Dear Shakespeare,

I’m sorry you are not alive today to see all of the adaptations, and blatant stealing of your works. If I could have a lunch date with anyone dead or alive, you’re definitely on the list. I mean, seriously, I have so many questions. Like how the heck did you come up with the word “Rant?” Thanks for that. It’s also in the name of my blog. I’d probably also geek out like the English major I am. It’s obvious that Kevin Spacey’s love of your works probably helped make his decision to do the Netflix hit House of Cards a heck of a lot easier. Yes, they draw from Richard III and Macbeth, that’s obvious. Politics. If you were alive today, I imagine you’d be a blogger, a playwright, and a screenwriter. Man, you would probably love film making and movies, but I’d suspect you’d become annoyed by all the detailed stage directions. We know you weren’t too descriptive on that front. Seriously, you should see Kevin Spacey deliver a kick-ass monologue you should probably take all the credit for 22 minutes into episode 13. Yes, it’s his Macbeth/Richard III moment. And yes, he and Robin Wright probably play the modern day equivalent of Macbeth and his Lady, but we need to give credit where it’s due. Without you Willy Shakes, there’d be no Nicholas Sparks novels that are made into cheesy movies with the same poster concept for each one. There would be no Breaking Bad, because we all know tragedy and wickedness start in the most unlikely places. I mean, you helped make storytelling what it is today.You helped make the modern day villain complex, and made us want lovers to end up together. As an audience, we should be reading all of your plays, sonnets and such. All day. All the time. We can learn so much more about ourselves from your writing.  You’d probably be frustrated with all the reality shows though. Those are really bad.

I’ll rant as well as thou.–Hamlet (Act 5, Scene 1, Line 284)

Fun Fact: That’s just one line of the  1,569 that Hamlet has to say.