I used to hate Shakespeare ... until a 200-year-old book changed my mind

The useful part

I got in an argument once with a guy who was dismissing white, Anglo-Saxon culture, saying it was overrated and overrepresented. He thought Americans needed to learn about other cultures, and other artists, who were just as good, if not better. Even if these other artists were as good, I didn't grow up within those artistic traditions.

How it works

• As a child, we had a beautiful collection of Shakespeare's complete works prominently displayed in our living room.
• A sense of shame I don't remember how the argument ended.
• The truth was: I knew very little about Beethoven or his music, except for his short piece "Fur Elise," which I was forced to learn on the piano when I was 9.
• Then there was the small problem of Shakespeare, one of the greatest literary figures in the Western tradition.

Details worth keeping

In 'The Tempest,' there was no basic reality. Characters could become invisible if they felt like it. They could live for years on desert islands without food.