4 ms·

I saw a production of Twelfth Night without ever having read it. Also didn't know the plot. And unfortunately I didn't ever get the gist of what was happening.

I saw a production of Twelfth Night without ever having read it. Also didn't know the plot. And unfortunately I didn't ever get the gist of what was happening. I have a hard time imagining how other people are able to get the gist of the plays if they haven't read them beforehand. It's not just the Shakespearean language. It's also the constant references to Greek and Roman mythology, via Ovid, that presents a real barrier. That mythology is no longer part of mainstream culture.

AlbertCory 2y ago
> It's also the constant references to Greek and Roman mythology, via Ovid that's a perfect reason to NOT "update" it: the past is a foreign country. They do things differently there. You can't make it seem like the First World in the 21st Century. You just have to go there.
- scientator 2y ago
  Updating it wouldn't eliminate the original. It would simply give many people an accessible introduction to the work, and perhaps inspire them to explore the original. I really don't understand the resistance to providing people with that introduction.
  - AlbertCory 2y ago
    What stops anyone from doing it? I'm pretty sure I could search Amazon or Abebooks [1] and find lots of attempts at it. [1] https://www.abebooks.com/docs/community/featured/out-of-print.shtml https://www.abebooks.com/docs/community/featured/out-of-prin...
krapp 2y ago
>That mythology is no longer part of mainstream culture. Tell that to Percy Jackson, Disney's Hercules, Hades, God of War, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Smite, Lore Olympus, Disney Descendants, Immortals, Blood of Zeus, Kaos, numerous Marvel and DC characters and countless other media that still incorporate it.
- scientator 2y ago
  The Hollywood versions of Greco-Roman mythology aren't the same as what you get in Ovid's Metamorphoses. References to Ovid's Metamorphoses can be found on almost every page of Shakespeare, and if you haven't read Ovid (and really, how many people nowadays have?) a lot of Shakespeare's references can be cryptic.

AlbertCory 2y ago

> It's also the constant references to Greek and Roman mythology, via Ovid that's a perfect reason to NOT "update" it: the past is a foreign country. They do things differently there. You can't make it seem like the First World in the 21st Century. You just have to go there.

scientator 2y ago
Updating it wouldn't eliminate the original. It would simply give many people an accessible introduction to the work, and perhaps inspire them to explore the original. I really don't understand the resistance to providing people with that introduction.
- AlbertCory 2y ago
  What stops anyone from doing it? I'm pretty sure I could search Amazon or Abebooks [1] and find lots of attempts at it. [1] https://www.abebooks.com/docs/community/featured/out-of-print.shtml https://www.abebooks.com/docs/community/featured/out-of-prin...

krapp 2y ago

>That mythology is no longer part of mainstream culture. Tell that to Percy Jackson, Disney's Hercules, Hades, God of War, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Smite, Lore Olympus, Disney Descendants, Immortals, Blood of Zeus, Kaos, numerous Marvel and DC characters and countless other media that still incorporate it.

scientator 2y ago
The Hollywood versions of Greco-Roman mythology aren't the same as what you get in Ovid's Metamorphoses. References to Ovid's Metamorphoses can be found on almost every page of Shakespeare, and if you haven't read Ovid (and really, how many people nowadays have?) a lot of Shakespeare's references can be cryptic.