SR 2016: Romeo and/or Juliet (Ryan North)

Romeo and Juliet is one of those classic plays that most students have to read for a literature class at some point in their academic careers.  In my case, I've read it twice--once in junior high, and again as a freshman in high school.  It's a good play, of course, being Shakespeare, but if there was one thing I would say it was missing, that would be the opportunity to make your own decisions instead of being forced to watch two hormonal teenagers act out the tragic path that fate has in store for them.  So, of course, when I found out there was a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure equivalent of Romeo and Juliet, I jumped at the chance to read it.

*N.B. This book takes a really long time to read, since you have so many options to choose from, and so many endings to find.  With that in mind, I'm actually writing up this review before I complete the book, but I've found at least 10 different endings so far, so I think I'm qualified to start writing about it now.

Anyways, back to the review.  This is a hilarious book that really takes a classic tale and turns it on its head.  Whether you liked the Bard's original or not, this is a really funny book.  So, you know the story: two teens meet at a party and fall in love.  Even though their parents are enemies, the two get married, plan to tell everyone later, and then things go to hell in an handbasket and they both die.  What a lovely story!

Well, Ryan North's version is a little different.  In this tale, you can play as either Romeo or Juliet (as well as other unlockable characters) and try to live out your perfect love story.  Romeo is what you'd expect: he's a love-sick puppy who makes horrible choices and really loves brunch.  Juliet on the other hand, is a muscle-bound bodybuilder whose hobbies all involve boys and muscles.  So, pretty much what you would expect here, too.

So, basically, just like those choose your own adventures that we read as kids, you get to make choices for each character and try to find the most happy ending.  Some of the more interesting subplots involve Romeo's encounter with a creepy librarian, and Juliet's decision to kill or not kill the fiance her parents arranged for her.

And without giving away too much, some of the endings involve lions, getting chased by a naked man with 30 swords, and literally becoming a glove.  Some of the plotlines will make your laugh until you cry, and as for the others, well, the last thing you could call them is boring.

Oh, and did I mention the illustrations?  Yeah...those are amazing!  And each one is by a different artist :)

I'm be trying to finish this up over the next few days so I can post about it on Goodreads.  But, in the meantime, this is one down for my Summer Reading 2016 experience!

Shakespeare Fun Fact

I discovered something while perusing my subscription to Futility Closet this morning.  The term "benedick" refers to a newly married man.  However, the Shakespearean character Benedick, from Much Ado About Nothing staunchly refuses to ever marry, claiming that he hates women.  Rather ironic, isn't it?  However, if you read the entirety of the play, Benedick actually is very much in love with Beatrice, but refuses to admit it. By the end of the play, Benedick is indeed a benedick.

Tudor Literature

I was looking ahead on my syllabus for Tudor Literature, and was thrilled to see that we'll be finishing up the semester with William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night!  That's my favorite of his plays!  Now, this will be the second time I read this play for a college course (the first time was last year), and I've always thought it would be funny to come to class wearing the one identifying piece of clothing of one of the characters (ie. a bowler hat if reading Waiting for Godot; a skull if reading Hamlet, a mask if The Phantom of the Opera, or perhaps carry around a badly burned manuscript if reading Hedda Gabbler).  In Twelfth Night, the big thing is Malvolio's yellow stockings.

Malvolio is a very melancholy character, considered by the others to be a complete stick-in the mud.  So, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Maria all decide it would be really funny to send him letters and let him think they are from Oliva, the girl he likes (who happens to be his employer), and make him do stupid things, like smile all the time (to the point where it is creepy), and to wear yellow, cross-gartered stockings, which Oliva personally thinks is a horrid fashion statement.

I thought it would be fun to just come to class dressed in yellow stockings.  My professor is really cool, and I know she'd find the whole thing to be very funny.  Do you think I should do it?  It's a small class, so I don't have much to worry about.  I'd just get to class early, while the room is still dark, go to the back corner, slip off my pants (because I'm not going to walk around campus in yellow tights) and I'd have shorts or cropped pants and the yellow tights on underneath.  Then, I'd just have to act a bit like Malvolio.  I think it would be really funny.  But, tell me what you think first!  In case you weren't sure, this is sort of what it would look like.



Credit goes to Lydianime, who posted this picture on her DeviantArt page :)



One of My All-Time Favorite Quotes

"This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."

~William Shakespeare

These really are words to live one's life by.  Isn't it ironic that Polonius, one of the most foolish characters in Hamlet, is actually the one to deliver the greatest truth presented in the play?

I wonder if Shakespeare did that on purpose?

Fun With Google Translate

I was bored...so I decided to play around a bit with the dreaded Google Translate *lightning and thunder* I actually got the idea from a video put out by Smosh where they took one of their old videos, ran the entire script through Google Translate into Japanese, and then back into English. Next, the rerecorded their voices with the "new" script that Google Translate gave them. I decided to do something similar, but instead of going from English to Japanese to English, I changed my entries into several different languages before returning them to English. Here are the results. First, Poe's The Raven:

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As if some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door--

Only this, and nothing more."

~English, French, German, Greek, Polish, Korean, Romanian, Swahili, Welsh, Italian, Irish, Spanish, and BACK to English...

Dark to midnight, and my opinion is weak and tired

Original and very important number of scientific studies, liver

He liked the group below, nearly napping, suddenly and registration

As the light falls, banging on the door of my room.

"It's nice to come with me," says I, who was at the door--

But no more than

And here is another one...This time, Shakespeare's Hamlet:

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing, end them? To die; to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd.

And same languages as before...

A man, that is the question:

What, where, heart honor

Pockets, and outrageous, but the fate of arrow

O army major problem,

Finally, the difference? Looking for death;

There is more to this end the dream

Thousands of unrest and natural motion

Successor body, responsible for

Get a room.

Wow! How does it change so drastically? This is ridiculous! I mean, these two passages barely sound anything like the originals! And, they both sound slightly suggestive, don't they? I mean, with phrases like "successor body, responsible for/Get a room". But, mostly, its gibberish.

I think I might use this sometime on a complete poem, but I'm not sure.