How Old Is Hamlet?

http://princehamlet.com/chapter_1.html

I don’ t have much time to get into this at the moment but I didn’t want to forget about the link.  Forget Romeo – how old is Hamlet?  The gravedigger’s scene seems to tell us pretty clearly that he’s about 30.  Does that feel right?  Wasn’t he off at school?  Isn’t he still working out some issues with his relationship to mom?  Doesn’t everything else about the play make him feel younger? The link above comes from the book, Hamlet : The Undiscovered Country, by Steve Roth.  I can’t seem to find any links to the book itself so I’m not sure if it’s already published (perhaps a long time ago), or coming soon.

"I have never read a single book from Shakespeare, completely."

So I had an interesting conversation with a coworker yesterday when he discovered this blog.  The above quote is his.  I wasn’t quite sure how to follow that.  He is in fact from a different country (India), but still, I think I was under the impression that just about every modern school system in the world had some exposure to Shakespeare. So, what would you say?  I don’t think it’s appropriate to just jump in and say “Oh, well then, it’s Romeo and Juliet for you!  Right now, get started!  Come back when you can discuss Queen Mab.”  Especially not without the benefit of a teacher who is going to stop you after every scene, answer your questions, and make sure you’re getting the general idea.  I suggested he make it a point to go see some Shakespeare, and showed him Bard in Boston as a great place to start.  And I lent him my copy of Bryson’s Shakespeare biography.  If he likes that, I’ve got plenty of others to show him….

Who needs 14yr old British girls, anyway?

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2268229,00.html New report called Read Up, Fed Up : Exploring Teenage Reading Habits in the UK Today about the reading habits of 11-14yr old girls says many things to make you sad: * Top winners include celebrity gossip magazines, “reading song lyrics online”, and “reading your own blog.” * Harry Potter is both in the most liked and most loathed categories. * The most loathed is homework, followed by Shakespeare, followed by…ready for this?  “Books of over 100 pages.” I place the blame firmly with Alan K. Farrar, my distinguished visitor from that area of the world.  Looks like he’s not doing enough to pimp the Bard’s good works among the young folk!
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