He's a relative of the Prince, if I recall correctly.

And he's a relative of Paris, I think.

Also, he was in Brooke's Romeus and Juliet, which is thought to be Shakespeare's source material. In that version, he's not merely a jokester friend of Romeo and Benvolio but he's also a suitor in competition with Romeo for Juliet.

Also, he was in Brooke's Romeus and Juliet, which is thought to be Shakespeare's source material. In that version, he's not merely a jokester friend of Romeo and Benvolio but he's also a suitor in competition with Romeo for Juliet.

I had just been looking at that.

Heh.

I'ma plotting. My head may explode before it's all over, but I'm plotting.

It may just be the performances I've seen, but I've always gotten the feeling Mercutio was hot for Romeo.

I had just been looking at that.

I'm just saying, that was a piece of knowledge that is wedged in there along with the Guy Fawkes' references in Macbeth that is completely taking up brain space and never used!

It may just be the performances I've seen, but I've always gotten the feeling Mercutio was hot for Romeo.

Tanith Lee did an AU version where that was pretty explicit. I don't remember whether they had actually been lovers or not.

I've always gotten the feeling Mercutio was hot for Romeo.

The subtext is definitely there. He's rather possessive of Romeo and very aware of his moods.

I had vaguely remembered the Brooke's reference and Kat's mention had me checking it out. Basically, I got hit with a whacked out story idea-- first element being, what if the Roman and Greek gods, rather than being culturally different iterations of the same gods, were actually completely separate? Different "families" as it were? Alive and well and existing in the modern world. I kind of see the families as modern day media/corporate moguls-- Jupiter and Zeus as Richard Branson and Rupert Murdoch. Then of course, the Romeo & Juliet/West Side Story with a splash of the Sopranos becomes somewhat natural.

However, when trying to figure out who would be my "Romeo," I kept thinking of Mercury (moody, cranky, little SOB, of course, he's my favorite of the Roman gods) which led me to Mercutio and my twisted little brain started playing with the idea of what if, instead of a Mercutio-based character dying or sacrificing himself, he gets Juliet?

It's all very twisty and convoluted in my mind at the moment and of course, there's just so much to choose from within the greater canvas of both mythologies, but the more I think about it, the more I want to play with it. I'm still trying to play with what Roman god would be the Romeo equivalent, but I'm thinking I might want Juliet to be Athena.

It may go nowhere, but it gives me an excuse to watch the Zeffirelli version of R&J again with the oh-so-pretty Leonard Whiting and the young and beautiful Michael York as Tybalt. Mmmmmm...

There's been less discussion of P&P&Z than I might have expected.

I enjoyed it, though I thought it felt a little forced at times. I thought the best parts were not the zombie bits, amusing as they were, but the places where he took Austen's existing satire and simply intensified it. Darcy makes a good many more obviously racy comments in this version than he did in the original, Mr. Bennett is more eccentric and scathing, and Mrs. Bennett even more horrifically useless.

The best part of the book by far, however, is the "Reader's Discussion Guide" at the end. I laughed until my throat hurt at a few of the questions.

...

I also really need to read Anathem, clearly. It's been sitting on my shelf for an age. And I absolutely adored The Sweetness At The Bottom of the Pie and think everybody should read it.

What Gris said. Really the free chapters they have on-line, with maybe one or two following and the questions at the end were all you really need. Properly shorten this would make a good one issue comic.