Some Recent Reading
Mar. 23rd, 2016 07:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellow1. I just reread Marvel 1602; it's as much fun now as it was back when I bought it. (I understand there are some sequels; anyone know if they're any good?) This time I noticed something I should have caught earlier: Virginia Dare is depicted as looking a lot like Gwen Stacy. (Obvious, given Peter Parquagh's evident liking for her....)
2. I also just reread Double Star. The only Suck Fairy aspect I noticed had to do with the treatment of women - only one with a speaking role, and she's a delicate thing.... I did notice Smythe quoting the Bard as saying "The law is an idiot". (Of course, that line is from Dickens, not Shakespeare.) That got me to thinking of Shakespeare in popular culture, with two examples standing out. I remember a scene from "Lost in Space" in which the insufferable Dr. Smith is pontificating about something, and attributes one of his comments to Shakespeare; Will Robinson gives him a classic eyeroll, and corrects him: "That's Kipling". (Anybody else remember that one? What was it Smith said?) I also remember an episode of "Gilligan's Island" in which the castaways decided to do a musical version of "Hamlet". (Why?) Polonius's speech is sung to the tune of, I think, the Toreador song from Carmen. Something classic, in any case.
3. I'm currently reading After London, a post-apocalyptic SF story from 1885. It's pretty interesting so far. Most of the population of London suddenly died centuries ago (and presumably similar happened in other countries), and England is balkanized into semi-feudal kingdoms and republics, all of them corrupt and venal, which are continually harassed by marauding Welsh (seeking to take back the island that was once all theirs) and Irish (seeking revenge, still, after centuries). (Oddly, the Scots seem much better behaved; they supply the Sassenach with mercenaries, but do not otherwise interfere.)
2. I also just reread Double Star. The only Suck Fairy aspect I noticed had to do with the treatment of women - only one with a speaking role, and she's a delicate thing.... I did notice Smythe quoting the Bard as saying "The law is an idiot". (Of course, that line is from Dickens, not Shakespeare.) That got me to thinking of Shakespeare in popular culture, with two examples standing out. I remember a scene from "Lost in Space" in which the insufferable Dr. Smith is pontificating about something, and attributes one of his comments to Shakespeare; Will Robinson gives him a classic eyeroll, and corrects him: "That's Kipling". (Anybody else remember that one? What was it Smith said?) I also remember an episode of "Gilligan's Island" in which the castaways decided to do a musical version of "Hamlet". (Why?) Polonius's speech is sung to the tune of, I think, the Toreador song from Carmen. Something classic, in any case.
3. I'm currently reading After London, a post-apocalyptic SF story from 1885. It's pretty interesting so far. Most of the population of London suddenly died centuries ago (and presumably similar happened in other countries), and England is balkanized into semi-feudal kingdoms and republics, all of them corrupt and venal, which are continually harassed by marauding Welsh (seeking to take back the island that was once all theirs) and Irish (seeking revenge, still, after centuries). (Oddly, the Scots seem much better behaved; they supply the Sassenach with mercenaries, but do not otherwise interfere.)
