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Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare Published: 1623 I’d like to read at least one Shakespeare play a year until I’ve gone through the lot of them, and I thought since Joss Whedon’s movie adaptation was coming out soon I’d read Much Ado About Nothing for my latest. This is one of the comedies, and the humour ranges from witty banter to near-slapstick malapropisms. The story begins as a prince, Don Pedro, arrives back in Messina with his officers after a victory at war. One of the officers, Claudio, has the hots for the governer’s daughter Hero and plans to marry her. The governer’s niece Beatrice is also there…
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Work vs Play
Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it – namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. And this would help him to understand why constructing artificial flowers or performing on…
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The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare Published: ~1590 This play is a little fucked up. Lets just make that clear. I’m not sure how it might have been received at the end of the fourteenth century, but I imagine it would raise the eyebrow of any modern reader. It’s politically incorrect in such a hilariously unapologetic way that you almost have to laugh in mild horror. I’m going to spoil the plot now. I figure anything over five hundred years old is free game. The play begins with an induction. A drunk named Christopher Sly is found unconscious in the street, and a lord orders his servants to…