Shakespeare Saved My Life

Book was in the condition I expected and it arrived on time.

I am in a book club comprised of professors; that is great for me, as they are generally 20 years my senior and have so much life experience and wisdom to share. That wisdom brought the club to choose this book; otherwise I would not have read it, and that would have been a loss.How do we reach people who may believe that they have done something so horrible that they cannot be redeemed, or that nobody would understand? Shakespeare is full of characters who lack character. There are characters that anyone can relate to, whether they feel misunderstood, have done something that they are ashamed of, or fit the description of a true scoundrel. At least, through Shakespeare, we all join the human race, rather than being something "sub-human." That does not mean that being that way is celebrated; being able to talk about these things and the devastating things that people do to one another is a start in being able to talk about being better than that.We have a problem with the high incarceration rates in our country. This has been made even worse by states that now have a private prison industry that locks people up for profit, so of course, rehabilitation is not a goal as it would lower profit. This can be a difficult topic to address, because we do struggle with crime and violence and still have a lot of work to do to come up with better solutions. This book is approachable; it allowed me to look at these issues without having to look away. The true horrors that we have in some of our prisons, particularly the private ones but others as well, are too overwhelming for me. This book was just right.Interestingly, it is not just Shakespeare, but other literature that can change a person who is incarcerated. Those of us who love books do feel touched and changed by particularly good books at times. Why would we doubt that the same is true for someone who is incarcerated? Right now I am thinking of the documentary called "Fear of 13" that tells the story of Nicholas Yarris, who also found his opportunity to grow and change through books. One of my children is a Shakespeare scholar, and I can't wait for him to read this book! He isn't as keen on the idea and has been letting it sit. I understand; the topic makes us uncomfortable. If it is making you uncomfortable, that's ok. Be all right with that feeling, and read the book anyway. It is a story that is worth the telling, and worth hearing. Enjoy it.

Linda Bates was a PhD candidate when she brought the study of Shakespeare to prisoners incarcerated in Indiana's Wabash Maximim Security Prison Even within that institution the Segregated Housing Unit (SHU) offered an additional level of security --prisoners were kept in small cell's with no windows d a solid door with a slot through which paper and food could pass. You could not see your neighbors or even the guards who delivered your purposefully bland meals. A prisoner had to place his wrists behind his back and through the.slot to be handcuffed before the door was opened . One of the men kept in SHI was Larry Newton, a man who had been one of four teenagers (Larry was 17) who accosted a young college student in the middle of the night in Muncie and killed him Larry pled guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment with no opportunity for parole. When Linda Bates met Larry he was someone who after two escape efforts was placed in solitary. C.onfine!any for a decade. There was little positive to.say.about Larry.at.that moment. A decade later.Larry believed Shakespeare had.saved his.life and he.was the.leader.of a much admired.program that use the .16th century plays to draw prisoners to a rehabilitated attitude of positive change. MSNBC, CNN and other media has chronicled the programs success. And yet Indiana ultimately unfunded all educational programs in their prisons and frustrated Larry's dream of becoming the first prisoner to earn a PhD. The story of the program is nevertheless fascinating.

This was an insightful read about on the rehabilitation of supermax prison inmates through the reading of Shakespeare's plays. It narrows its focus on the Shakespeare professor (Laura Bates)'s experience teaching Shakespeare to prisoners, and in particular, delves deeply into the relationship her pupil, Larry Newton, develops with the work of the Bard.As an English major who studied the works of Shakespeare and as a long time fan of seeing the plays performed on stage, I don't know what compelled me to pick this one up. I found the idea intriguing of educating prisoners with this kind of academically rigorous programming. Personally, I recall struggling to make sense of some of the plays, some of the language. I remember how long it would take me to read one play (and we needed to read one a week) and yet I was surprised to find that some of the insights her students never would have crossed my mind. I never thought to approach the work in the ways they have. Instead, I mined the works of scholars and read over the hundreds of tiny print footnotes at the bottom of every page in my enormous Complete Works of William Shakespeare. But I never, not once, used the Bard's words as a way to examine my own life, and my own motivations.Larry Newton, a man convicted of murder and serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, challenged all the stereotypes I carried in my head about prisoners. His experience is a testament to the power of Shakespeare's work and that of equipping all people, including the incarcerated, with education. Though I realize education--much like religion--may not impact everyone to the degree in which it inspired change for Newton, I think it can be very hard to engage with something so intimately and not walk away without having gained something valuable. Like those old TV commercials: the more you know...Some of the questions posed by the book, including 'should prisoners have access to education' and 'if so, who should pay for it' really invite opportunities for further reader engagement. I don't have any hard and fast answers, but I certainly find the question interesting! Guess you'll have to decide for yourself.As a cool sidenote: I did recognize the name of one of my own university professors in this book, and I was really excited to see that she's done some work within this field as well. I may go on to read her book someday, too.

