Pop Sonnets- Shakespeare podcast

Shakespeare Pop Sonnets is the most amazing thing I have ever read.

Pop songs today is so similar to Shakespeare that you would think they are based off of Shakespeare. Erik Didrikson wrote a book called Pop Sonnets which is our favorite pop songs translated into Shakespearean Sonnets. These are the funniest things I have ever read, and included some of my favorites below. Erik has a lot of fun converting these songs. The sonnets are 14 lines long and are in Iambic Pentameter. The most enjoyable part of it is reading the lyrics in Elizabethan language. Some of the songs such as Fresh Prince of Bel-Air you can still put the Elizabethan language lyrics to the actual music. Other songs such as Taylor Swift's Shake it Off will have a modern lyric which makes it funnier! The podcast really opened me up to how many Shakespeare connections there are in modern day culture. Since Shakespeare we have modernized but many of our dramas, stories, and situations are the same as in Shakespeare. I am sure that in Shakeaspeare's lifetime there was plenty of funny, silly moments where people dance around, drama, gossip, love triangles between the teens, and sassy people that will give you attitude in some sarcastic tone that we all have today. The Pop Sonnets makes me want to go back in time, and read these to the people to see if maybe someone is suffering a heartbreak and reciting words from Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On, or saw a fine guy and said Call Me Maybe. Now whenever I hear a song that I read the sonnet, all I can think of is how the song applies to Shakespearean times. Shakespeare was a mix of the Taylor Swift, Eminem, Beyonce, Drake, etc. of his time. Reading the pop sonnets show how much of a cultural interest that Shakespeare was. 

The article I read further connects Shakespeare and modern day music. One song in particular I have loved for years and the article reminded me of how it perfectly fits in with pop sonnets. The song I am referring to is Taylor Swifts Love Story. The song to me has always summarized Romeo and Juliet and whenever I hear it I can picture Taylor Swift as Juliet in a white and gold dress in a fancy ballroom, and being swept off her feet by Romeo. The article also discusses how musicians with African-American roots (which I think all artists no matter what the race apply) use Shakespeare to explain their intentions. Shakespeare is also related to rap. Rap used powerful words, lyrics, and references to make bold political, playful, insulting, and rhythmic points. Shakespeare wrote very similar to rap because of the iambic pentameter, and he would express bold, political, hilarious, and sometimes insulting opinions and thoughts. Shakespeare has shaped our culture today, and without him I do not even want to imagine what music would be like. 

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Should we be reading Shakespeare in school?

Shakespeare is a well-known british poet, and playwright from over 400 years ago. Most students still read Shakespeare today, and learn about his way of writing. On the Washington Post there is two articles posted by Valerie Strauss debating if we should still read Shakespeare in school or not. Both articles are written by long time english teachers; Dana Dusbiber who teaches minority students in an inner city school and believes we should not, and Matthew Truesdale who teaches white students in a rural school and believes we should teach Shakespeare.
Dana Dusbiber states that she does no longer want to teach Shakespeare in her high school classes. She teaches in the biggest inner city school in Sacramento California, which majorily consists of minority students. She believes that reading a dead white man will not connect well with her students.
          ¨So I ask, why not teach the oral tradition out of Africa, which includes an equally relevant                              commentary on human behavior? Why not teach translations of early writings or oral storytelling from            Latin America or Southeast Asia other parts of the world? Many, many of our students come from                these languages and traditions. Why do our students not deserve to study these ¨other" literatures with            equal time and value?¨

Dana does have a good argument, but not every case is exactly like hers. Matthew Truesdale wrote a response to the article that was published by the same person on the Washington Post. Matthew teachers middle and high school students in a rural, mostly white town in South Carolina. Matthew disagrees with Dana and thinks that we should still teach Shakespeare in schools because he can teach about the ¨modern human condition¨.
              ¨Where does it say that we can´t teach Shakespeare AND oral African tradition? In fact , why not                  work to draw links between the two? And should we only read authors that look like us and have                  experiences like us? Or for that matter, does a commonality in skin color mean a commonality in                    experience?¨

