie Queen, after use of the glossary for Book One, unneeded for the remainder

>> No.22846130

>>22845926
What can I get for free?

>> No.22846268

>>22841325
Hello sir I also hate England

>> No.22846358

>>22841325
The most upsetting thing about this post is that so many retards fell for bait that doesn't even try and pretend to be anything other than bait.

>> No.22846510

>>22846268
>sir
*saar

>> No.22846540

>>22846358
It's not bait.

>> No.22846606

>>22846358
No saar, you aren't supposed to engage with retards on 4chan. Don't feed le strolls.

>> No.22846799

>>22841325
he's really good!

LORD POLONIUS

This business is well ended.
My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief: your noble son is mad:
Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,
What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
But let that go.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

More matter, with less art.

He just catches the character so neatly, and the language flows really well! The plays were done very fast (2 hours for hamlet I think) and you can hear the pulse of speech from the bare text.
I recommend those books with the original English on one side and modern English on the other.

here's Hamlet having a breakdown:

O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!

and Polonius being a dad:

Tender yourself more dearly;
Or--not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
Running it thus--you'll tender me a fool.

and here is the ghost, giving us a rare glimpse into how important confession was:

Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand
Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd:
Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd,
No reckoning made, but sent to my account
With all my imperfections on my head:
O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible!

>> No.22846906

>>22842041
Surely most of the challenge of reading Shakespeare comes from the fact that there is a historic barrier and not because they were intentionally designed to be difficult. It's mass entertainment after all.

Not that it means that the plays are shallow. But if I was looking for quick gratification, I'd much rather read Shakespeare than Dickens or Hemingway, let alone someone like Joyce

>> No.22846961

>>22846799
>expostulate
what
>And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes (of wit),
what

>> No.22847038
File: 133 KB, 976x549, 1684286951598149.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
22847038

What's your favorite sonnet? I've been reading a lot of Shakespeare again lately, and Sonnets XV and XIX really stand out to me.
Sonnet XVI
>But wherefore do not you a mightier way
>Make war upon this bloody tyrant, Time?
>And fortify your self in your decay
>With means more blessed than my barren rhyme?
>Now stand you on the top of happy hours,
>And many maiden gardens, yet unset,
>With virtuous wish would bear you living flowers,
>Much liker than your painted counterfeit:
>So should the lines of life that life repair,
>Which this, Time's pencil, or my pupil pen,
>Neither in inward worth nor outward fair,
>Can make you live your self in eyes of men.
>To give away yourself, keeps yourself still,
>And you must live, drawn by your own sweet skill.
Sonnet XIX
>Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,
>And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;
>Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws,
>And burn the long-liv'd Phoenix in her blood;
>Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleets,
>And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
>To the wide world and all her fading sweets;
>But I forbid thee one more heinous crime:
>O, carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow,
>Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen!
>Him in thy course untainted do allow
>For beauty's pattern to succeeding men.
>Yet do thy worst, old Time! Despite thy wrong
>My love shall in my verse ever live young.

>> No.22847589
File: 816 KB, 1390x774, prospero_and_caliban.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
22847589

>>22842041
>But for most people that’s too much effort.

I didn't feel like I started to get Shakespeare until I was 10 plays into my "read everything by Shakespeare" challenge.

After the 15th play his prose really starts to flow, if anything the footnotes for cultural references are a distraction. By the 20th play, I earnestly began to wish everyone still spoke Elizabethan English. Rare movies like "The Witch" became a real treat...thee's and thou's with verb-at-the-end word order just feel so comfy. According to my wife, I started talking like Gandalf from Lord of the Rings.

Of course I was also studying Latin while doing this. Tried reading Paradise Lost, and the prose was trivial compared to Shakespeare. You can train your brain to do anything I guess. But few normies are going to do this weird shit.

>t. pseud mid-wit insurance agent

>> No.22847602

>>22847589
>I earnestly began to wish everyone still spoke Elizabethan English
>According to my wife, I started talking like Gandalf from Lord of the Rings.
Same. I want my mechanic to sound like this guy >>22847017 at least then I won't feel so bad about getting fucking RAPED

>> No.22847830

>>22841409
Just learn the structure of a sonnet, it really isn't that hard, anon. Some close reading and finding the Volta is will explain most of the poem.

>> No.22847843

>>22841325
how about this, now you have an up down

>> No.22847846

>>22841325
I’d be so sad if I didn’t have Shakespeare in my life.

>What a piece of work is a man, How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, In form and moving how express and admirable, In action how like an Angel, In apprehension how like a god, The beauty of the world, The paragon of animals. And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust?

>> No.22848695

>>22846961
(the joke is that polonious talks in a long winded way)

>expostulate
to reason earnestly with a person for purposes of dissuasion or remonstrance

>And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes (of wit),
good question, not sure what polonius means here. If brevity is the soul, then polonius seems to believe that tediousness is the tertiary result from with or brevity. Well it's shakespear, a lot of stuff is open to interpretation.

