Comments by "John Warner" (@johncrwarner) on "5 Classic Books I'm Reading in 2022" video.

  1. When I studied Classical Chinese, as part of an evening part-time degree course in Chinese Language and Literature, we read a lot of Hanfeizi, who was a legalist political philosopher / thinker, the Chinese was crisp and clear, though his philosophy was very authoritarian. I would thoroughly recommend reading some legalist thinkers, and counterbalance it with some Confucian thinkers. The Daoists are the anarchists of the Chinese world who challenge your thoughts on self, state etc. I never read The Hobbit myself my mother read it to me as a bedtime read As she was a trained Kindergarten teacher she used to do all the voices etc. I was spellbound.
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  2. I think you are right about seeing a performance of a play like Dr Faustus rather than just reading it on the page. I have a love for Shakespeare fostered by my parents taking me to see Shakespeare plays from aged eight. I still remember seeing the RSC production of The Merchant of Venice with a memorable series of casket scenes and the caskets being life-size. But also Shylock's house popping up from the middle of the stage for the elopement scene. I had seen ten to fifteen Shakespeare plays by the time I did any formal study of one play - and it was dreary in the extreme in the classroom but I had laughed at a performance not long before.
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