Hate Mail

SOMEONE DEMANDS I tell them what I'd have them teach instead of Romeo and Juliet, to which I might suggest All's Well That Ends Well or The Dream or any number of other ones. I think I'd have paid better attention to Twelfth Night than I did the sappy love story in which a good majority of the participants would count as criminally insane today.  Fodder for an even dumber musical.   As I recall they taught us R&J in ninth grade, Freshman year in high school - I doubt even today they would dare to give an explanation of the meaning of lots of the words in it and the controversy those would bring.  It's kind of counter-productive when you are supposed to be teaching literature but don't dare define the words.  And I don't mean just the near ubiquitous error of thinking the question "wherefore" means the besought girl is wondering where he is - an error even Roger Ebert made, as I recall.  It's a good example of how the meaning of one of the most famous speeches in the English language is so easily overlooked by not understanding one word.

I'm not sure that teaching 16th century literature to brats in the throes of puberty is the most efficient use of their time. Not to mention verse drama, but, well, they should be encouraged to read it, eventually.

Actually, if it were me, I'd choose Robinson Jeffers' Medea which I think would probably have been more engaging.  The language of Jeffers is a lot clearer, requiring less of footnotes which a large percentage of the class won't look at and, so, think the silly bint is asking the absent Romeo where he is.   Jeffers' use of a chorus of three women is better than most translations of the original Greek drama gets it.   The messages of the evil that comes from breaking faith and how seeking revenge is bottomless in its toll are probably more useful than young love stupidly doing stuff and feeling sorry for itself and suicide given as a remedy.    I wouldn't teach The Crucible - I think they gave that to us in tenth grade - without pointing out that Arthur Miller totally lied about the actual event to make his play, the same with Inherit the Wind - which they gave us in eleventh grade.   If there's one thing I hate in literature, it's lying about actual events and people because even those with PhDs are too stupid to understand that movies aren't real - or plays.   The less close to pretending to deal with real history and real people the drama gets, the safer it is.