First off, I would like to publicly proclaim my love for Shakespearean literature. I actually enjoyed reading “Hamlet” (it’s about noble self-sacrifice and succession of power, people!). However, when I saw “King Lear” performed a couple of years ago I was bored to tears. I found it lifeless. As soon as I heard that Christopher Moore had written an alternative version to the tale, I knew it would be filled with his trademark vulgar hilarity. Boy, was it ever.
By Daniella Choynowski
Staff Writer
First off, I would like to publicly proclaim my love for Shakespearean literature. I actually enjoyed reading “Hamlet” (it’s about noble self-sacrifice and succession of power, people!). However, when I saw “King Lear” performed a couple of years ago I was bored to tears. I found it lifeless. As soon as I heard that Christopher Moore had written an alternative version to the tale, I knew it would be filled with his trademark vulgar hilarity. Boy, was it ever.
So begins “Fool.” Let me discuss the contents of the first page. There is a warning for readers who may be easily offended:
“This is a bawdy tale. Herein you will find gratuitous shagging, murder, spanking, maiming, treason, heretofore unexplored heights of vulgarity and profanity, as well as non-traditional grammar, split infinitives, and the odd wank. If that sort of thing bothers you, then gentle reader pass by, for we endeavor only to entertain, not to offend. That said, if that’s the sort of thing you think you might enjoy, then you have happened upon the perfect story”.
The story is told from the point of view of King Lear’s court jester Pocket. He has no inner monologue, and I mean none. Everything that comes out of our protagonist’s mouth is offensive and crass. Pocket especially takes delight in tormenting Gloucester’s illegitimate son Edmund about his heritage, but Edmund and Pocket join forces when it is discovered that Lear is going to marry off his youngest daughter Cordelia.
Even though Pocket has slept with both Goneril and Reagan (who is quite a harlot, evidently), he loves Cordelia. Cordelia and Pocket’s first encounter in the novel consists of the following:
“Were you hoping to accidently surprise me in my bath again?”
“I was lost, milady.”
“A dozen times?”
Edmund and Pocket strike a bargain: Pocket will write a letter to Gloucester that will make his legitimate son Edgar fall out of favor, thus promoting Edmund to the favorite son. In return, Edmund will make sure that Cordelia does not marry. Edmund, being an evil you-know-what, fails in his part of the bargain, and Cordelia becomes disinherited. That’s right, the pivotal scene in which Lear’s three daughters profess their love to him in order to claim their inheritance was concocted by Edmund. So it is up to our hero to make things right within the kingdom: make Lear see the light, get his beloved Cordelia back, and get revenge on Edmund.
Pocket acquires help in the form of a ghost that keeps reappearing. In fact, the title of the first chapter is “Always a bloody ghost”. The ghost’s response to such a comment?
“When you live in a land where blood runs blue and murder is the favored sport, yes.” (I hope everyone reading “Hamlet” right now enjoys that.)
Numerous references to other Shakespearean tales recur as Pocket sets off on his journey. The banished Kent eventually becomes a sidekick and joins Pocket, wishing to prove his old friend Lear wrong about his course of action. Along the way they meet the three witches from Macbeth, who, as it turns out, are not witches. “Double, double, toil and trouble: Fire burn and cauldron bubble” is a spell for massive amounts of laundry. The witches three run a washer business.
All of that was just in Act One of what I would describe as a “Shakespearean South Park”, with Pocket in the role of Eric Cartman.
“Fool” was rude, vulgar, offensive, and would make Shakespeare roll in his grave. I loved it. I can only imagine what Christopher Moore is going to do to “Hamlet”.
