Return of the Revenge of the Son of Saying Hi to Josiah!

[Josiah]

Hi! The only Shakespeare play I've actually read was Hamlet and I didn't really like it. I saw a performance of A Mid Summer Night's Dream though, and that was pretty good.

[NabMaster]

When they talk about condoms, I hope they say "Condoms are not 100%. Abstinence is" instead of. "These things are foolproof!"

I don't remember who said it (I think it was either George Carlin or Robin Williams), but best line on the subject I ever heard was something like "Remember girls, the only birth control that is guaranteed to work is hysterical laughter!"

Also, Shakespeare-wise, I've read Midsommer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, MacBeth (we weren't allowed to say the name in class, we just called it "The Scottish Play" because my teacher was mega superstitious), and Hamlet. We actually watched a MacBeth play in our town's theatre, it was kinda cool.

[BionicleMandi121]

Ohayou.
The only Shakespeare I've ever read...huh...A Winter's Tale, Julius Caesar, Midsummer's Night Dream, and Hamlet. The only one I liked even a little was Hamlet, and that's because my teacher was nice enough to rephrase most of his dialogue in English we could understand. The guy's pretty funny, actually, when his speech isn't so grammatically convoluted none of us can understand what he's getting at. The other three were...rather boring, in my opinion. Especially the first two.
As for other required reading...I enjoyed Les Miserables. It was maybe the only book I read for fun and not 'cause I had to. Lord of the Flies was actually pretty good. Catcher in the Rye was dreadfully boring; I fell asleep reading it multiple times. 1984 I didn't like that much, and I'd read it on my own a couple years previously. Scarlet Letter wasn't bad either, but it was also confusing. All the Pretty Horses was depressing. Killer Angels...I liked that one, now that I think about it. Although it was disappointing whenever a character I liked got killed, which happened several times. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, and Of Mice and Men, I never finished. I read enough of that last to think it was sad, though. Door in the Wall, The Master Puppeteer, and My Brother Sam Is Dead was such light reading I almost don't count it as required.
I'm likely forgetting a few books, but it's hard trying to remember everything I've read over the last six years.

[Silver]

Heso! My first run-in with Shakespeare was... Romeo and Juliet, which I'm not crazy about. They're both so whiny and annoying... let's take a look at the basic plot, why don't we.
Romeo: "Oh! This girl doesn't like me! I'll never love again!" Benvolio: "Hey, we're going to this party to pick up chicks we shouldn't be picking up. Wanna come?" Romeo: "Ok, sure!" Juliet: *Stands around looking pretty* Romeo: "Hey! I like you! Let's get married!" Juliet: "Ok, sure! Oh, wait. You're a Montague." Romeo: "So?" Juliet: "I dunno, something about roses." Romeo: "Tybalt, you suck." Juliet: "You just killed my cousin, and that doesn't phase me in the least! I think I'll go pretend to die now." Romeo: "What? She's dead?" *dies* Juliet: "Oh no! He died! I no longer have a reason to live!" *dies* Mercutio: "Didn't I die somewhere in there too?" Silver: "Shut up, I'm trying to forget about that part."

So yeah. That's... pretty much the most over-rated piece of literature in existance. But then I met Miss Hults and A Midsummer Night's Dream! That was fun times. Miss Hults translated from Early Modern English to Now Modern English when it was necessary, and we got to go on stage and kind of act it out. During English class. And that's why I took the class specifically on Shakespeare, where we read Titus Andronicus, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, and Merchant of Venice. Titus and Othello are intense, man. Revenge Plays. Titus had twenty-four sons, and by the end there's, what, two left? No wait... I think Quintus died too. Lucius was the only one still alive... and Titus even killed one of them himself. He killed his only daughter, too, for that matter. But by that point he was mostly deranged anyway... Not to mention she had her tongue cut out and her hands cut off by Chiron and Demetrius. She was kind of a wreck.

Might as well take out Merchant of Venice because it's racist AND there's a hint of the guys having a thing for each other.

...Anyway. I liked Merchant of Venice. Because here's the thing... it wasn't racist. Quite the opposite, really, if you think about it. Shakesepare's writing from 17th century Europe here. In 17th century Europe, there were basically two schools of thought in regards to Jewish people: you were one, or you hated them. Shakespeare ran with that, for sure, but then he pulls out Shylock's speech and it's like... "I am a Jew; hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?" ...I memorized the whole thing because I'm a nerd like that... And he goes on for like an hour, waxing poetic, pretty much... disproving racism. Shylock's a jerk, not much different from Othello's Iago, but Iago was just a jerk for the sake of being a jerk. And then there's Aaron from Titus Andronicus who, as he was dying, said his one regret was that he hadn't done a thousand more evil deeds... Shylock got a nice, "If you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that." This is Shakespeare blaming Shylock's jerkiness on the hero, Antonio. Because it was his fault.

As for Antonio and Bassanio... well yeah, they act... really gay. Except then Bassanio goes and marries Portia, who is not a man. Though she disguises herself as one... As do Nerissa and Jessica... Maybe that's why I liked Merchant of Venice. It was as close as I got to a Shakespeare play about crossdressing. Because some people don't realize the genius that is Twelfth Night...