>> No.22848700

>>22847589
good job man!

>> No.22848717

>>22848695
He means that if brevity is the soul of wit (the center) tediousness is merely inessential embellishments (limbs and flourishes, decoration) on the pure soul of the aforementioned wit (brevity).

>> No.22848727

>>22842558
No one said it's hard. It's being said that you don't actually understand the text without study and training, which most don't go through.

>Woul the hit show "Friends" be hard to understand if they all had weird accents? That is basically Shakespeare.
Strong evidence for the "people are just pretending to understand to socially signal" theory here desu.

>> No.22848735

I've been reading Shakespeare.
My favorite reoccurring word of his is Zounds!

>> No.22848739

>>22848717
Counterpoint: I would imagine a man who thinks himself witty would not think tediousness is even a part of wit. It's a surprising sentence imo

>> No.22848743

>>22848727
I like to compare Shakespear to monty python lol
Both feel like a work of an expert (experts in python's case) doing their best work and having lots of fun. Some people say "divinely inspired" which is a bit much, but it feels like a congregation of so-called good energies, creativity and extreme competence born these works

>> No.22848749

Shakespeare reads easily. Just think. If you have a somewhat large vocabulary you can see how his words reflect different meanings of words and how their usage has evolved into somewhat synonymous but different in context words. There are very few words in Shakespeare which are not in current usage, and of those words, there are footnotes, context clues and also knowledge of Latin or French which can be used to your advantage. The problem is, there are many stupid people who think reading Shakespeare is going to be like reading Hemingway or Melville or Dickens because they are all in high esteem, and then are surprised. Personally, I actually found Dickens much more annoying to read. If you want antiquated language read Chaucer, which I'm currently wading through. Once we get to Beowulf however, your confusion is forgiven and its acceptable to read a translation.
>>22848739
I agree, but Polonius is referred to as "tedious" but Hamlet, so I feel that he accepts tediousness in moments of calm as a way to add to his "wit," but in this moment of urgency he acknowledges how brevity is wit's soul, so it will suffice.

>> No.22848751

On Polonius, has anyone had experience of people quoting Shakespeare as part of some point or argument thinking it sounded good and that Shakespeare added authority but the quote was from Polonius?
When I was in highschool some teachers wanted school uniforms and as an argument said Shakespeare once said The clothes make the man.
It was pretty funny when someone pointed out it was Polonius.

>> No.22848754

>>22848749
yeah polonious is both unaware and heavily aware of himself he reminds me of an university professor.

>> No.22848757

>>22848751
But polonius drops some heavy wisdom
To catch a carp of truth with a bait of lie.

>> No.22848763

>>22848757
I've always been of the opinion he is a fool who can't think for himself relying on platitudes and cliche expressions.
Which added to the humor of the teacher relying on Shakespeare quotes.

>> No.22848771

>>22848751
This happens often with famous Shakespearean idioms. I forget a particularly egregious example that often I remember, but in it's full it is actually a criticism of those who take the quote at face value. I think people forget that a quote in Shakespeare is always from a character, unless it is in a sonnet, and Shakespeare is not one to make a character who is a paragonial mouthpiece of himself. Instead these characters are often stupid, hypocritical, superficial and foolish, but as people see the quote attributed to "-William Shakespeare" they think that's what he is directly saying as if we have diaries or letters from the man. And this is not just with Shakespeare either.

>> No.22848776

>>22848763
I took him to be one of those academics who are lost in their own head. He's got a cunning to him - he recognizes hamlet is not "just" mad, and the sneaky way he deals with his son suggests he didn't earn his position by being an oaf. He's also (how I read it) quite gentle with his daughter and respectful of her (well, compared to the times).

>> No.22848781

>>22848751
Shakespeare wrote Polonius’ lines, ya know

>> No.22848784

>>22848776
Well I said he is a fool and I think on the whole he is intended to be seen as one, but Shakespeare being an actual good writer doesn't do flat one dimensional characters so he does have some depth and qualities that make him more than a fool.

>> No.22848791

>>22848776
(continued)

And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief: your noble son is mad:
Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,
What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
But let that go.

> for, to define true madness,
>What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
>But let that go.

gives me the perception of an academic getting lost.

but
>to expostulate
>What majesty should be, what duty is,
>Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
>Were nothing but to waste night, day and time.

gives me the perception of a pseudo intellectual (did you really need 4 lines to say this platitude?)

>> No.22848803

>>22846906
This.
This post answers the central question of the thread and no one will pay attention because everyone is letting their pseud superiority complexes fly at the chance of dunking on a cringe angry kid.

>> No.22848810

>>22846906
Shakespeare's beauty is the depth of his work exceeds Joyce, Hemingway and especially maudlin Dickens, while also being enjoyable and witty to read.

>> No.22848811

>>22848803
and you aren't dunking on them?
but let that go. :)