I have certain plays, poems and sonnets by him that I enjoy and others I just can't get into. Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet are probably my most knowledgeable and likable plays of Shakespeare. I've actually been thinking of writing a book based on my own translation of Shakespeare works which I would combine with works of Edgar Allan Poe. Haven't started working on it yet but I got titles down. I need to get more into Shakespeare to do so, unlike Poe he's one that I have to really drive myself to get into a rhythm rather then always wanting to read him.

So what Shakespeare should we read?

geo wrote:Do you think we should create subfolders for all 37 of Shakespeare plays at once (each divided into five acts) so that anyone can comment on any play any time they want? I know that's a lot of new folders coming into existence all at once, but it would help generate a free-form, open discussion of the Bard. Or we could just let BT members start their own folders any time they want. Either way would work fine.

I don't think we should add all of the pieces at once, they would add up to 185 threads, the problem I see with this approach is that many of these threads will sit inactive. I think first we should choose what play we want to read as a group. After that you could add two or three other titles that have been suggested by members, suggestions that have generated interest and from what I have read in this tread there are a few plays that are mentioned by a few members. However, we have to make it clear that a member is free to start a discussion on any work of Shakespeare they want.

A question I have is, are we including the sonnets? Or are the sonnets something for the poetry forum? I think sonnets could and should be allowed to be part of our Shakespeare experience if a member wants to start a discussion on a sonnet.

Chris OConnor wrote:Geo, when you say "folder" I'm assuming you mean thread. We're in a thread right now about Shakespeare which is in the Belief, Religion and Philosophy forum.

Is there a reason why this thread in the BRandP forum? Are we going to keep the S threads in this forum? We could split this particular thread between the Belief, Religion and Philosophy forum, and the fiction forum while subsequent threads would be posted in the fiction forum only. I think most people when looking to discuss Shakespeare would look into the fiction forum, that's just my thought. I have looked into a past thread entitled, "Is poetry fiction or non-fiction", and DWill writes;

When we tell a story from imagination and we write it down as prose, we call it fiction. If we write the same story arranged in lines or stanzas, we call it poetry. If the story happens to be true written in lines or stanzas, we'd still call it poetry.

Geo agreed with this statement, and says,

Poetry is poetry. It's not classified as fiction or nonfiction.

And I found this:

Fiction v. Nonfiction

Texts are commonly classified as fiction or nonfiction. The distinction addresses whether a text discusses the world of the imagination (fiction) or the real world (nonfiction).

Fiction: poems, stories, plays, novels
Nonfiction: newspaper stories, editorials, personal accounts, journal articles, textbooks, legal documents

Fiction is commonly divided into three areas according to the general appearance of the text:
• stories and novels: prose--that is, the usual paragraph structure--forming chapters
• poetry: lines of varying length, forming stanzas
• plays: spoken lines and stage directions, arranged in scenes and acts

http://www.criticalreading.com/fictionvnonfiction.htm

Although there are plays that are historical, they're still fiction. So I think it is safe to place a Shakespeare thread which includes both the plays and the sonnets in the fiction forum.

Chris OConnor wrote:So what Shakespeare should we read?

From the list provided, "The Winters Tale" sounds appropriate for the season, but I would be interested in either, "Henry IV" or, "The Tempest".

Suzanne,

This thread that we're in right now is entitled, "Anyone up for Shakespeare?"

It is not actually in the Belief, Religion & Philosophy forum. This thread is in every single forum on the site. I made it a "Global Announcement" purposely so everyone sees it no matter what forum they are in. You saw it when you were in the Belief, Religion & Philosophy forum, but you would have seen it at the top of any forum you entered. Go ahead and look in some other forums.

Or click here -- >> Creative Writing

As you can see the "Anyone up for Shakespeare?" thread is at the top.

I'll respond to everything else next...

Suzanne wrote:I don't think we should add all of the pieces at once, they would add up to 185 threads, the problem I see with this approach is that many of these threads will sit inactive.

Yes, and inactive threads make BookTalk.org look like a dead community. Imagine if a Shakespeare fan landed on BookTalk.org and found the Shakespeare forum filled with primarily empty threads named after each play and/or part.

So we cannot do that.

Suzanne wrote:I think first we should choose what play we want to read as a group.

Definitely. I agree.

Once we have the play chosen we now have to decide between...

