April 23 is traditionally celebrated as Shakespeare’s birthday, although Shakespeare geeks would know that this day isn’t really when he was born. In fact, he died on the 23rd of April 1616. Since his exact date of birth isn’t known, this day has been designated as the celebration for his birthday. Isn’t that pretty cool?
Anyhow, even if it has been several days since this date, I thought it would be fun to point out how you could celebrate the life of one of the greatest – if not THE greatest – writers who lived. Geekosystem has compiled a pretty cool list of ways by which you can celebrate the bard’s birthday. While it’s a bit late for that, I found out some pretty interesting links between geek culture and William Shakespeare.
For one, did you know that Star Trek has been influenced greatly by Shakespeare? You might have noticed that Captain Jean Luc Picard had a habit of quoting from Shakespeare’s work. Many Star Trek titles are also influenced by him. And, yes, the great William Shatner was trained as a classic Shakespearean actor. If that’s not incentive for you to grab one of Shakespeare’s play, then I don’t know what is!
Another icon linked to Shakespeare is Neil Gaiman. Who is not familiar with his Sandman comics? Well, the news is that he is a huge Shakespeare fan. As an aside – a friend recently sold her complete set of Sandman for dirt cheap. I shouldn’t have hesitated and grabbed it!
For people who scoff at the thought of “Shakespearean English,” this might just be your chance to expand your vocabulary (and horizons). Some of the most respected geeks held Shakespeare in high esteem. That’s saying something, isn’t it?
Well, everyone knows the Klingons wrote Hamlet, you just need to read it in the original version! I believe Patrick Stewart was also a member for the Royal Shakespeare Company for quite a while. I’d certainly like to think of Shakespeare as a geek!
Shakespeare was the first author whose complete works I read in English. Does that help my geek status?