Oh wow. Long post is long. And I didn't even get into the million years we spent on Macbeth last year...

tl;dr: Silver's a nerd.

[Saber Knight]

Hey.
We read Midsummer Night's dream last year. Then, the class was divided into 4 groups and we were each assigned an act. Our group got act 4. You could act it out as written, or put an interesting spin on it.
We made ours about two schoolkids (me and my friend). It began with me waking up my friend and asking if he studied. He was all, "O SNAP! I FORGOT!", so then we proceed to study. We then basically narrated while the other people acted it out. Got an A :).
One of the other English classes is reading Romeo and Juliet, while we have to read some weird African Story. I'm jealous...

[Kaida]

I quite liked Othello. It had a good story and everything. It was the first on I had tried to read a bit of and actually iunderstood. I shcoked myself by understanding it actually! I mean I did have to look up a couple of words, but for the most part I just read it.

Considering how many different codes you know (not to mention random languages you've made up) It's not surprising that you understand it.

The only Shakespeare play I've read was Romeo and Juliet, and I have pretty much the same view on that as Silver.
I personally think Shakespeare's overrated. The only time I've ever liked it was in 'The Shakespeare Code' Yay or random Harry Potter References.

Side Note: Does anyone know of any upcoming Wi-Fi events for Daimond & Pearl?

[PoikSpirit]

Please reconsider. But alas Shakespeare is an acquired taste I guess. Well I have seen more plays than names I remember, all comedies of course. Unfortunately, many of them I was too young to remember or understand (which is good because Shakespeare liked to throw in sexual innuendos, that and the actors loved to act them out). What fun. We're reading King Lear, and I was surprised that no one else was getting it while I read ahead of the rest. Oh well. As for MacBeth, it wasn't phenomenal, but it was pretty interesting, once you understood it. Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer's Night Dream, Much Ado About Nothing- reminiscing is more interesting than this debate- I rather enjoyed this lot.
Anywho. I'm a nerd because my parents were nerds. The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, no matter how hard it tries.
Can't say anything about Romeo and Juliet except I think there's a reason we haven't been forced to read it.
Oh, and Shakespeare isn't convoluted grammatically. It's archaic. That's mostly similar to their speech back then.

[Giga-Gar]

The only Shakespeare I've ever come in contact with was The Taming of the Shrew. It was quite funny acctually, but if I didn't have the Cliffnotes translation of the play, I would have been utterly and thoughly lost. Sadly, I didn't get to experience Julius Ceaser. I was looking forward to reading that, me being in Latin class and learing about the glorious Roman Empire and all.

[BionicleMandi121]

Right. I tend to forget that. @.@'
Some of the word contractions were confusing too, actually.
Konbanwa. I never read Romeo and Juliet, despite its popularity/overrated-ness. Only the seventh graders at my high school were required to read it (we had grades 7-12, so it's more of a combined middle and high school), and I transferred in as a ninth grader. So I missed it. :D
Speaking of which, my sister found rather hilarious (to me, anyway) "super condensed" versions of several reading novels, including Hamlet, The Two Towers, Lord of the Flies, Fahrenheit 451, Tuck Everlasting, and, of course, Romeo and Juliet. Most of them I've forgotten, but that last I typed out below, since it's easy enough to remember. There's a minor curse word in it, by the way, but I left it in 'cause I think it wouldn't be quite so funny if it were taken out.

Juliet: O Romeo!
Romeo: O Juliet!
Juliet: O Romeo!
Romeo: O Juliet!
Juliet: O Romeo!
Romeo: O Juliet! * dies*
Juliet: O Romeo! ...Romeo? ...Damnit.

[Celebifly]

Hey guys.

Still talking about Shakespear? Cool....

Sorry if I'm not as active as I once was, I've been experiencing life.

[NabMaster]

Lord of the Flies, Fahrenheit 451

My grade 11 english class was highly sadistic; we watched the Lord of the Flies movie after reading the whole thing, and when Piggy's big ending came up everyone was just cackling away because apparently someone saw the rock bounce on him.
Also, Fahrenheir 451 was a very nice movie. I really liked it.

[Giga-Gar]

Hey, this may seem like an odd question, but who's you're favorite Disney Villain? I can't decide between Cruella De-Vile, Maleficent, and The Queen from Snow White. I mean, come on. One wants to turn cute, innocent puppies into fur coats, the other is vain to the point of being pride re-encarnated, but gives up her supposed beutie to be an ugly old hag to get rid of Snow White, and the other's very name means evil and wicked!

So, who's your favorite?

[Silver]

I think most of you people need to run over to youtube and search for Shakespeare Reduced. I met them Sophomore year in English class too. It's pretty amazing, what with the Othello rap and Titus Andronicus the cooking show...

Heso! Gar, I have one word for you: Yzma.

[Celebifly]

What about Scar He kills his own brother in order to be king!

Damn Disney copying Hamlet.....

[Cheezdude]

Yzma is awesome. Actually, the whole Empires New Groove Movie wins at life.