Daily Mail
Confirmed: Reading Shakespeare is better therapy than self-help books
Researchers at the University of Liverpool found the prose of Shakespeare and Wordsworth and the like had a beneficial effect on the mind, providing a ‘rocket-boost’ to morale by catching the reader’s attention and triggering moments of self-reflection.
Using scanners, they monitored the brain activity of volunteers as they read pieces of classical English literature both in their original form and in a more duMbed-down, modern translation.
And, according to the Sunday Telegraph, the experiment showed the more ‘challenging’ prose and poetry set off far more electrical activity in the brain than the pedestrian versions.
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The Psalms are worthy of constant reading and memorization.
Might as well skip the Shakespearean middle-man and go to the source anyway.
Scribbler on January 14, 2013 at 10:08 PM
What turned most students off to Shakespeare (at least before the NEA destroyed the schools) likely are teachers who assigned the reading of Hamlet over Christmas vacation or Thanksgiving weekend whereby reading the Bard became to them more like reading the, er, B@$+ard crimping their plans for time they’d planned to do something besides homework.
viking01 on January 14, 2013 at 10:13 PM
IOW Dumbing Us Down not only lowers intellect, but also leaves people morose and lacking in self-discernment and the ability to form an appraisal of life events.
That explains a lot.
INC on January 14, 2013 at 10:23 PM
Good point.
I also had the thought that one time many Americans would have grown up with a Bible in their home, even if there were few other books.
INC on January 14, 2013 at 10:26 PM
Don’t like reading plays or poetry.
Give me well-written prose.
davidk on January 14, 2013 at 10:27 PM
Or amateurs.
davidk on January 14, 2013 at 10:27 PM
In 6th grade my teacher had us take turns reading one of the Psalms at the beginning of the day. As I remember, we could choose whichever one we wanted to read.
INC on January 14, 2013 at 10:32 PM
A great-aunt of mine liked the Psalms so much that when she was a young lady she decided she would memorize Psalm 119… and she did.
viking01 on January 14, 2013 at 10:38 PM
Shakespeare didn’t write prose.
“So long as men can breath or eyes can see
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.…”
profitsbeard on January 14, 2013 at 11:48 PM