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Victor Hugo, 1859: "Two exiles, father and son, are on a desert island serving a long sentence. In a morning, sitting in front of the house, the young man asks: 'What do you think of this exile?' 'It will be long... ", replied the father. 'And how occupy it?', continues the young son. The old serene man reply: 'I will look the ocean, and you?' It is a long silence before the son's answer: 'I will translate Shakespeare.' Shakespeare: the ocean

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Thank you for this wonderful post! There truly is merit in the challenge of engaging with Shakespeare's language, and it may well help save students from the abyss of AI language processing tools. I recently wrote a post that dovetails with your article in relation to the Toronto District School Board's decision to drop Shakespeare from its curriculum. See "Tilling the Ground for chatGPT" https://schooloftheunconformed.substack.com/p/tilling-the-ground-for-chatgpt

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I love teaching Shakespeare and I miss that it's not a part of my current curriculum. My favorite to teach has always been Othello, because it is deep and more modern than people give it credit for.

And I've never understood the controversy over authorship. I had a professor in college who was obsessed with Edward De Vere and when I spent a semester in London he spent the entire semester trying to convert my classmates. I think I was the only one who didn't succumb. It always felt so elitist. My one regret from that semester is that I didn't make it to Stratford-Upon-Avon as a result.

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