CL’s Chanté LaGon and Curt Holman discuss how Christopher Moore takes on King Lear in his new book Fool. Moore will appear at Wordsmith Books on Mon., Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Subscribe to the Air Loaf RSS feed to download each new episode automatically.
Karl Marx famously said that history repeats itself, once as tragedy, twice as farce. King Lear may not have been an actual English regent, but he looms larger than most historical royals as the title role in one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. And if the Bard gave King Lear his tragedy, cult author Christopher Moore somersaults in for the farce with Fool.
The comedic novelist offers a bawdy, balls-out take on King Lear with a loose version of the plot from the point of view of Lear’s fool. The tragedy’s jester provides the perfect point of entry for a post-modern goof on King Lear, since the role’s rather ambiguous in the play, with an indeterminate age and a tendency to pop in and out of the action. Moore officially gives him a name — Pocket — and a sense of humor that elicits belly laughs from the kind of modern audiences unlikely to giggle at codpiece jokes.
Moore retains the play’s basic outline, including Lear’s vain, disastrous decision to divide his kingdom among his daughters and cast out good-hearted Cordelia while trusting her flattering elders, Goneril and Regan. In the play, Lear’s pride, cruelty and poor judgment bring doom upon his family and England, but Fool reveals that Pocket was the well-intentioned puppet master behind the vicious actions of Goneril, Regan and Edmund, the black-clad bastard.
1) Emory’s Vega String Quartet and choreographer George Staib collaborate for Contemporary Dance — Vintage Music.
2) Complete Desire opens at Opal Gallery.
3) David Hajdu discusses The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America at Wordsmiths Books.
4) Zoroaster, Chopper and Gripplyaz perform at Drunken Unicorn.
5) The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center screens Nathaniel Kahn’s 2003 documentary My Architect: A Son’s Journey.
(Photo by Fernando Decillis)
1) Hairspray opens at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.
2) The creators of the Silver Scream Spook Show and Atlanta Horrorfest host Splatter Cinema at the Plaza Theatre, with a screening of Street Trash.
3) Bernie Schein discusses If Holden Caulfield Were in My Classroom at the Margaret Mitchell House & Museum.
4) Helen Kim and Robert Henry perform at Kennesaw State University.
5) Vickie Robin discusses Your Money or Your Life at Wordsmiths Books.
(Photo © 2006 Phil Martin)
To survive the recession, a second Decatur small business has adopted Wall Street and Detroit’s new business model: begging.
In August, the owner of Wordsmiths books in Decatur asked the community for donations to help keep the store open.
It appears to have worked. Last time I walked through Decatur’s town square, Wordsmiths was still open.
Today, CL’s Besha Rodell and Decatur Metro report Calavino’s Italian restaurant in Oakhurst is soliciting donations to stay open.
The strangest part of the Calavino’s plea: they’re not actually asking people to dine at the restaurant. They’re only asking for money.
In related news: PayPal me $20 and I’ll cook you dinner at my house. PayPal me $25 and I’ll give you beer, wine or liquor with your meal.
Remember The Clone Wars? Those pitched interstellar battles between Count Dooku’s separatist forces and those of the Galactic Republic? Yoda and the other Jedi leading armies of identical clones against those remarkable ineffectual battle droids? Anyone? Bueller?
Perhaps you’ve repressed memories of the past two Star Wars movies, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, but George Lucas is betting you haven’t. On August 15 he’s releasing a CGI animated feature film called The Clone Wars, which takes place between Attack and Revenge. Some Star Wars actors, including Christopher Lee, Anthony “C-3PO” Daniels and Samuel L. Jackson will even reprise their roles by voice. To whet your appetite for more clone-based fare, Wordsmith Books hosts an author appearance by Karen Traviss, who has written the hardcover adaptation of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Traviss will be at Wordsmith at 7:30 p.m., July 30, and Wordsmith encourages fans to come dressed in costume — so if you want a chance to Beta-test your outfit for next month’s Dragon*Con, here’s an opportunity.
Incidentally, The Clone Wars movie works as a lead-in to a new CGI series called, of course, “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and scheduled to debut on Atlanta’s Cartoon Network on Oct. 23. These clones sure know how to replicate themselves…
