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Parodies By Literary Giants
As the year winds down, I like to have my classes review the things we’ve read–and the elements of style employed by great authors–by having them write parodies of things as if they were done by...
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Recommended Viewing: The Reduced Shakespeare Company
A quick trip to the library this evening has kept me up late because I instantly became addicted to a video I checked out called The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), a whopper of...
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Time To Revisit Star Trek VI
As the hubbub heats up for the release of the big Star Trek reboot in two weeks (and it does look terrific), I’ve been thinking back on the first ten films in the series. Fans have their favorites and...
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Style Imitation Exercise
As the year winds down in American Lit, I assign a style imitation exercise to review the major works we’ve read and the styles of some important authors. The students’ job is to write a brief version...
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Visual aids for A Midsummer Night’s Dream
I taught this great play last week for a few reasons: students tend to be exposed to Shakespeare’s tragedies to the exclusion of the comedies, it’s short and accessible, and it’s timely (check the...
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Census Takers In Ancient Rome?
Teaching Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar this month reminded me of the current brouhaha over the supposed intrusiveness of the 2010 federal census. In Act III, Scene 3, a minor character runs afoul of an...
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Summer Self Improvement Report (Or, Where’s Huston Been?)
So, in case nobody noticed, blogging was a wee bit light this summer. Actually, chances are that nobody did notice, as the light blogging has dropped my daily hit count down to some of its lowest...
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Shakespeare Is Not “Old English”
A pet peeve: people constantly complain–students and adults alike–that they can’t understand Shakespeare because he wrote in “old English.” No, he didn’t. Shakespeare wrote in exactly the same modern...
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Shakespeare in the Bible
I got a strong response to a post mentioning Shakespeare recently, so I thought I’d bring this up. People tend to get a kick out of it. Shakespeare is mentioned in the Bible. Sort of. In Psalm 46 of...
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I Hate Romeo
I recently finished teaching Romeo and Juliet to my freshmen classes. This is the first time in several years that I’ve read this play, and it instantly brought back one very big reaction: I hate...
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Shakespeare, As Performed By Several Silly Celebrity Voices At Once
Filed under: Humor, Language and Literature
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Two Shakespeare Quotes Dissing School
Some people may think Shakespeare is difficult, elitist, old-fashioned, or whatever else they don’t like, but nothing could be further from the truth. Like all permanently classic works–Mozart’s...
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Joyce On Shakespeare
“He reflected on the pleasures derived from literature of instruction rather than of amusement as he himself had applied to the works of William Shakespeare more than once for the solution of difficult...
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College Textbooks
A recent article includes college textbooks among the biggest consumer rip offs in America. Yup. Releasing superfluous new editions is a favorite trick of publishers. Why do we need brand new algebra...
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Shakespeare’s Histories Are Pretty Gangsta
Betrayal. Revenge. Conspiracy. Murdering your way up the ladder of power. People usually associate these plot elements with Shakespeare’s tragedies, but I see them operate most strongly in his...
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King Lear Reimagined As a Band of Five
In my project of reading the complete works of Shakespeare this year (currently at 33 down, 5 to go), I read King Lear for a second time. Something that struck me is just how complementary the five...
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Every Play By Shakespeare, Ranked And Graded
Last year I read everything Shakespeare wrote. Here now are my final notes on the plays. The grades only represent how much I enjoyed reading each work; they are not meant to be an objective measure...
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9 Blue Jokes in Shakespeare That Made Me Laugh
I admit, these juvenile gags gave me a giggle, and I kept track of them in my notes. In chronological order: #9. Guys get teased about someone sleeping with their mother. Shakespeare is full of...
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Irresponsible Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: just another literary classic where young people’s problems are solved by mind-altering drugs.Filed under: Humor, Language and Literature
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“Relatable” Reading
There’s a popular trope among students (and many teachers) that the things people read should be “relatable,” meaning that stories should reflect the ideas, cultures, and even ethnicities of the...
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