John McWhorter: preference

Transcript context

…When will Shakespeare require a translation? Today. [laughter] And we know the drill. “Oh, it’s just poetry.” “Oh, you just have to let it roll over you.” “Oh, it’s better when the people are British.” “Oh, you’ve got to have a good director.” “Oh, you just don’t want to reach up and do the work,” et cetera. No, no. It’s that every 10th word, and especially late Shakespeare, means something different than what we think it means. It goes by, and you’re a little confused if somebody says “generous,” and you think they mean magnanimous, and they mean noble. The line doesn’t make any sense, and you go “Huh?” Then about 10 lines later, somebody says “wit,” and what they really mean is knowledge, and you’re wondering why the line was funny. What, what? So you’re confused again. After that happens about 10 times, frankly, you’re bored if you’re seeing it in real time, for the first time. Now, if you’ve read it, fine. Some people would say — and I think that this is a legitimate answer — everybody should be expected to have read a Shakespeare play before they see it, in which case, it’s okay. I’ve done that. Even as nerdy, obsessive me, if I haven’t read it, or I haven’t read it in a while, I will openly admit that, especially with Shakespeare, after about his first 10 minutes, if I go and see a production live, even if the people are British, and even if I’ve had coffee, I don’t know what the hell any of those people are saying. [laughter] And it’s because the words don’t mean what they used to. Now, I’ve gotten in trouble with some people for that, but frankly, if we sat through King Lear, and we hadn’t read it for about 10 years, I’m sorry, no, you do not understand what they’re saying. I think we need translations. Conrad Spoke — I’m going to put in a word for Conrad Spoke, and I’m going to make sure he listens to this. He’s done, not translations, not like “Yo, yo, yo, Mercutio,” or something like that. It’s not that. It’s that you take each one of those little words that doesn’t make any sense. Somebody says “a haggard” and you’re thinking “A saggy-faced what?” And they mean a falcon. Just put in damn falcon, and then you can go on. If you do that, then all of a sudden Macbeth is like being at the Glass Menagerie. You have to listen, and you might get lost every now and then, but you’re actually seeing a play, and you don’t have to have read it before. Translate Shakespeare last week, please. Here’s a very emotional question. What do you think of the 1996 reforms to German spelling? Does the word stopp really need two p’s? Should there be such formal reforms? [laughter]…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.