I was just now reading with some enjoyment Marc Lamont Hill's list of "The 15 Most Overrated White People" until I arrived, stunned at first sight and then simply embarrassed for Mr. Hill, at #8.
William Shakespeare.
Hill opens with a preposterously superfluous yet simultaneously disparaging assertion: "There's no doubt that Shakespeare has a rightful place in the Western literary canon."
"A rightful place." Isn't that generous? Shakespeare is, has been, and always will be almost universally viewed (see this post's last sentence, and link) sitting atop the Western canon, yet Hill grudgingly labors at merely finding a "place" for Bill in it. Right. It gets worse:
Unfortunately, thanks to sycophantic critics and narrow-minded educational systems, Shakespeare is the only person who seems to matter to the average person. Billy's hulking presence in the Western literary imagination has led to the marginalization of other incredible writers of his era, such as Kyd, Middleton and Webster, whose work merits equal if not greater attention. Also, as a result of his deification, we ignore the fact that many aspects of Shakespeare's work -- such as the writing in Hamlet or the generally narrow range of female roles in his plays -- just aren't that awesome.
That first sentence--from a Shakespeare "critic," mind you--is just plain incoherent. Shakespeare only "seems" to matter because of literary sycophants--you know, Mozart wasn't so hot, either, but he's had "narrow-minded" music theorists behind him--but yea, verily, we're delighted to learn that these byzantine sycophants in their isolated ivory towers are conscientiously followed by none other than ... the average person.
Would that that were true.
Hill proceeds to a zero-sum analysis of contemporary reputations. Why? I don't know. There is no credible explanation. Ever heard of Lou Gehrig? You have? How's that? Babe Ruth was around then, too.
Hill's (mercifully) final sentence, though, leaves one altogether slack-jawed. Hamlet is unexampled in its depth of playwriting introspection, and that, gentle reader, is actually an understatement (as any sycophant will tell you). As for Hill's criticism of the "narrow range of female roles"--many among the many of which were created as wildly unorthodox, cultural puncturings of male pomposity and presumptions--well, now that's just awesomely ignorant.
Has Hill actually read Shakespeare? Or does he only read "scholars" harbored at the School of Resentment.
I don’t see why people admire Hamlet so much. It's nothing but a bunch of quotations strung together.
Posted by: mdblanche | October 09, 2012 at 02:05 PM
"The lady (man) doth protest too much, methinks." Hamlet
I really scholarly friend of mine once declared that he thought Shakespeare was overrated, and he did not lot like his plays. When I asked why, he said something to the effect that the plots were all cliche' and that he saw the same plots everywhere, including soap operas.
I responded that was because his plots were so good that writers had been stealing them for 500 years.
He thought, beamed a big smile and said, "Oh, yeah. That would explain it."
I have read that he invented 1,700 words and phrases. That's akin to Isaac newton inventing calculus to explain his physics.
Posted by: Robert Lipscomb | October 09, 2012 at 04:06 PM
Sigh. I have probably read Hamlet at least ten times over the years and traveled far to see productions of it and every time I learned some new and pleasing thing. Shakespeare invented a poetic language that did not exist before him and still inspires today. I doubt the author of this piece ever read it but if he did, lacking the necessary intellectual resources , did not understand it.
Posted by: Peter G | October 09, 2012 at 04:49 PM
Who the hell is M. L. Hunt and further more, who the hell cares.. He represents the truly dumb of our nation...probably watching Dancing with the Stars...and thinks this a clue as to how we as nation thinks....well may he is right about the truly stupid 30&....hope they all stay home in November.
Posted by: SueMe | October 09, 2012 at 06:18 PM
As Shakespeare didn't say but Chaucer might have: "Fuck him."
Posted by: veryslowwriter | October 10, 2012 at 12:29 AM
What a damned stupid column by "Dr." Hill. We could do an overrated blacks column, and there would be plenty, most of them thug athletes like Vick, or rappers and the like.
Jeez - and the worst music in the world, the worst, most overrated music is rap and hip hop.
Hill is an idiot for even attempting to perpetuate this type of crap.
Posted by: McJeff | October 13, 2012 at 12:55 AM