Why I like my work

[blamebrampton]

Brammers: Not having read War and Peace is one thing, but not having read Hamlet? It only takes an hour and a half!

Workmate: And it rhymes!

Comments

[potteresque_ire]

But Shakespeare gives me headaches ....
I think I've read Hamlet, and that's because my school made me :)

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Have you ever seen Ken Branagh's Henry V? More exciting than The Dark Knight! (I love Shakespeare, but he is often very poorly taught.)

[potteresque_ire]

No .. *hangs head in shame*

I need to catch up with a ton of readings after school is done. Honestly, much of my fears in literature came from the fact that I was made to read them before I was capable. I think I will enjoy them all much more these days!

♥

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I can sympathise, Dad took me to see King Lear when I was 5 and I had an existential crisis for about 20 years after that. Try them again, you WILL enjoy them more. And I think it's quite kosher to watch the film versions as the plays are all meant to be seen.

[aldehyde.livejournal.com]

hee! plus it has a scene with a dude pouring poison into another dude's ear. that's like, the best thing ever.

[honestly, the bf and i keep working that line in during conversation on an almost daily basis. it's odd. but fun].

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

YES! I have a friend who is a specialist on mediaeval poisons and she has a list of things that can be administered by ear ;-)

(She also keeps asking me to grow things for her, I am suspicious!)

[banbury.livejournal.com]

I am lucky - I'm a quick reader: it took me about two days to read War and Peace, I don't remember how much it took to read Hamlet in Russian (certainly less, and then I've seen four or more performances, including the four-hour one, couple in English and even in French), but when I'd tried to read it in English - that was tricky, I was buried in dictionaries :-)

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

It's one of the plays that is better performed. Tolstoy makes me wish I had enough time to learn Russian. I like War and Peace, but I love Anna Karenin, and I feel as though there are subtleties of language I will only ever learn when I can read them for myself, alas.

[faynia.livejournal.com]

I've never read Hamlet...But I've seen Kenneth Branagh's version with his spiffy blond hair! And I've watched the Reduced Shakespeare Company perform it. *G* Does this count?

My school was weird, none of us had to read Hamlet in High School, but we all had to read Macbeth. o.O The trees, they move!

[rubyemerald-1.livejournal.com]

Who's Birnam Wood?!!!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

BOOM BOOM!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I've not seen it, sadly. I want to but I always forget. His Henry V, though, is one of my fave films. And yes, watching is just as good as reading in this case, and the Reduced Shakespeare Co are very worthy in any case!

I like Macbeth, but it's a damn sight more gruesome than Hamlet, really. Revenge is much easier to stomach than overweening ambition!

[pingrid.livejournal.com]

If your workmate has an extra copy of that rhyming edition of Hamlet, could you send it to me? ;D

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Oh hush, you, there are plenty of rhymes :-P (And I am DESPERATELY trying to remember the early play of his that has loads of really dodgy rhymes, alas, it is not coming to me, time for a Complete Works binge!)

[adores-draco.livejournal.com]

I liked War and Peace so much that I think it should be a classic! Even though it doesn't rhyme that much. *nods solemnly*

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

HEEEE! I do love it, you know. I know it's fashionable to talk about all of its flaws, but I think it's terrific, though I prefer Anna Karenin as a novel just because it is so perfectly constructed.

[glass-violet.livejournal.com]

*is jealous* Most of my workmates have only heard of 'Hamlet' in a boring-movie-i'll-never-watch sort of context. Shakespeare is love, and I will be forever thankful that I read 'Macbeth' before it was tainted by high school English teaching practices.
Have you seen the Australian 'Macbeth'? Its set in a Melbourne gangland context and is BRILLIANT!
I have never read 'War and Peace', though.

[rubyemerald-1.livejournal.com]

James McAvoy as Macbeth. Brilliant.

[glass-violet.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of the version with Sam Worthington in the title role, in which Burnham wood coming to Dunsinane is played out as a ram-raid with a log truck :D

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I've not, though I really want to. Bell Shakespeare did a great one the other year that we missed, too. My workplace is fun, you would like my workmates, mad the lot of them ;-)

I'll lend you Anna Karenin and if you like it you can try Resurrection and if you still like it, we'll set you up with War and Peace ;-)

[silvershinigami.livejournal.com]

This reminded me that the other day my roommate came into the living room looking like somebody had just kicked her puppy. She told me her boyfriend had just informed her that he'd only read two books in his life.

TWO. BOOKS.

I felt like my soul cracked a little.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Was one of them the Mahabharata? Man ...

[ms-kilian.livejournal.com]

I like the Ethan Hawke version - Denmark is a Corporation. Much awesomeness, with bonus Leiv Shriber. I also enjoyed the Aust. production with one of the Changi guys in the lead.
I haven't read W&P, but I did enjoy the Audrey Hepburn film interpretation.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I've not seen the first two, but do like the third!

[mabonwitch.livejournal.com]

*thinks hard* No, I haven't read War and Peace, but I've read Crime and Punishment, and surely that is almost as good?

Also, reading Hamlet is crucial to getting all the jokes in Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead and the five-minute version of Hamlet.

I had a superior English teacher that year...*sighs wistfully*

[rubyemerald-1.livejournal.com]

Is there a line in Ros and Guil that's NOT funny?

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

That IS almost as good. In fact, I found it far harder going.

And you have one of the major reasons why everyone should be familiar with Hamlet! I send virtual hugs to your English teacher!

[meredyth-13.livejournal.com]

Didn't they turn it into a jingle for breakfast cereal?

What?

Not Hamlet?

Ah well - does it count that I have the Audrey Hepburn dvd of War and Peace?

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Hamlet and eggs? Surely not!

Anything Hepburn, Audrey or Katherine, always counts ;-)

[adevyish.livejournal.com]

Hee!

(I confess to having read half of Shakespeare's works during high school during free periods, courtesy of unused class sets and Project Gutenberg.)

[uminohikari.livejournal.com]

Well, Hamlet is better in play form..

[angela-snape.livejournal.com]

LOL!