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Shockspeare

 

Because I see life as a haphazard succession of random events, unfolding without purpose, meaning or structure, I face a serious problem as a writer. Where does one start and finish a narrative? How does one construct reality out of chaos?

To overcome these difficulties it occurred to me to take a familiar plot and hang it up inside my head. To this frame I could then attach the ideas, attitudes and fantasies that I wished to explore. And what better skeleton to dress up than the bare bones of a Shakespearean tragedy?

Many years ago I was greatly impressed by Shakespeare, Our Contemporary, a book by the Polish literary critic Jan Kott. He looked at Shakespeare from a 20th century perspective and extracted the essence that makes an artistic work relevant, useful and entertaining to succeeding generations of readers or viewers.

Thanks to Kott, I have been emboldened to steal from the bard those elements of his work that help to enliven this, the daily life of the 21st century. Both Pop-splat andKikaffir can be enjoyed as modern, violent dramas that stand alone, not requiring literary allusion to prop them up. But if you're familiar with Shakespeare, then Shockspeare will deliver another level to your reading experience.

The SHOCKSPEARE series:

POP-SPLAT ......................................................................KIKAFFIR

POP-Splat ............................................Kikaffir