Laura Bates (1)

Being a retired high school English teacher and one who has taught Shakespeare for decades, I’m always on the lookout for books about the teaching of the bard’s works. I began this book several months ago reading the print version. I ended up putting it down after a few chapters. (probably because something I had been waiting for for months came back to the library). Then I started listening to books while I walked on the treadmill, so I went back to Laura Bates’ book as an audio book. While I find her prison Shakespeare program laudable, and I have the utmost admiration for what she did, I really felt that her tone was so sympathetic to the offenders, and she spent very little time talking about their victims. I know this book is about the offenders and what they accomplished using Shakespeare as a vehicle. That said, Bates seems to cast inmate Larry Newton, the focus of the story, mostly as a victim himself. I admired his achievements both in learning Shakespeare and in preparing materials to teach Shakespeare. However, the bottom line is he is a killer, and his sentence is fully justified. Bates spends some time seemingly criticizing Indiana law regarding murder, namely that anyone involved in the murder of a victim is charged with the same crime as the person who did the actual killing. While admittedly harsh, it is a law that has been in place long enough that it is well known. Larry Newton will never be released from prison, and he probably shouldn’t be released. That doesn’t mean, however, that he can’t do a lot of good while behind bars as he has already shown. Laura Bates’ “Shakespeare Saved My Life” is well worth the time investment, and the audio version is read by a narrator whose voice is pleasant.… (mais)

A nonfiction account of a college professor who teaches a Shakespeare class at a maximum-security prison in Indiana. The results are life-changing for some of the inmates. I loved the prisoners' interpretation of many of the Bard's plays. Their unique perspectives gave added depth to many plays, especially Macbeth and the histories.
“Why is a prisoner’s motivation to earn a degree so that he can return to his family sooner viewed more negatively than a campus student’s motivation to earn a degree so he can make more money?”

“Hoffman: “Ultimately, here’s the question Macbeth needs to face, and it’s the question we all need to face: What does it profit a man if he gains the world but loses his soul? Seriously. You gain everything but you lose your humanity. This is what happens to Macbeth. And that’s what happens to us, out of the choices we make.”

“A record ten and a half consecutive years in solitary confinement, and he’s not crazy, he’s not dangerous—he’s reading Shakespeare.”… (mais)