Blogging is an entirely new medium of communication for me. I've read and followed blogs (admittedly blogs of family members, but still), but never actually started and kept one up myself. I've never been good at journals or record keeping, but considering that this blog will be a very essential and important part of my Shakespeare class this semester, it seems probable that I will be much more successful this time.
On this blog I hope to accomplish a number of things. First, and most importantly, to put myself out of my comfort zone. I am exactly the typical English major that prefers to listen to lectures, read the assignment, and then write the essay. It is familiar and very safe. But unfortunately, that is not what life is like. Life is full of people and new ideas. I'm hoping that this class, especially through this new new digital media, will help me be more open about ideas that I have and willing to share them and get feedback.
Second, on this blog, to the eternal joy and amusement of my followers, I will hopefully be posting about the ways that I extend my learning outside of the classroom. Whether this be my own imitation of one of Shakespeare's sonnets, or even a video of an artistically interpretive scene from one of his plays, I'm willing to put myself out there and see what can be done to learn about this ironic, brilliant, and comic playwright that we've all come to love :)
Of course, with all the fun self-directed learning and social interaction there is also a serious research aspect to this blog. By trying out my thoughts on this blog, I hope to be able to develop them into strong ideas that then lead to an even stronger thesis.
Basically, as seen from the title of this blog, I aspire to embrace Shakespeare's philosophy, that "all the world's a stage," and that blogging is just a new type of stage in this rapidly progressing world.
Although some people may feel like this poor guy:
I will try to be optimistic and remember that at the very least my English teacher will have to keep up with my blog, so hurrah for having one forced but hopefully supportive follower. Thanks for reading and I'm excited to see what our first discussion on Hamlet has in store for us tomorrow.
