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/lit/ - Literature

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5964216 No.5964216 [Reply] [Original]

Why do some try-hard retards work so hard to pretend that King Lear is anywhere near as good as Hamlet? It is in no way as dramatically powerful as Hamlet, and its greatest strength - the actualisation of the constant human struggle between fidelity to art or to nature - hurts the drama by investing the audience more fully in the Gloucester/Edmund/Edgar subplot than the tedious relation between Lear, his daughters, and Kent which is written to occupy the foreground of the play's events.

>> No.5964219

Lear is overrated in my opinion.

>> No.5964266

>>5964219
Yes, massively so. Not only are the other three great tragedies superior, but so are Julius Caesar and Antony & Cleopatra.

>> No.5964609

>>5964216
Hamlet is satire though.

>> No.5964624

>>5964609
in what way?

>> No.5964691

Best Hamlet of all time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCyjXJ9oogg&feature=player_detailpage#t=347

>> No.5964772

>try-hard retards
>can't comprehend the black comedy of King Lear

Edmund is twice the character as Hamlet

>Hamlet
>one sentimental girl kills herself
>Edmund
>two machievellian goblins kill themselves

Edmund's Act2, scene 2 monologue is proto-standup comedy genius. Problem is no one can play him.

There's a reason Victorians sanitized Lear, allowing Cordelia to survive.

The original was too sublimely black and amoral

Next to it, hamlet seems pretty much pleb-tier

>> No.5964984

>>5964772
>muh illegitimacy comedy

epin, simply epin

>> No.5966703

>>5964216
1) Elliot and Shaw and outliers aside, Hamlet is pretty well accepted as, to paraphrase Bloom, the supreme artistic achievement in the history of the modern world, if not in the history of the world as such. In any case it's not as if people often say unqualifiedly that Lear is the better play.

2) Most people who lurk 4chan likely haven't had the life experiences the play seems to require to feel the right emotions toward/about Lear. I certainly haven't had children grow up pretending to revere me only to take away everything important to me out of pure and unjustifiable malice.

3) The generation that lurks 4chan will likely never feel the right way toward Lear, as we don't respect our parents and feel properly indebted to them, nor do we believe that kingly figures like Lear are inherently deserving of respect and adoration. We mock authority. Our generation likely sees Lear as R and G see him: he is an old fool that should be put in a home and punished if he disobeys our superior wisdom. WE know best, not he.

If Lear is not appreciated, it seems to me that the fault is not the play's. I'm anticipating charges of moral faggotry, but in all reality, if we don't appreciate the tragedy of Lear's situation, we probably ought, as Kent advises Lear, to "see better".

>> No.5966765

>>5966703
Moralfag.

But some of this sounds right unfortunately. Feels bad maybe being too shit of a person to comprehend Shakespeare

>> No.5966773

Where exactly is this supposed depth in Hamlet.
It seems so incredibly one-dimensional.

>> No.5966887

>>5966773
>poem unlimited
>one-dimensional

oy vey

>> No.5967002

>>5966773
Read more you fucking idiot

>> No.5967097

>>5966703
10/8

>> No.5967100

>>5966773
That's the point.

>> No.5967117

>>5964216
It is. Hamlet is absolutely awesome but Lear's journey is 2deep4u and equally fun. Those are some of my favorites.

Also, Iago from Othello for best villain.

>> No.5969114

>>5967117
>cunt daughters betray you and you go mad
>fun

>> No.5969150

>>5964216
>the actualisation of the constant human struggle between fidelity to art or to nature
can someone explain this for me

>> No.5970463

>>5969150
Have you read Lear?

>> No.5970511

>>5966703
good post

>> No.5971680

>>5966703
>Dark Enlightenment artificial-nostalgia memers acting like Shakespeare wrote in a stable feudal society, not one that was itself undergoing rapid modernization
>doesn't realize Lear is a play about modernization

>> No.5971724

>>5971680
>doesn't realize username makes ironic historicizing bait patently obvious as bait
>doesn't realize that Shakespeare's plays are only said to be definitively "about" a single theme by massive plebs and casuals
>doesn't take seriously the obvious themes in the play because they don't mesh with postmodern interpretations of literature as historical artifacts instantiating nothing more than power dynamics
See better, plebeian casual

>> No.5971740

King Lear made me spiral into a deep depression. No other book I've read has had the power to do that to me nearly to the extent Lear did.

>> No.5971750

>>5971724
when I say a play's "about" a thing I don't mean it's "only" about that thing. lol

>> No.5972100

Greatest film of all time, based off King Lear
tcm.com/mediaroom/video/306727/Ran-Movie-Clip-We-Are-Lost-.html

>> No.5972105

>>5964216
How can you not love Lear?
The fool?
Edmund?
Filthy casuals.

>> No.5972172

>>5972105
The fool in Lear is a shit-tier Shakespeare character. Edmund is great tho.

>> No.5972217

>>5966703
I really disagree with #2, whether you can personally identify with a character's experiences is irrelevant. I mean it's not like you've had your dad die and your uncle take his throne, is it?

>> No.5973794

>>5972100
>greatest film of all time
>not Olivier's Hamlet

kek