1. creating a forum that we'll use for discussing any and all works of Shakespeare or
2. creating a forum specifically for the play that was chosen.

#1 above is preferable because it establishes to the community that Shakespeare is now a permanent fixture on BookTalk.org. But creating a general Shakespeare forum does bring with it potential organization challenges.

Suzanne wrote:However, we have to make it clear that a member is free to start a discussion on any work of Shakespeare they want.

And here is the organization challenge I was referring to.

The only way to make a single forum dedicated to all works of Shakespeare AND keep it organized is to have a rule that anyone can create a thread but if the thread is about a particular play the name of the play MUST be in the thread title. This is hard to enforce because not everyone reads forum rules.

Just think about it. We're discussing Macbeth and a new Shakespeare fan/member decides to create a thread because they want to talk about a different play. If they use the name of the play as the thread subject then everyone knows what that thread is about. If they don't then people will get frustrated because they keep clicking on threads and learning the thread is about some Shakespeare play they haven't even read.

Here is what I am going to propose.

We start off this new Shakespeare venture with a single forum that is named after the play we're going to read and discuss as a group. In other words we do this the exact same way every other book discussions is handled on BookTalk.org.

So let's imagine we decide on Macbeth. The forum name would be Macbeth by William Shakespeare.

Here is where things will be slightly different.

Every thread within the Macbeth forum will have "Macbeth" in the title as the very first words.

So the threads could be titled...

Macbeth - Part One
Macbeth - Part Two
Macbeth - Part Three
Macbeth - Part Four
Macbeth - Part Five

This will make sense soon so bare with me.

Once the discussion of Macbeth (or whatever play we discuss) is a success and we want to progress into other Shakespeare plays we may decide to either continue on with creating new forums for each new play we discuss OR....

We create the previously mentioned general Shakespeare forum. All of the Macbeth threads are moved from the Macbeth forum to the general Shakespeare forum. The Macbeth forum is deleted and we now just use the general Shakespeare forum. Naturally, we wouldn't call it the "General Shakespeare Forum." That's am awful name. We can come up with something better than that.

So now all 5 of those Macbeth threads are in the new general Shakespeare forum and nobody will wonder what the thread contains because the thread will start with "Macbeth..."

Each new work of Shakespeare can be discussed in the general Shakespeare forum. We just name new threads after the plays.

make sense?

Another way to help me gain understanding of this material in high school was to have an audio to listen to as I read. This takes me way back, as the audio versions I used back then were albums. So glad that there are audio book versions out now which are downloadable to listen to as I read. Sometimes hearing an actors inflections in delivering the lines is enough to explain things you might stumble on during the reading process. But I am definitely going to bookmark that Shakepeare's dictionary page as well.

Chris OConnor wrote: Here is what I am going to propose.

We start off this new Shakespeare venture with a single forum that is named after the play we're going to read and discuss as a group. In other words we do this the exact same way every other book discussions is handled on BookTalk.org.

I think this is a good idea. The fiction forum has been pretty slow for a while so I think we should keep it simple and focus on just one Shakespeare play to start with and, hopefully, encourage fiction readers to participate ... on choice of play I have read several plays and seen some performances, but I don't mind rereading a play if we choose one that I'm familiar with (might be a bit easier . I haven't read Henry IV.

Chris OConnor wrote: I made it a "Global Announcement" purposely so everyone sees it no matter what forum they are in.

yup, you did tell me this.

Chris OConnor wrote:The only way to make a single forum dedicated to all works of Shakespeare AND keep it organized is to have a rule that anyone can create a thread but if the thread is about a particular play the name of the play MUST be in the thread title. This is hard to enforce because not everyone reads forum rules.

I see problems too. A general, everything Shakespeare forum can go in many directions, with movies and musicals and such thrown into the mix along with the plays. It can turn into one tangled mess. I agree, the title of the piece needs to be in the title of the thread. We may also want to label our group discussion threads, (Hamlet; part 1, group discussion, end date) The reason I suggest this is to give members a way to distinguish group discussions from random threads. If a member is looking for a community discussion, the threads will be easy to spot if it says, "community discussion". Including the end date will alert the member that the discussion has ended. This would only be for organized BT community discussions like upcoming one.

Hamlet

OK, we have 1 vote for Hamlet. Robert, maybe also give a 2nd choice.

Suzanne, do you have a 1st choice? How about a 2nd choice?

Geo?