Do You Hear What I Hear?

      I should get an audio version of all of the Shakespeare plays we're reading.  It's really convenient for me because it's a twenty-minute walk to school and twenty minutes back, and so I can bust out forty minutes of homework when otherwise I wouldn't be doing anything useful.  It's also helpful when I'm doing the dishes because it makes it more interesting.  My dear roommate Erma caught me making vehement hand gestures during one of Hamlet's big speeches (I can't remember which).  She told me that she was embarrassed to know me.  Personally, I think she's just jealous of my acting talent.  

      I know pretty much everyone has said this, but I think it was important for me to hear the emotion in the narrator's voice as the play was being read.  I prefer viewing Shakespeare's plays to reading them for this exact reason.  I can't make my inner reading voice sound interesting--it just doesn't work. So I was glad that someone was dong it for me.  This made me realize that a small, moving whisper can be just as effective as a loud, powerful, passionate speech; you can't speak very quietly when you're onstage.  The emotion conveyed in the audio version helped me emotionally connect with the characters and the story.  

      The commentary was helpful, but I didn't enjoy it that much.  It broke the flow of the story too much, I thought.  The explanations made the events more clear, but to be honest, they're annoying.  I prefer just the story.