Quote:
Originally Posted by The Batlord
Shakespeare was written for an audience of illiterate (probably drunk) peasants. If today's layman, who is actually at least somewhat educated, can not even understand what the **** is being said without the aid of a classroom, then it does not have the same impact as it did hundreds of years ago. Which therefore means that Shakespeare no longer has the same relevance that he used to.
But yes, a change in language does not diminish his accomplishments... anymore than Metallica's accomplishments are diminished by changing musical language.
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Literature isn't a good analogy anyway, because music is much more universal and works more on an emotional level than literature, which works on an emotional level as well, but where intellectual aspects are much more important. But once again, there was no talk about relevance, only about being good. And he was good back then and he is now.
If Ninetales said something like: Metallica is lame, because they don't rock as much as some XYZcore and Chula had rightfully pointed out, that XYZcore wasn't around back then and Metallica did rock a lot compared to the existing stuff, then your argument about a changed language might have been somewhat true.
Since that wasn't the case and the discussion was not about rocking, but about making good music and since the musical language didn't change that drastically, I'd still say that the "You had to be there" defence is pretty lame.