Re: The Demonization of Shakespeare

On Tue, 8 Apr 2025 11:05:34 -0400 (EDT), kludge@panix.com (Scott
Dorsey) wrote:

>
I regularly see screeds like this and they are usually better-written and
more coherent, so let me quietly recap the arguments that the original message
meant to make.
>
The argument is that not enough attention is being paid in schools to the
Great Western Books, and that time is being wasted by introducing students
to literature of other cultures.  There is also the whole argument that doing
this implies that the literate of other cultures can be as good and as
important as the Great Western Books.

The set known as /The Great Books of the Western World/ goes from
Homer to Freud. The collectors admit that it was hard to tell, from
the 19th Century on, which books were truly "great", but Freud was
very popular among intellectuals when the original set was produced.
There apparently was a second version to actually included some
19th-century female authors. The original is entirely by DWEMs.

This was based on the curriculum of a small college that decided to
teach the ancient trivium and quadrivium and read/discuss the various
works in their original languages. The sets were, of course, in
English.

What you are describing sounds like a faint distorted echo of that
effort. Combined with a dose of chauvinism.

<snippo Shakespeare examples of what the alt-right calls "woke">
<I should note that is has always been my understanding (probably from
something I was told or read) that Romeo and Juliet would have been
about 13, but who can say for sure?>

Now, personally, I do wish that more time was spent teaching the Great Western
Books in school, as well as teaching books from other cultures.  But from my
perspective, the first problem is that kids aren't reading anything at all on
their own.  Fixing that by giving them anything they can relate to seems like
a beginning to me.  Yelling about the lack of Shakespeare in schools is
merely sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Indeed.

Of course, part of the problem is the insistence (well, back in the
60's it was) of the teachers on expressing their personal liking for
the books instead of taking a more objective approach, making any
comments less than adulatory unwelcome. Why bother to engage with a
book when the teacher has already told you how you must feel about it?
And I suspect they are reading all sorts of stuff on their own. Just
not books. And certainly not books recommended by adults.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"