Shakespeare and I

I don’t like reading Shakespeare. It’s not because of the Shakespearian language, that’s all explained in the footnotes so no need to worry about that. Instead, I honestly feel that Shakespeare wrote one thing, then he just changed a few names and called it a new play. And I’m not the only one. A colleague of mine, who actually loves Shakespeare, was saying that you can predict the action in all of his plays.

Right now I am reading As You Like It. A few months ago I read King Lear and a long, long time ago I read Romeo and Juliet. I am starting to see the pattern here:

- Good brother vs evil brother with similar names

- Rich vs poor

- Women are usually villains

And indeed, those were the days. That’s what people enjoyed. But I am asking myself whether only writing ‘safe’ was a good thing or not. I mean, Shakespeare called himself the best of the best and he became best of the best, but does he really deserve it?

Anyway, it doesn’t matter how good was Shakespeare. I have to read some of his works now that I came to the UK. His country continues to make me happy with its brick houses and its abundance of trees and its sunny days. And the old man I met this morning when I went to buy potatoes from the convenience store down the street. He saw that I bought potatoes and then came back to me and said, `I never knew that they’re selling potatoes here. And I’ve lived around all my life!’