I've seen honest faces before. They usually come attached to liars.

Willow ,'Conversations with Dead People'


Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


DavidS - Mar 05, 2010 7:31:40 am PST #11015 of 28348
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

My Question for Shakesepare Fans:

I'm working on a list - just for my own literary amusement and edification - and request your input.

In Fay Weldon's book Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen she opens with a chapter titled the City of Invention, which she evokes as a series of metaphors for various genres and authors. Dominating the City of Invention is the Castle Shakespeare, which looms over and influences all the writers in the English language.

So I'm interested in a list of works that reflect the Castle Shakespeare. Books and songs and movies and comics which live in the shadow of Shakespeare's work, reflecting it, commenting on it. Directly - not just an allusion or quote or two.

Some examples would include:

  • The TV show Slings and Arrows

  • Robertson Davies novel Tempest-Tost

  • Fritz Leiber's short story "Four Ghosts in Hamlet"

  • Shakespeare in Love

I'm also a curious about particular performances of Shakespeare which themselves become part of the Castle Shakeseparean. Here I'm not just looking for "Kate Winslet was the best Ophelia!" so much as how Richard Burton's performance as Hamlet becomes its own reference point in theatrical lore.

But mostly I just want a bigger list of creative outpourings that concern themselves directly with Shakespeare, or his works. (Less critical appraisals, though I think there are probably instances of criticism so important to our sense of Shakespeare that they also become part of the castle.)

So what are your favorite works that live in the shadow of Castle Shakespeare?


Polter-Cow - Mar 05, 2010 7:33:52 am PST #11016 of 28348
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!

The first play I was ever in: Ann-Marie McDonald's Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet).

Also, of course, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

Also, let's say The Lion King.


Steph L. - Mar 05, 2010 7:34:10 am PST #11017 of 28348
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine

Rosencranz and Guildenstern are Dead.

t edit Of course P-C and I cross-post. Heh.


Dana - Mar 05, 2010 7:35:33 am PST #11018 of 28348
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.

Those Kurosawa movies that remake Macbeth and possibly another one I can't remember.


Steph L. - Mar 05, 2010 7:36:12 am PST #11019 of 28348
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine

Well, there's West Side Story, of course.

And I'm extremely partial to Stage Beauty.


Dana - Mar 05, 2010 7:38:19 am PST #11020 of 28348
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.

Kiss Me Kate. The Boys from Syracuse. That episode of Moonlighting.


-t - Mar 05, 2010 7:39:18 am PST #11021 of 28348
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

The Midsummer's Night Dream part of Sandman.

Those Kurosawa movies that remake Macbeth and possibly another one I can't remember.

Ran - King Lear

Macbeth was Throne of Blood?


§ ita § - Mar 05, 2010 7:40:18 am PST #11022 of 28348
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

I personally hate 10 Things I Hate About You, but some love it.

I do like what I've seen of the ShakespeaRe-told. Does that count?


Sue - Mar 05, 2010 7:40:25 am PST #11023 of 28348
hip deep in pie

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and her Lover (if not directly Titus Andronicus, certainly the whole revenge tragedy genre.)
Peter Brook's Dream
the play, Good Morning Desdemona, Goodnight Juliet

X-post, of course


-t - Mar 05, 2010 7:41:25 am PST #11024 of 28348
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

I really liked Nothing LIke the Sun (I think that was the title) by the Clockwork Orange guy, but I'm not sure if it fits the criteria - it's more about Shakespeare the guy than the work, iirc.