Should we "Dumb Down" Shakespeare?
Today for Linguistics we had to read this article on Shakespeare by John McWhortor. He talks about how the average person doesn't understand or enjoy Shakespeare, and that the language is outdated and should be translated to be a more modern dialect. The way he talked about it really rubbed me the wrong way; he spoke as if everyone needs to come off their high horse and admit that none of us really enjoys Shakespeare.
I'm sick of everyone needing everything to be easy and mindless. Just put a little effort into reading the play with footnotes, put a little study in, and you'll get it. If you don't then that's fine, Shakespeare doesn't have to be for you; I agree with him that should be no shame in that. It's just that then I go to class and once again most people in discussion, including the teacher, are pushing for Shakespeare to be retranslated into something more modern. And I don't mean like West Side Story, She's the Man, Ten Things I Hate About You modern, which I think is pretty cool; I mean like literally retranslate the plays for the stage, rip apart his language to make it more easy to understand.
So I commented that I can't help but feel like what their suggesting is to "dumb down" Shakespeare, when really we should try to rise to his level. I understand that it's a nice idea to try to make his stories more accessible to the less educated audience, because he has great, universally applicable stories. But that's not what makes him so brilliant- it's his language that makes Shakespeare so incredible; his puns, wordplay, and wit. I think it's just ridiculous to want lose that in favor of easier words.
For instance, watch this video on YouTube that I'll link here, about Shakespeare's Original Pronunciation (it's like 10 minutes long, but worth it!). When you study Shakespeare the way he meant it to be, so much insane brilliance comes to light. The more we try to force Shakespeare into a more modern language, the more we will lose the true beauty of what he's done.
Anyway. That's that. I'm pretty sure my teacher did not agree with me, but I really like Shakespeare so whatever, lady.
I'm sick of everyone needing everything to be easy and mindless. Just put a little effort into reading the play with footnotes, put a little study in, and you'll get it. If you don't then that's fine, Shakespeare doesn't have to be for you; I agree with him that should be no shame in that. It's just that then I go to class and once again most people in discussion, including the teacher, are pushing for Shakespeare to be retranslated into something more modern. And I don't mean like West Side Story, She's the Man, Ten Things I Hate About You modern, which I think is pretty cool; I mean like literally retranslate the plays for the stage, rip apart his language to make it more easy to understand.
So I commented that I can't help but feel like what their suggesting is to "dumb down" Shakespeare, when really we should try to rise to his level. I understand that it's a nice idea to try to make his stories more accessible to the less educated audience, because he has great, universally applicable stories. But that's not what makes him so brilliant- it's his language that makes Shakespeare so incredible; his puns, wordplay, and wit. I think it's just ridiculous to want lose that in favor of easier words.
For instance, watch this video on YouTube that I'll link here, about Shakespeare's Original Pronunciation (it's like 10 minutes long, but worth it!). When you study Shakespeare the way he meant it to be, so much insane brilliance comes to light. The more we try to force Shakespeare into a more modern language, the more we will lose the true beauty of what he's done.
Anyway. That's that. I'm pretty sure my teacher did not agree with me, but I really like Shakespeare so whatever, lady.
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