I completely agree with Matthew Truesdale´s article, and as a high school student I certainly would not mind reading both Shakespeare and oral African stories, and making the connections between the two. Another article I found published on the American Theater website by J. Holtham is similar to Matthew's article and responds to the article written by Dana. The article states ¨Bringing them (the other culture´s oral traditions) into the classroom would be a great idea. But keeping Shakespeare is essential, too¨.
             ¨Shakespeare teaches us about love, honor, duty. About parents and children. About ambition and                 greed. These are things that all of us face, the things that makes us human."

From the perspective of a high school student Shakespeare teaches important life lessons that any person of race, ethnicity, sexuality, etc. could connect to in some way. I like the idea of reading both Shakespeare and stories from other cultures to provide everyone with something to connect to, and broadening our cultural and literature. This year is the first year that I have appreciated Shakespeare, and want to read him more.

Strauss, Valerie. "Teacher: Why It Is Ridiculous Not To Teach Shakespeare In School". Washington Post. N. p., 2016. Web. 3 May 2016.

Strauss, Valerie. "Teacher: Why I Don’T Want To Assign Shakespeare Anymore (Even Though He’S In The Common Core)". Washington Post. N. p., 2016. Web. 3 May 2016.

Holtham, J. "Do We Even Need To Say This? Yes, Shakespeare Belongs On The Curriculum". AMERICAN THEATRE. N. p., 2015. Web. 3 May 2016.

Shakespeare Top 3 questions

Researching Shakespeare is a tedious task. In my school we were introduced to Shakespeare in 8th grade, and have read the 400 yr old plays ever since. Some classes were lucky enough to have good teachers who would read Shakespeare with them, I on the other hand was not so lucky. Both my 8th and 9th grade teachers hardly read any Shakespeare with us, so while some of my peers have 3 or 4 of his plays under their belts, I only have the one Romeo and Juliet.

William Shakespeare the genius behind many plays, poems, and sonnets had quite the life. He is a controversial historical figure with theories on whether or not he was an actual person (which he totally was). One of the things I found the most interesting in our class discussion was how gender and sexuality was based on a sliding scale back then. That explains how Shakespeare had romantic relationships with both genders.

Shakespeare’s works are over 400 years old yet we still read them in school today, and when we do read them they are still somewhat comical, dramatic, interesting, and relatable. That is why my number 1 question about Shakespeare was “How was Shakespeare able to write works that still connect with modern ideas?”. From the article “Why do we still care about Shakespeare?” on the UTSA College of Liberal and Fine Arts website I was able to answer my question. Shakespeare’s is one of the greatest poets of all time, and creates rich themes of love, tragedy, etc. that make his writings still appealing, and relevant for today’s generations.

Reading Shakespeare out loud in class will always be a stressful event for fear of messing up the language. My number 2 question was “Why did Shakespeare speak in a certain language?”. It is said that Shakespeare wrote in Old English. Shakespeare-Online website says that he actually wrote in what is called Early Modern English (which I guess could still be Old English to us). This was the language spoken at the time therefore the complex sentences and weird words were just natural to Shakespeare. However he did choose to write in iambic pentameter (which is another story).

Having only Romeo and Juliet under my belt I wonder how Shakespeare was able to write such a complex drama. Even as a child I knew about Romeo and Juliet written by Shakespeare. My number 3 question was “What was Shakespeare’s inspiration for Romeo and Juliet ?”. Surely he had to have some inspiration for such a tragic love story.  The American Repertory Theater website provided a detailed comparison to Shakespeare’s inspiration “A Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet” by Arthur Brooke and Shakespeare’s version. As it turns out the story of Romeo and Juliet was passed down under different titles since 1530. Shakespeare simply just took a simple old love story, added drama and tragedy, and made it one of the oldest love stories of all time.

I learned much about Shakespeare’s life, and style of writing. Shakespeare has survived 400 years, and I am confident that he is not dying out any time soon.