http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/17/sms_classic/ Right, who is going to help me with forming a lynch mob? Prof. John Sutherland needs a surprise party, methinks.
It had to happen. The classics have been murdered in nearly every other possible way. Yesterday I read an interesting interpretation of Hamlet. It was called The Skinhead Hamlet. Admittedly, the ghost of Hamlet's father saying "Oi! Mush! I was fucked!" doesn't horror me as much as "Evry1confuzd-bothLuvrs kil Emselves" does. Ewwwwww. I feel tainted just reading it. Edit - This is the Skinhead Hamlet. (Good searching, Wife.)
I'm quite enoying the BBC's shakespeare re:told. Though, I've only seen Macbeth and I thought they got the story a bit wrong. But it is a good example of re introducing shakespeare with out destorying it.
[quote:07a470a834="Rincewind"]I'm quite enoying the BBC's shakespeare re:told. Though, I've only seen Macbeth and I thought they got the story a bit wrong. But it is a good example of re introducing shakespeare with out destorying it.[/quote:07a470a834] Yes and good on yer. I'm enjoying it too, and I agree it didn't destroy the original. However I also think it, and the others in the series, in comparison with those originals are pants. I hope I'm not being snooty about telling a story in different ways. I'm all for that. However let's compare like with like. The BIG difference between W. Shake.and all the interminable remakes is his (or whoever holds the current vogue for claiming his talent) use of language/verse. Kiss me kate, West side story etc etc...Wonderful cinema? Yes!!. They are on my list of favourite movies.!! Are they Shakespeare? No. Directors can do a great job of directing. I've not come across a script/screenplay writer who can match the Bard. In the Macbeth thing, the words just jarred horribly. I suspect this inconsitency of opinion is what is behind my a) enjoyment of the "one minute book" type of topic, and b) my desire to immediately join (lead?) Roman's lynch mob. PS I am still not a pedant... honest!!
Every literary work is getting massacred these days. Every book seems to have a short, cut-down version, a 'simplified' version. Pardon me, but I detest that sort of thing. A line has to be drawn somewhere, and while the Skinhead Hamlet is a true horror to read, the SMS version is even worse. It's Murphy's Law. No matter how bad something is, something worse will come along shortly. Well, it did.
Did Anybody (with a TV that can get it) watch the documentary programme 'much ado about something' on last night on BBC 3 about how Shakespere's plays may have been written by Philip Marlowe http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/listin...filename=20051122/20051122_2330_4544_53474_70 Very interesting stuff!
[quote:8f429bf2e4="Roman_K"]Every literary work is getting massacred these days. Every book seems to have a short, cut-down version, a 'simplified' version. Pardon me, but I detest that sort of thing. A line has to be drawn somewhere, and while the Skinhead Hamlet is a true horror to read, the SMS version is even worse. It's Murphy's Law. No matter how bad something is, something worse will come along shortly. Well, it did.[/quote:8f429bf2e4] I just wrote a paper on this very subject. my classmates are living proof that literature is losing its audience and being condensed beyond belief. We just finished reading Fahrenheit 451 (awesome book). Half the class read the CliffsNotes version. Kind of ironic, considering the subject matter, eh?
[quote:67529e9890="Hex"]We just finished reading Fahrenheit 451 (awesome book). Half the class read the CliffsNotes version. Kind of ironic, considering the subject matter, eh?[/quote:67529e9890] I remember reading about when the first condenced version of Farenheit 451 was released. The people who actually got what the book was trying to give weren't amused in the slightest.
