I used to hate Shakespeare … until a 200-year-old book changed my mind

I got in an argument once with a guy who was dismissing white, Anglo-Saxon culture, saying it was overrated and overrepresented. He thought Americans needed to learn about other cultures, and other artists, who were just as good, if not better.

I was like: better than Beethoven? Better than Shakespeare? Better than Led Zeppelin?

In ‘The Tempest,’ there was no basic reality. Characters could become invisible if they felt like it. They could live for years on desert islands without food.

I said: Even if these other artists were as good, I didn’t grow up within those artistic traditions. Those artists aren’t my ancestors. That isn’t the culture I was born into!

A sense of shame

I don’t remember how the argument ended. But I remember as I walked