Sometimes I'm surprised by my love of Shakespeare. I tend to shy away from overly popular media. No, it's not because I must be different at all costs, but I often feel bombarded and overloaded with it. Kind of like when you like a certain song originally, but after you hear it for the one bajillionth time you can't stand it.
Not so with Shakespeare. I mean, the man is everywhere, even when people don't recognize it. I remember my parents telling about going to see Hamlet in the movie theater. As they were walking out, they overheard the two girls in front of them discussing the movie. One said, "Wow, there were a lot of famous quotes in that movie." Yes, I bet there were.
My first experience (conscious and remembered, at least) with Shakespeare was in the 6th grade, in Mrs. Clark's English class. I thought this woman was clinically insane. Her room must have been in violation of every fire code, and if we said "dude" she would make us stand on our desks and say we were idiots. She also thought it was a good idea for the class to perform Shakespeare. We all auditioned for both King Lear and Macbeth.
I got the role of Lady Macbeth. This is no testament to my acting ability, though I did go on to high school theater. . . fame? I still fondly remember my costume, which consisted of a draped piece of purple fabric, my candle (electric), and saying "out cursed spot" instead of "out damned spot." It wasn't the best performance, but we all thought we were the-best-thing ever.
Through high school I kept my love of reading and writing, but English was my least favorite class. The idea of scholarly learning about literature was repulsive. We were just making stuff up, I swore. I was the science girl. I worked in labs over the summer and took way too many chemistry classes. To make a very long story short, here I am, in college, an English major, so I must be warming up to the idea of studying literature. And Shakespeare. Actually, I'm pretty excited about this class.
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