Well, having read pretty much all of the Bard's work, I have to say that I don't agree with him being called 'an overrated hack' at all.
I'm sure that there's a big difference between choosing to read Big Bill's works and effectively being forced to read them in order to get an exam result, particularly when some lecturers can get a bit 'up their own arse' about meanings and such. And, I'll grant you that in terms of storylines, Shakespeare is not exactly the most elaborate, in fact some of his plots are just plain silly.
But you have to weigh against that, almost certainly some of the best dialogue, prose and poetry ever put down on paper. And, if you view the storylines within the period they appear, and on the timeframe of dramatic development, they are probably no worse than anything else in terms of dramatic story structure, so even that is forgiveable. They were, after all, originally written for an audience with a more limited grasp of the world and its affairs. But that writing is just magical.
William Shakespeare is one of the treasures of the literary world, and anyone who can't see that, is really blind, or at the very least didn't read it at all. Reading WS when you actually want to read it - rather than when you have to in order to answer some exam questions and extoll a bunch of exam-pass cliches about it to some bored matriculator - is when you'll appreciate it.
In any case, welcome back PG.
Chock
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