(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best dramas & plays books

My preferred version is Terence Irwin's Second Edition (2000). Note that this is not to everybody's preference; it's accessible, straightforward and it flows well, but it does translate a few Greek terms that would have been worth keeping! As always, reading around the subject will add these terms to your vocab.

I stumbled across this r/philosophy thread - Joe Sachs' Edition and Lord's Edition are amongst the most popular. Does anybody else have a preferred translation?

In terms of Aristotle's great-souled man and his understanding of friendship, we unpack these concepts in Part IV of this podcast series! I hope you enjoy the show enough to stick around until Part IV!

Sincerely,
Jack

Isn't 'birth of civilzation' but it's certainly amazingly awesome.

Flashman, by George MacDonald Fraser. Best historical fiction I've ever read. 18th Century British soldier who gets to see the major events of the worlds largest empire ever.. Hilarious and very historically fun.

Ooooh awesome!

1. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. A tragic comedy, it tells in a wonderful way the toils of religion and the euphoria of love. A dystopian romantic fantasy, and apart from #2 the best book I've ever read.
   
   
2. Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut. A comedic tragedy, the story of a man in love and in desperation and in trouble. We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. Quite probably my favorite book ever, and I think everybody should read it.
   
   
3. Technically it's a play, but The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh. A really well written dark and disturbing story about a man in a totalitarian investigation. But it still manages to be hilarious in all the most deep and worrying ways. It's definitely my favorite play, and is really amazing.

I bought the book Damn Fine Story just recently. It's a really really good read. Focuses in on how to keep an audience engaged with narratives and story telling using examples and such, as well as some useful philosophy in creating a story. Funny, and super engaging and useful.

Cousin 1: Ready Player One - Even non-gamers love this book!

Aunt: How To Know if Your Cat is Plotting To Kill You - Collection of comics from The Oatmeal.

Cousin 2: The Maze Runner - Mainly teen male characters in a very action adventure setting. Plus it was recently made into a movie so might catch his interest!

Grandma 1: What about Under the Tuscan Sun? I know it was made into movie (not that I've seen it)... but Italy + travel + food? Or The Wedding Officer Romance + WWII + Italy.

Grandma 2: Have you thought about getting a book of knitting patterns or projects? Knitting subreddit might be more helpful about a specific/unique one.

Girlfriend: Have you looked into getting her a signed copy or a really nicely designed hardbound copy of one of her favorite books? Penguin Classics or Penguin Drop Caps. The Folio Society is another option. These Signature Shakespeare editions have really beautiful paper die cut illustrations that are really special.

I have a book of plays by Christopher Durang that I'm working through, but before this I had just reread these three plays by Rajiv Joseph. Gruesome Playground Injuries is one of my favorite plays that features only two people and I love how the two characters seem real no matter at what age they're shown (which is from 8-38). I highly recommend Gruesome for someone looking to get into reading plays.

I know there is Luminosity, a Twilight fanfic. This was specifically inspired by HPMOR, as far as I know.

And someone from this community started writing a Pokémon fanfic.

Friendship is Optimal is also frequently mentioned in the same breath as HPMOR, but I don't know if it was inspired by it. It's not true fanfic, in that it doesn't really use any of the original characters or even the actual universe of the source material. It's still pretty good, though.

And as always in these conversations, I'd like to point out that Rational!Animorphs would be really cool and probably lends itself to this genre quite a lot. The only real hurdle to overcome is figuring out Z-space. ^(I'd do it myself, but I'm not a good writer.)

Edit: Since this is the top-rated comment, I'm going to update based on what others have said.

There's also Lighting Up the Dark, a Rational!Naruto fanfic that is explicitly based on an HPMOR omake.

And then there's Rationalising Death, a Death Note fanfic.

Edit 2: Hamlet and the Philosopher's Stone which is touched on in one of the omakes. Unlike the others, you have to pay for this one.

High Fidelity and About a Boy, by Nick Hornby

The Book of Joe, by Jonathan Tropper

These are basically romance novels written by guys, aimed at guy readers. Well, they're basically about aimless guys who are trying to find their way in the world, and along the way, they figure out that being a man can involve a woman. They're funny and -- as a guy -- I thought they were great. High Fidelity is especially well known. You might want to try that one.

this is one of my favorite mediums

Their work is amazing. I live in LA and am stuck in traffic a lot so I devour audiobooks. I have most of the plays on audio. They're more for hearing than seeing anyway so it's quite effective. I believe the pirate bay would oblige you as well if you are so inclined in that regard.

The Berlin Noir Trilogy is great. Raymond Chandler type private eye in Berlin before, during and after WW2

The Flashman Papers is a really funny satirical series about a cowardly, racist, drunken (etc, etc) Victorian English soldier

and Pillars of The Earth is a big epic novel about building a cathedral and the town around it. Super good, everybody loves that one. Ignore the lackluster TV miniseries.

