Here’s today’s “Suddenly thought of while thinking about something else” idea:
Has anyone done a rewrite of Macbeth as a modern novel? I’m not thinking of a film, or of an updated or relocated version of the play. Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood pretty much definitively nails that, by resetting the story in feudal Japan, though DeRoest & Polling’s M’aQ’betH gets close, especially when performed in the original Klingon. No, I’m thinking of rewriting the story as a novel, as if one was doing a novelization of a modern screenplay.
Keep the setting in 11th century Scotland. Keep every scene and character, as originally scripted. Keep every line of dialog but update it to modern vernacular. For some inexplicable reason Wil’yam Sheq’spir failed to include the requisite number of shits, fucks, assholes, and motherfuckers that are the distinguishing marks of truly great modern literature.
Kirk: That’s simply the way they talk here. Nobody pays any attention to you unless you swear every other word. You’ll find it in all the literature of the period.
Spock: For example?
Kirk: Oh, the complete works of Jacqueline Susann, the novels of Harold Robbins…
Spock: Ah. The giants.
Do not update the story to modern times. Ian McKellen’s Richard III did that brilliantly, and if you haven’t seen the movie you should, but Leonardo DiCaprio’s Romeo + Juliet did it very badly and should serve as a warning. No, keep the story almost exactly as it is, but tell it in a more accessible manner.
Would enough people want to read such a novelization? If so, there’s a wealth of public domain source material that could be tapped for similar books, beginning with Macbeth and leading on through Hamlet, King Lear, Julius Caesar… I wouldn’t want to touch Richard III or A Midsummer Night’s Dream, for reasons, but I think a series of such books could be a both great deal of fun and very successful, if done with the right touch.
What do you think?
Over to you,
~brb
P.S. Bonus idea: Macbeth, The Graphic Novel! Done almost entirely in black, white, and blood-spattered red! The kids will love it!
8 comments:
I love that version of Richard III. It is brilliant. I might also recommend looking for Richard where Al Pacino explains the play on the streets of New York city. By the way, how are you leave out forbidden planet?
You also neglected to mention Forbidden Planet and the producers, tge episode of Gilligan's Island whey they perform a musical of Hamlet for Phil Silvers. I have major issues with shakespeare, because I think it is often poorly performed with the actors afraid to touch the dialogue. It's often very stilted and difficult to understand. If done well, I think your novel would be great. Just look at what has been done with the Iliad and the Odyssey with song of Achilles and cerce. Too fantastic novels
I left out Forbidden Planet because it's too far abstracted from The Tempest and I haven't the time or space to list every known adaptation. I mean, heck, there was a really good episode of The Sandman that was an adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
What I'm thinking of here is the idea of keeping the original script as intact as possible, but updating the language to make it more accessible and "filling in the blanks" left by the stage directions, so that modern readers aren't left wondering, "What the f*** are hautbois?"
So, a Good News Bible version of Shakespeare? I always wanted to write the Good Dude Bible. “Jesus dipped his Dorito in the guac and gave it to Judas and said , Dude you’re fully gonna narc.”
If only blogger comments would let me insert a ROFLMHO emoji.
Come to think of it, The Taming of the Shrew is another one I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot electric cattle prod.
Oh you got to read this: The-Undiscovered-William-Sanders_6999.pdf https://share.google/n3XlAA5MxAVR1AKSL
I’d like to see a novelisation of Henry V.
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