As a high school student, I didn't really like studying the literature they made us read. I later discovered that it was due to the fact that they chose mostly tragedies - what teenager wants to read about jealousy, death and destruction? I also had a really boring English teacher for most of my high school career.
Thankfully, we were given a new teacher in my Matric year and she made us fall in love with reading.
My love affair with books gradually grew over the last fifteen years. I do not profess to be a connoisseur of books - my tastes could be considered shallow by many. I hate books that are depressing, I don't need to read something that requires in depth analysis. Books are my escape from some of the harsher realities of life. As long as the language and plot are beautiful and I can fall in love with some character (though he/she may be fictional) or travel to beautiful places in my head, I am happy. Give me a romance (period or contemporary), fantasy or even science fiction (to a degree), and I am a happy camper.
Despite my generally fluffy taste in reading material, I am very fond of certain classic authors - Jane Austen and William Shakespeare being my two favourites. Austen satisfies my eternal romantic - the girl ALWAYS gets the right guy for her and the endings are always happy for her heroines. Shakespeare I like for his superior use of the English language.
I have discovered that one understands a Shakespearean play best when it's being performed.
During Matric, a group of actors came to enact all of the literature we were studying that year...it was the first time I had ever had a good understanding of my school literature and it was also the year I got my best English mark. Although I did not pursue English at tertiary level, I continued to read (and watch) Shakespeare when I could.
My reintroduction to Shakespeare came last year, when I discovered that Tom Hiddleston's acting CV is littered with Bard roles. I was curious, and managed to get my hands on the Hollow Crown series, which is the screen version of one of Shakespeare's historical tetralogies - Richard II, Henry IV-Part 1, Henry IV-Part 2 and Henry V.
Yes, Tom is a fox, and I get warm just thinking of him or looking at pictures of him. Does not take an iota away from the fact that the man is a bloody brilliant actor. I really enjoyed the series, but due to restrictions, many times film adaptations have to trim a lot of the actual literature and this prompted me to start investing in the books.
Thus far, I've managed to read Coriolanus...a play I had never heard of but thought I'd read in preparation to the NTLive screening of the Donmar production (in which Mr Hotness plays the lead character). To my surprise, despite it being a tragedy, I really enjoyed it (and bear in mind that I have not seen the play yet).
So, fandom led me back to Shakespeare.
I watched Much Ado About Nothing because I wanted to see Keanu Reeves and Robert Sean Leonard.
I watched Hamlet because I wanted to see Ethan Hawke and I liked Julia Stiles.
I watched A Midsummer Night's Dream because I am a Michelle Pfeiffer fan.
Is it such a travesty? No. And if brilliant actors like Kenneth Branagh, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson, etc. attract people to the genre, we should be happy that there are those few, those band of brothers who keeps the Bard alive in contemporary times.
Thankfully, we were given a new teacher in my Matric year and she made us fall in love with reading.
My love affair with books gradually grew over the last fifteen years. I do not profess to be a connoisseur of books - my tastes could be considered shallow by many. I hate books that are depressing, I don't need to read something that requires in depth analysis. Books are my escape from some of the harsher realities of life. As long as the language and plot are beautiful and I can fall in love with some character (though he/she may be fictional) or travel to beautiful places in my head, I am happy. Give me a romance (period or contemporary), fantasy or even science fiction (to a degree), and I am a happy camper.
Despite my generally fluffy taste in reading material, I am very fond of certain classic authors - Jane Austen and William Shakespeare being my two favourites. Austen satisfies my eternal romantic - the girl ALWAYS gets the right guy for her and the endings are always happy for her heroines. Shakespeare I like for his superior use of the English language.
I have discovered that one understands a Shakespearean play best when it's being performed.
During Matric, a group of actors came to enact all of the literature we were studying that year...it was the first time I had ever had a good understanding of my school literature and it was also the year I got my best English mark. Although I did not pursue English at tertiary level, I continued to read (and watch) Shakespeare when I could.
My reintroduction to Shakespeare came last year, when I discovered that Tom Hiddleston's acting CV is littered with Bard roles. I was curious, and managed to get my hands on the Hollow Crown series, which is the screen version of one of Shakespeare's historical tetralogies - Richard II, Henry IV-Part 1, Henry IV-Part 2 and Henry V.
Yes, Tom is a fox, and I get warm just thinking of him or looking at pictures of him. Does not take an iota away from the fact that the man is a bloody brilliant actor. I really enjoyed the series, but due to restrictions, many times film adaptations have to trim a lot of the actual literature and this prompted me to start investing in the books.
Thus far, I've managed to read Coriolanus...a play I had never heard of but thought I'd read in preparation to the NTLive screening of the Donmar production (in which Mr Hotness plays the lead character). To my surprise, despite it being a tragedy, I really enjoyed it (and bear in mind that I have not seen the play yet).
So, fandom led me back to Shakespeare.
I watched Much Ado About Nothing because I wanted to see Keanu Reeves and Robert Sean Leonard.
I watched Hamlet because I wanted to see Ethan Hawke and I liked Julia Stiles.
I watched A Midsummer Night's Dream because I am a Michelle Pfeiffer fan.
Is it such a travesty? No. And if brilliant actors like Kenneth Branagh, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson, etc. attract people to the genre, we should be happy that there are those few, those band of brothers who keeps the Bard alive in contemporary times.
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