Ouch! Like Ms Jackson, I've spent a curmudgeonly lifetime bemoaning these "shortcuts" to the richness of our artistic and literary heritage. I still thunder every chance I get at any of the atrocious modern translations of the Bible--real men read the KJV. So banal, so little beauty, so little for the mind, yada, yada.
But just last week my very distraught and overburdened grade eight son in an accelerated academic programme told me almost tearfully he had seven lengthy passages from The Merchant of Venice to study and report on for the next day, and he couldn't make sense out of any of them. I dashed to the local bookstore to get the Coles Notes of my youth (I never inhaled) and the nice young clerk introduced me to No Fear Shakespeare. Much joy when I returned home and peace and harmony resumed their rightful place at Casa Burnet, but oh, the guilt!!
Ouch! Like Ms Jackson, I've spent a curmudgeonly lifetime bemoaning these "shortcuts" to the richness of our artistic and literary heritage. I still thunder every chance I get at any of the atrocious modern translations of the Bible--real men read the KJV. So banal, so little beauty, so little for the mind, yada, yada.
ReplyDeleteBut just last week my very distraught and overburdened grade eight son in an accelerated academic programme told me almost tearfully he had seven lengthy passages from The Merchant of Venice to study and report on for the next day, and he couldn't make sense out of any of them. I dashed to the local bookstore to get the Coles Notes of my youth (I never inhaled) and the nice young clerk introduced me to No Fear Shakespeare. Much joy when I returned home and peace and harmony resumed their rightful place at Casa Burnet, but oh, the guilt!!