Tuesday, January 31, 2012

No Fear (at all) (seriously) Shakespeare

I have been experiencing Hamlet through a lot of different mediums. I started listening to the audiobook with commentary by accident. After a few lines of Bernardo and Francisco back and forth, a voice cuts in, "Francisco has been keeping watch." "YA THINK?" I said (out loud, unfortunately). I think I was just annoyed by the interruption in the action. So I switched over to the non-commentary, and I'll listen to some of the most important/my favorite scenes with commentary afterward. And it's been going much better.

After a little bit, I pulled out my Kindle and started following along. I really liked this. It was like I was still reading the play (though slower). A while after I've read a book, sometimes I forget if I read the book or saw the movie, because that's how my brain works while I read. So as I read, voices and actors played over top, enforcing that effect. Loved it.

Then I came to the graphic novel version. I picked the Barron's graphic classics version. The first thing that struck me was actually the text. It still has the Shakespearean text in the dialogue bubbles, but below in boxes are little summary blurbs in modern English. It reminded me of Sparknotes No Fear Shakespeare. Except with the graphic novel style, it became Super No Fear Shakespeare. Laertes slashing Hamlet's arm is pretty great.

Now I want to watch the movie! I've seen a couple before, but I want some input. Which versions are your favorites?

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