Now THIS Is My Meme

Shakespeare! Someone finally hit on a Shakespeare meme!

Alright, alright, alright already. You guys don't have to do it, but I'm doin' it. Who's with me?

(Crickets...chirping...)

Okay, no worries! (States author a tad too brightly.) I'll do it! Just me and my Bard... :)

[Meme courtesy of A Library is a Hospital for the Mind.]

In this week... 445 years ago, William Shakespeare was born. Happy birthday to the bard.
And so, in honor of his birthday, I thought I'd post the following meme, which I found over at the blog: At Home With Books.

1. What was your first introduction to William Shakespeare? Was it love or hate?
My first introduction to Shakespeare was Macbeth, and I loathed it. (Yeah, you stand there with your mouth agape, but here's another shocker--I didn't like Springsteen the first time I heard him, either.) I was in junior high and couldn't wrap my head around it. I didn't start to understand it until the funny line from Dead Poet's Society where Robin Williams does John Wayne as Macbeth.

2. Which Shakespeare plays have you been required to read?
Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet (ah, dear sweet Hamlet..."words. Words. Woords."), Twelfth Night, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, there are probably more but that class was at least nine years ago...

3. Do you think Shakespeare is important? Do you feel you are a “better” person for having read the bard?
Yes. A thousand times yes. Shakespeare teaches you to slow down, to TASTE words and know them better, man. (Oops. Stole from Dickens on that one.) He also taught me quite a bit about not being afraid to take risks, since most of these plays are revamped versions of already well-known stories of the time. Maybe he was teaching us all to be a plagerist...hmmm...

4. Do you have a favorite Shakespeare play?
A Midsummer Night's Dream for a comedy, Hamlet for a tragedy, and The Tempest just in general. Sadly, I never cared much for the histories...

5. How do you feel about contemporary takes on Shakespeare? Adaptations of Shakespeare's works with a more modern feel? (For example, the new line of Manga Shakespeare graphic novels, or novels like Something Rotten, Something Wicked, Enter Three Witches, Ophelia, etc.) Do you have a favorite you'd recommend?
I guess Shakespeare In Love or Rosenkrans and Gildenstern Are Dead are what I am most familiar with. I liked Harold Bloom's book on Shakespeare, and like the Riverside edition of Shakespeare best.