I'm a student from Scotland, I love reading books and I love watching movies and playing games.
Currently in class we are reading Othello, one of William Shakespeare's great tragedies. My teacher was telling us that for higher [a qualification] english, she believes that things like the movie Psycho and similar films - which other classes were studying - should not be taught as she did not consider them literature. She didn't say this in so many words, but the implication was certainly there.
The thought then struck me...
Why are we reading shakespeare? Why is he considered literature, and not other more modern writers considered shakespeare?
Why is it that you can go out and buy a collection of shakespeare's dramas to read? I would never imagine someone sitting down to read their new copy of the script of E.T or Star Wars; so why do people read shakespeare - instead of watching his plays as they were intended to be seen?
I want to hear your opinions on the matter, should we be reading scripts as if they were novels? Or should we be leaving them on the stages and film set where they belong?