To ask if Shakespeare would be making TV series

[BrightLightsAndSound]

In the shopping centre today. About a dozen people sat on the chairs/benches. All on their phones, except for one elderly man who was reading.

With so much phone-based entertainment, with so many good, character-driven TV series and great films being made, is there going to be a place for the novel in the future?

It makes me wonder - if Shakespeare was working today, wouldnt he be working in TV? Wouldnt Dickens be making gritty films?

What can reading give us that watching cant?

With reading you focus and use your imagination more. I'm an avid reader and the books I love stay with me for years not so much TV.

Reading gives me the pleasure of being able to imagine the characters and places for myself, instead of someone else's view. I get what you mean, and if Dickens was writing for TV it would be superb, but books are a mile away from TV (IMO) as they can be so 'personal'. I hate being
'spoonfed' with plots and imagery, although having just discovered 'Lucifer' on Amazon, I'm damn glad someone put that on screen! Would love to read the books, if they are books though.

I get much more from reading than I do from watching. You don’t live with the characters you watch in the way you do with the ones you read. I also find I struggle to focus on long films, but I can happily read for a few hours at a time. Which isn’t to say that tv isn’t a great art form - it’s just a different one.

The people on their phones might have been reading you know! I sometimes use the kindle app to read on my phone.

You might be interested in a book called the Ship of Theseus - it was co written by Neil gaiman and someone else I can’t remember. It’s specifically to explore what you get from a physical book. As well as the novel itself it has a sub plot in handwritten margin notes and physical objects like postcards and napkins with drawings on them tucked into the pages. It’s a fabulous gift for a book lover.

Yes the people on their phones could be reading. I have the Press Reader app and download newspapers and magazines.

Well, Shakespeare mostly wrote plays, rather than books, so quite possibly. Although he might have ended up creating advertising, which would be a loss.

There are still many fine contemporary authors. I think a book provides so much more time and space to explore an idea than TV or film. Just look at how poor so many adaptations are.

Imagine “a midsummers night film”
“Romeo and the TV set”
“King Leer”

Shakespeare wrote for the common man. What's more common than television?

Start from the premise that shakespeare didn’t write to be read but watched. Playhouses in the Elizabethan and Jacobean period were for the general populous (the rich watched plays at home or at court). Shakespeare would’ve probably written for any medium that paid!

Dickens again published via serialisation so as to be affordable do I suspect he would be the tv writer.

I still read a lot. But download from kindle onto my phone so you wouldn’t know.

My issue atm is I go through books too quickly, I have a fair bit of downtime. Need to line up the next one.

Plus I don’t watch much stuff, maybe a Netflix episode at night

Shakespeare would definitely be doing TV. It’s where the money is.

He wrote plays for people who were unable to read history and events. They toured the country learning about kings and wars through his plays. That’s why that are quite bawdy in places. So yes, I think whichever medium still gave people access to history and current affairs, he would utilise.

I've always said that Shakespeare would be writing for one of the soaps if he was alive in this day and age.
He wrote for the masses, and enjoyed a good tragedy.
My money'd be on EastEnders

@Flutternotsoshy
I think Shakespeare was more epic and umiversal than TV so I reckon he would be making the big powerhouse series like True Detective and Breaking Bad style.

Dickens wrote in series and was more into the grit so I reckon he would be your eastenders man!

Trying to think of more now. Jane Austen I reckon would actually be a scripted reality TV producer these days.

Never thought of Dickens for TV. But I can totally see your point.

And Shakespeare would probably be signed up for HBO, Amazon or Netflix blockbusters.

Reckon the Brontë sisters would be making two part specials for the BBC rather than full series.

Shakespeare would be on GoT or some huge production he certainly wouldn't be on something as mediocre as Eastenders.

It’s not one or the other though OP.

I love to read. I read at least two books a week. But I love film too.

I don’t view them as competing mediums.

Alan Ayckbourn isn't making TV and seems to have a lucrative career as a playwright so no reason to believe Shakespeare would be.