What We're All About

Hello there. If you don't mind, I'd like to take a moment to let you know what we are all about. This blog is a repository for a sort of collective journaling from a few people as they endeavor to read the entire works of William Shakespeare over the course of the summer. So, in stupid invitation form:

What? The entire works of William Shakespeare and ancilliary materials.

Where? Here.

When? This summer.

Who? Me and some others who will introduce themselves shortly.

Why? That's a good question. I'll explain my reasons and let the others explain theirs.

My name is Kellen. I graduated college about one year ago and now work at a psycholinguistics lab helping to devise and run various experiments. I have apparently decided that I want to spend my free time reading and rereading Shakespeare. I'm doing this because I like silly projects and I do, really, earnestly like Shakespeare.

Actually, that's not true.

I like Hamlet. I love Hamlet. I've read tons and tons of plays, and I like none of them as much as I like Hamlet. In fact, some of my greatest disappointments have been the other Shakespeare plays I've read. None of them match up to Hamlet, by my estimation.

So why read Shakespeare, again? Because I want Hamlet in its context. I want to situate it in the author's wider work.  If I can understand Shakespeare better, I'll understand and like Hamlet better. This means not just reading Billy's texts, but reading his sources and his contemporaries. I have made peace with the fact that I will be reading The Spanish Tragedy at best, and at worst, Greek "comedy" that I don't care for one bit. Or even worse, Shakespeare's own comedies. FIRST POST BURN!

In any case, let me lay out the ways I plan to approach our dear Billy Boy.

1. Desperately searching for relevance to Hamlet.

2. Desperately examining source texts and scope of influence, allusions, etc.

3. Looking for a linguistic angle on things. That's what I'm trained to do.

4. Heavy discussion of any movie based on the play. However loosely. This is the "10 Things I Hate About You" approach. I expect I will fall back on it often.

5. Loose, loose connection between Shakespeare and something else in my life. For example, right now I'm watching a lot of playoff basketball: BAM! Done.

In any case, that's how I'm going to do this thing. I'll let the others lay out their approach. My next post will be a little more about Hamlet and why it fascinates me so much and then after that I will finally start reading and writing about some plays. First up: The Comedy of Errors. Why? Because it's one of Shakespeare's earliest, least sophisticated, and shortest. It won't know what hit it.