The Oxford Shakespeare editions are always very well glossed and with good, engaging, comprehensive introductions. Definitely has my recommendation (the whole series!)

I liked Submarine by Joe Dunthorne. It's a debut novel, the writing is exquisite, intelligent and accessible, and the protagonist is fascinating.

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


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Back then, there was no printing, so if you wanted a copy of the Gospel of Mark, someone needed to write all sixteen chapters by hand. When people do this, they introduce changes—sometimes due to carelessness, sometimes to deliberately correct a mistake in the text they're copying, and sometimes in some attempt to sabotage the text. (An example of the last case: the text of a biography of the Persian philosopher Avicenna seems to have been tampered with by later adversaries to say he died of too much sex because he knew it was threatening his health, but couldn't restrain himself.)

So as the text of the New Testament was copied from generation to generation, these little variants crept in. All texts have these variants, unless we have only a single textual authority, like the one manuscript of Beowulf. If you read a critical edition of Hamlet, for example, there are notes at the bottom of the page pointing out the differences between early editions that the editor thought were important and making arguments about what Shakespeare really wrote.

We have more manuscripts of the New Testament than of any other ancient book. Because we have lots of manuscripts, we have lots of variants. This great wealth of information has made it possible in modern times to reconstruct the text of the New Testament with a very high degree of confidence.

David and Ben Crystal's book on Shakespeare is a thorough but accessible introduction to his language.

Though in my opinion Shakespeare's use of rhetoric is more important to understanding his craft than the nitty gritty of Early modern spelling. I'd check out Mark Forsyth's The Elements of Eloquence, which is a good primer and a bloody fun read.

Sanderson is also part of a podcast called "Writing Excuses". It's 15 minutes of a group of writers speaking their thoughts on a particular topic of writing. It has a lot to teach. I would also recommend a book called "Damn Fine Story". It helps to understand different aspects of good storytelling by breaking down iconic pop culture narratives like Star Wars and Die Hard. If you haven't read "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss it's hands down my favorite fantasy book, very influential and inspiring.

There are tons of good YouTube videos and channels where you can learn all about storytelling and its different components. This one looks into screenplays but still has much that is relevant to writing.

You may enjoy the fiction of Nick Hornby. He's light, funny, and yet manages to tell very real, human stories. Some of his best-known works include High Fidelity, About A Boy and A Long Way Down

Firstly, you have to approach the texts as works meant to be performed, so you have to imagine the expressions, actions, gestures, props, backdrops, etc. I have my students perform small sections of each scene to truly grasp that idea, and then we compare our performances to film adaptations. Secondly, to understand Shakespeare you have to attune your ear to the language, just as you would with a new hip hop artist with a unique style, which also might mean reading the glosses. I suggest first reading and analyzing "chunks" of Shakespeare through his sonnets before tackling the plays. As for the performance aspect, if you can't attend a professionally-staged Shakespeare play in your area, Looking for Richard is a film I typically show to students to introduce the magic of performing Shakespeare. It features Al Pacino and several other actors behind the scenes as they work out how to perform Richard III in Central Park. PM me if you can't find it. Finally, to answer your question about supplementary texts, as my school hasn't purchased access to the OED, I use Shakespeare's Words: A Glossary and Language more than anything.

I just finished reading Looking for Alaska . I enjoyed it. Some people lump it in with young adult, but I found it to be more sophisticated and thought provoking than most of the other YA books I've read.

Ronald Hutton's Stations of the Sun does a fantastic (if sometimes dry) job of exploring the development of the modern pagan wheel of the year and the holidays therein.

So much of the play is in a story-teller monologue style. It's been a couple years since I did it, so I'm having trouble thinking of specifics. It's a great read, though. Looks like you can get the Kindle version for three dollars

What Happens in Hamlet by John Dover Wilson.

Another interesting book is D.S. Savage's Hamlet & The Pirates (1977), in which he explains a lot of cryptic events with an off-stage agreement between Hamlet and Fortinbras.

I'm pretty sure the dude is disabled. This picture went around a while back. I think he also was like trying to sue Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande for not dating him or something.

Here he is, he also wrote a book

https://www.reddit.com/r/niceguys/comments/6502wq/guy_who_sued_taylor_swift_heartbroken_over_ariana/

https://www.amazon.com/Why-Sued-Taylor-Swift-Frivolous/dp/069297010X



edit: oh and this is apparently also him, but the name is blocked out so no way to know for sure

https://imgur.com/a/FR7YC

https://www.amazon.com/Macbeth-DVD-Folger-Shakespeare-Library/dp/1439172250

This is the version I show my students. It's awesome. They get to see it on stage this way too.

