Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Disagreeing

Been thinking about opinions, about disagreeing, about how somewhere along the line I grew frightened of having a strong opinion for fear someone would disagree with me and then I'd feel bad.  My father (and others) will be shocked to hear me say this, as in some ways I seem to have an endless supply of strong opinions, but this fear is also true about me.  I still want the right answer, the A++; I want for everyone in the whole world to think I'm pretty and smart and cool.  I wanna be the good kid. 

Anyway, was talking to Sam about it yesterday, and today he sent me this quote by Tolstoy on how tedious he finds Shakespeare as an example of brave disagreeing.   Love it, not because I agree, but because he just says it, you know?  The whole world loves Shakespeare and Tolstoy says: meh.  Although, I'm no Tolstoy.  Can we only express opinions this bold when we're Tolstoy? 
 
"I remember the astonishment I felt when I first read Shakespeare. I expected to receive a powerful esthetic pleasure, but having read, one after the other, works regarded as his best: "King Lear", "Romeo and Juliet", "Hamlet" and "Macbeth," not only did I feel no delight, but I felt an irresistible repulsion and tedium... Several times I read the dramas and the comedies and historical plays, and I invariably underwent the same feelings: repulsion, weariness, and bewilderment. At the present time, before writing this preface, being desirous once more to test myself, I have, as an old man of seventy-five, again read the whole of Shakespeare, including the historical plays, the "Henrys," "Troilus and Cressida," the "Tempest," "Cymbeline," and I have felt, with even greater force, the same feelings,—this time, however, not of bewilderment, but of firm, indubitable conviction that the unquestionable glory of a great genius which Shakespeare enjoys, and which compels writers of our time to imitate him and readers and spectators to discover in him non-existent merits,—thereby distorting their aesthetic and ethical understanding,—is a great evil, as is every untruth."

Tolstoy on Shakespeare. 1906.

3 comments:

Amara said...

I think disagreeing comes with self confidence. Tolstoy was sure of his opinion. I on the other hand would have a lot of trouble feeling qualified to give an opinion on Shakespeare. I WOULD however feel perfectly comfortable in saying that Petunias in a front yard are horribly passe and vulgur. You do fine in expressing your opinions on a lot of other stuff, but wanting to please isn't a bad thing either. It comes with humility which leaves you open to further knowledge --never a bad thing.

belann said...

I think Amara is right, you do fine, as does Amara in expressing your opinion about things you really know. (Your teachers from the past would certainly agree with me). And sometimes I do think it's better to quietly disagree. It's hard to change someones opinion unless they are in a questioning mode.

Spencer G said...

Well, I certainly wouldn't have recited some of Shakespeare's plots to Tolstoy on a cold, windy, English hillside!