On Hamletfic.

[pauraque_bk]

When noblerot mentioned to me yesterday that Tom Stoppard is going to be writing the His Dark Materials movie (omgsquee!), it reminded me that I was supposed to be doing a post about published Hamletfic, wasn't I?


I've finished reading John Updike's Gertrude & Claudius. I didn't really know what to expect from it, since I'd never read Updike before and only had a vague idea of him as some guy who writes series of novels with lame alliterative titles; it just caught my eye at the bookstore and I gave it a shot.

The book follows Gertrude's life from childhood to the beginning of the Shakespeare play, fleshing out her character, describing her unhappy arranged marriage to King Hamlet and eventual affair with his brother. It also gives more time to some of the other secondary characters, especially Ophelia and Polonius. If this sounds straightforward, well, it is.

I found that I liked Updike's writing style, and the characters he created were very vivid and reasonably based in 'canon'. I liked Gertrude and cared about what happened to her. If I were to judge it by fandom standards, though, I would probably say that while it showed a lot of technical skill and love of the characters, it wasn't... enough. It didn't really analyze the play or make me think about it (and there's a lot in Hamlet to sink your teeth into if you want to take the trouble). It's just a prequel from a different POV. There is a lot of fanfic in every fandom that's like this, and while it may be well-done, there is a sort of shallowness about it that tends to make it forgettable, at least to me.

I should say that there's one aspect of the book that set it a bit above your average prequel-fic. As some of you may know, the original story of Hamlet (Amleth) comes to us from the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus and was adapted much later by the French writer François de Belleforest before eventually becoming subject matter for Shakespeare. What Updike did was divide his novel into three parts: In the first part, he wrote using the character names (Gerutha, Feng) and more medieval trappings of Saxo; in the second he switched to Belleforest's names (Geruthe, Fengon) and a style that suggested his Renaissance-ish wordiness; and in the final section he arrived at Shakespeare's names (Gertrude, Claudius), and while he never quite busted out the iambic pentameter, he did elevate his style enough to make the suggestion clear.

This may sound weird and jarring, but it wasn't. I liked what he was saying about how the story had changed through the centuries to become what its authors wanted it to be, as well as the suggested changes in the characters and how they defined themselves. When the transitions were subtle, they were even quite beautiful, like this towards the end of the first section:

So kind she was, so clear-sighted and natural. "Nature" was one of her words, which she used as women of other languages spoke of der Gott, le bon Dieu, Iddio, Dios. Feng loved the way that, even as her level gray-green eyes assigned everything its fair weight, her generous lips and the tiny muscles around her lips played together, as if words all had a joke in them which she could not help tasting. When she pronounced his name, she let the "ng" linger in the air, so as almost to create a second syllable. Her own name too, the rare times he heard it issue from her lips -- for our names are used for convenience by others but figure marginally in our own minds, which know ourselves as an entity too vast and vague to name -- was softened to "Geruthe".

It wasn't the same to me when he got too literal about it, as in the third part where he has Fengon literally rename himself "Claudius" upon his coronation. That was too much.

Before I started reading the book, I joked to aithopa (who, by the way, shares my deep affection for Saxo) that you couldn't get away with a title as boring as "Gertrude & Claudius" in fandom. I mean, what would you do, "Snape & Lupin"? You'd be laughed off the internet.

Then later I remembered that the first Mulder/Krycek story online was called "Krycek", and that a lot of fandoms and sub-fandoms have to work through the stuff you think of first -- the obvious -- before you get to the really meaty, interesting stuff. You go, well, johnupdike already wrote that great novel-length fic about how Gertrude and Claudius fell in love, so now I have to think of something a little different. And now I'd have to say that "Gertrude & Claudius" is a perfect name for the book. It tells you exactly what you're going to get.

*

Not everybody needs to work through the obvious first, though. Tom Stoppard successfully wrote Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead without there being an existing body of fairly straightforward R&G fics, afaik. I really hope you've all read this play or seen it performed, but if you haven't, rectify this immediately. (There's also a movie, and it has Gary Oldman in it, but I haven't seen it so I can't rec.) Especially if you're a fanfic writer, because it is very successful both at analyzing Hamlet, and at analyzing fanfic as a mehtod of analysis!

GUIL: Yes, I'm very fond of boats myself. I like the way they're -- contained. You don't have to worry about which way to go, or whether to go at all -- the question doesn't arise, because you're on a boat, aren't you? Boats are safe areas in the game of tag ... the players will hold their positions until the music starts ... I think I'll spend most of my life on boats. [...] Free to move, speak, extemporize, and yet. We have not been cut loose. Our truancy is defined by one fixed star, and our drift represents merely a slight change of angle to it: we may seize the moment, toss it around while the moments pass, a short dash here, an exploration there, but we are brought round full circle to face again the single immutable fact -- that we, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, bearing a letter from one king to another, are taking Hamlet to England.

Oh man. That is good shit.

As fanfic, this is the polar opposite of "Gertrude & Claudius". Everything takes a back seat to the analytical nature of it, including (sometimes) ease of comprehension. Maybe we'd call it experimental fic or "intellislash" (if you read it as R/G, which I like to). That tomstoppard is a big elitist! Why can't he just write a nice fic where Ros and Guil realize their True Feelings for each other during a romantic afternoon of falconry!

And then there would be marriagefic, and babyfic, and mpreg, and... Oh, just wake me when we get to the wingfic.

*

Not really relatedly, I've been helping my brother with his English assignments, and it has completely reminded me of why I hated writing essays in school. Freaking theses. I don't have a point, okay? Or perhaps I unknowingly do, in which case I'll just let anyone who bothers to read my ramblings find it for me.

Comments

[woolf.livejournal.com]

The movie version of R&G are dead is very, very good. They do cut out a few bits, if I remember correctly, but they make up for the entire thing in the staging of the game of questions. Go rent it. Immediately.

R&G is probably my favorite book/play/piece of literature of all time. And really, all of Tom Stoppard's works are great. Of course, I used to be stoppard, so maybe I'm a little biased. :P

(dammit, one of these days I need to finish my R&G moodtheme/iconset.)

[arclevel.livejournal.com]

I don't have a point, okay? Or perhaps I unknowingly do, in which case I'll just let anyone who bothers to read my ramblings find it for me.

This was how I wrote my major paper for my freshman English class in college. We had to write three drafts (including the final), and the first in particular was supposed to be very different, not just the usual minor adjustments. I came up with a general topic, started writing, and about 6 or 7 pages in, figured out what actual topic I was going to write the paper on. So I wrote another page or so, then turned it in.

[chronographia.livejournal.com]

I second the movie praise - Tom Stoppard had a big role in making it, though I can't remember if it was directorial or screenwriting. You can nearly take a copy of the script and read (very, very quickly) along. Tim Roth & Gary Oldman have superb timing and chemistry, but it's the Player King who really steals scenes. And Alfred too, now that I think about it.



Dammit. Now I want to watch R&G.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Is it okay if I'm excited about Tom Stoppard scripting His Dark Materials even if I didn't like Shakespeare in Love? ^_^ Because he's still a helluva playwright.

[pauraque]

It's okay with me! I never actually saw Shakespeare In Love, horrors.