I would suggest that the best (most literal) translation available right now is the Joe Sachs' edition. There are some disputes over some of the terms he translates that people argue loses the original Greek sense of the word ("active condition" where others have used "habit" or merely "beautiful" for "kalon," which has the triple sense of the beautiful/noble/fine). There is a Claremont Institute book review about the difficulty of translating Aristotle into English, too.

Since studying Aristotle's Politics is the natural follow-up to the Ethics, I would recommend the Lord's translation as being the most literal.

Lastly, for additional reading on The Ethics, check out Ronna Burger's Aristotle's Dialogue with Socrates: On the Nicomachean Ethics.

Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo by Rajiv Joseph

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_Tiger_at_the_Baghdad_Zoo

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Gruesome-Playground-Injuries-Animals-Baghdad/dp/1593762941
Dramatists Play Service - http://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=4343

Mike Nichols has a collection of essays on the sabbats.

Book wise, "Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain" by Ronald Hutton is scholarly text detailing their origins and practices.

There are tons of videos on YouTube, you'll have to sort through them for those that focus on the historical side.

My favorite is "What Happens in Hamelt" by J. Dover Wilson.

Looking for Alaska - John Green

Edit: I misread the title, this is not a series. It's still great though.

The Folgers one is good.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1439172250/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1500944041&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=folger+macbeth&dpPl=1&dpID=51%2B3MFxkZoL&ref=plSrch

> Every six weeks is a sabbat

8 sabbats separated by six weeks each would make a 48 week year. Actually the minor sabbats (solstices and equinoxes) are seven weeks after the last major sabbat, while the major sabbats are six weeks after the last minor.

There's various issues around the names. Eostre is Germanic so shouldn't be used in a Celtic context. Ditto Litha, though there's no historic evidence I'm aware of that the solstice was ever historically called Litha. Mabon is an invention of Aiden Kelley, the autumn equinox was never called that by the celts or anyone else. Yule, again, is Germanic.

For a sensible and informed discussion of the festivals I would recommend Ron Hutton's The Stations of the Sun. Professor Hutton knows his stuff.

If you liked The Perks of Being a Wallflower you should read Joe Dunthorne's Submarine
It's so heartbreakingly funny and Oliver, the main character must be an infj.

I ordered it from Amazon for $20. A little more expensive than the others, but it was worth it to me to complete the set. As far as I could find, they only ever made these four.

Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire series has a few books to choose from. Then there's Flashman. Hilarious.

This guy also wrote a book about why he sued Taylor Swift for not being his girlfriend. I'm conflicted because I don't want to give this dude money but I really, really want to read his trash book.

https://www.amazon.com/Why-Sued-Taylor-Swift-Frivolous/dp/069297010X

Okay, I'm sure you'll get the impression that I'm a horror fan soon enough, so this next play that I recently read is a ghost story. The Woman in Black by Stephen Mallatratt, based on the novel by Susan Hill, which was recently adapted into a feature film (which I have not seen). It was first performed in 1989.

It follows the path of an actor hired by a man named Kipps to perform his story of a series of encounters with a phantom woman. The cast consists of the two men, with a third actor (uncredited) to play the ghost. Basically, it's the story of the source novel except that the curse of the Woman in Black starts to bleed through to the reality of the play that the two actors are performing.

I like it mostly because it's very simple but well written and I could easily see it scaring the hell out of an audience if done correctly. Definitely worth reading.

It comes with this edition of the play.

Oh it's available via Amazon, http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0822221004/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1450910606&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=pillowman&dpPl=1&dpID=41Ap9fv9AsL&ref=plSrch

if you ment 'the guard', it is too. i don't use streaming services (bad selection in my country) so i can't help with that...

Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1932219005/sr=8-1/qid=1469900196/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1469900196&sr=8-1

The guy wrote a book about suing Taylor Swift
Why I sued Taylor Swift

I'm very sorry for the inconvenient. But I couldn't find the link on Kindle. Here's the link on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/When-Jasmine-Returns-Nabeel-Kallas/dp/1977932177/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1516466808&sr=8-9&keywords=when+the+jasmine+returns
Please help me find the link of the book on Kindle. I'm having a trouble doing so. Thanks for understanding.

Here: https://www.amazon.com/When-Jasmine-Returns-Nabeel-Kallas-ebook/dp/B0795T8JBC/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1516466808&sr=8-9

http://www.amazon.com/Shakespeares-Words-Glossary-Language-Companion/dp/0140291172/

The first of the series.

For those who havent seen this guy. It's a trip.

Or read his book!

Here you go. It was a book/DVD deal.

Yes and there is also a film.

Get this -
http://www.amazon.com/Macbeth-Edition-Folger-Shakespeare-Library/dp/1439172250