As a prison volunteer I found it very informative - moving - and wonderful to see how inspired these tough guys became.It should be read by all prison educators. Inspiring.

An absorbing account of the author 's experience teaching Shakespeare in a high security wing of a US prison. If you know your Shakespeare this will provide amazing insights

This was a celebration of the timeless power of Shakespeare and the fact that working with people means that there is a two way influence for the benefit of both parties.

Dr. Laura Bates offers a lifeline to prisoner Larry Newton and everyone who feels imprisoned psychologically or otherwise through the therapy of studying Shakespeare. Larry Newton’s honest, profound, and original interpretations of Shakespeare’s plays warm the reader’s heart. If you love the bard,you will be intrigued by this book. More insights about the plays would keep the reader more engaged. The reality of Larry’s life and his victim’s death make it difficult to separate an appreciation of the book from the horrors of its origins.

Laura Bates' memoir of her relationship with life-sentenced prisoners uses her teaching of Shakespeare to expose a disturbing depth and range of human experience in the most extreme conditions. We meet a literature prof with the allegedly most hardened incarcerated convicts. Shakespeare lovers will appreciate the book for its use of the bard, but note that the book is not about Shakespeare but about the best and worst of who we are. The fit is perfect, for that's Shakespeare's writing about humanity. The match is compelling.Dr. Bates challenges us to think deeply about who we are and how we treat the most marginalised among us, even those who have done us wrong. She encourages us to have faith in the potential for goodness of the most 'dangerous' in our society, or more particularly one supremely intelligent and wise inmate. It becomes a lesson in humility for us all, so much a needed quality in this increasingly violent world. The genius of focal student, intelligent intellectually and emotionally, is set brilliantly against the bureaucratic horror of the penal system where a man can be in solitary confinement for ten years. While Dr. Bates never makes excuses for the wrongs of the criminals and never denies the need for discipline and control of the prisoners, her appeal for rehabilitation simply in the cause of humanity with her indefatigable energy speaks for itself. Her students are human beings who rediscover their souls through her inexhaustible commitment.So, it is a story of triangulation. The prof, the students and the system. At first it would seem that her opposites would be the students in the context of a system. It becomes apparent that the prof and students become humanity and the system becomes place of concrete and iron, physically and bureaucratically. While some personnel do their best in a hard situation, there are others for whom Dr. Bates implies criticism. For those, perhaps as an extreme analogy I would suggest Hanna Arendt's "Eichmann in Jerusalem" as the corporate mindset allows little room for anything that is not dehumanised. I couldn't help being appalled by the conclusion. While my analogy may too strict, I remember that within the system there are those who do have faith and Dr. Bates is allowed to work. We are not completely dead yet.The book is a book of the spirit, probably the most poignant (apart from The Elegance of the Hedgehog, a fiction) text I have ever read. A book that presents exceedingly brutal, torturous conditions, lifts one beyond the gloom and restores some faith in the potential of those that fight for good. On a small scale, I would put her in with the students of Martin Luther King, Tommy Douglas and others who followed their spiritual core no matter what. She is heroic, but no superhero with a silly outfit, just an ordinary woman using an unusual context in which she finds herself to do right and exercise her faith in humanity, never blaming or condemning, just fighting for restitution of the soul. It's a small theatre, the concrete world of the solitary ward, but she fills it beyond its walls with the imagination. I can't help thinking of Prospero trapped on his island.) And yes, at the end she must return.Having taught Shakespeare at the high school level for 45 years, this book re-established my appreciation for the bard and what art does. With art, whatever happens disturbs the deeper level of the soul, Psyche, in relation to her world. This book is a testimony to the power of Renaissance art, or art of any kind with the individual. In the sense of the religious, (etymologically a linking back), I promise that any reader will connect at deeper levels within him or herself. Those connections will come at some cost, will be disturbing and will be unforgettable. AC Bradley, a celebrated Shakespeare critic having been raised in a narrow fundamentalism, left his formal religious roots and replaced his spiritual sustenance with Shakespeare. This book finally explained that to me. It's not about the Shakespeare per se, it's about the magic of the art and its charms of a book on the heart.Every grade 12 student should read this before leaving high school, just for the sake of building a more compassionate society in our young. Entrepreneurial Studies are not going to do it.. How desperately it's needed.