20 Comments

Absolutely fascinating, Terry.

It must be very difficult to rework a famous text without divulging what that text is - but I think the second of the Hamlet reimaginings in your post has absolutely nailed it!

Negotiations with the diary representative in my entourage about June 8th continue. I'm houlipoping to make it.....

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second one is great, isn't it 😂

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'houlipoping': 😂

Who's the boss in your house then? In Freedman Towers, the pecking order is:

Minty

Mocha

Willow

Elaine

a fox

the sparrows

the magpies

the starlings

the blackbirds

me

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🤣

I'm the joint commander of Chateau Snaps, but only a lowly assistant in our mutual working environment....

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Jan 15Liked by Terry Freedman

Great idea - Hamlet as the Dice Man. Certainly not Andrew Dice Clay. Shudder.

However, I'm teaching it in A level English Literature at this very point in time - and we're discussing Hamlet's painful inability to act: I mean, how long after promising your dead father's ghost you'll avenge his death do you wait before actually doing it? Using the dice, however, would make for a much quicker resolution. I'm going to take this idea to my kids today - and see what they think! Thanks!

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Brilliant! Please do share their reactions in the comments 😊

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Jan 15Liked by Terry Freedman

They found it interesting, but I think they were mostly humouring me as they'd never heard of the novel! They did say it would have made for a much shorter play if Hamlet had been able to actually act on his promise. And at this point in the year (having been reading it since September), some of them with he'd been gifted some dice.

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😂😂 Well to be fair, it was written in the 70s. Presumably they would have preferred the Harry Matthews version: Hamlet, quit stalling 😂 thanks for trying it out with them 😬

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Jan 15Liked by Terry Freedman

They did like my brief explanation of Oulipo, though - my default is Perec's A Void. When I describe it as a novel written without the letter 'e', that's always a conversation starter. But then I explain it was originally written in French - which only enhances it. I wish we had time in the upper years to do more experimental writing, but the exam boards just don't make room for it. However, we have done a few lipograms in the younger years - they're up for anything. And seem to really enjoy it.

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shame about the upper school, because I think people can learn a lot about writing y experimenting, cf my experiments in style. Still, it's great that they like Oulipo stuff; perhaps some of them will continue to edxplore on their own. Well done for introducing them to it.

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Terry,

You had me all excited. The "Diceman" to me means Andrew Dice Clay, a 1980's comic whose shtick was to be outrageously politically incorrect for his time. So you can imagine how his humor would land today!

Andrew Dice Clay in the role of Hamlet would be brilliant! Here's his Wikipedia page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Dice_Clay

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Thanks David. He sounds like my kind of comedian. I'd never heard of him. Thanks for the link. I'll have a look on YouTube tomorrow as everything seems to be there!

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Jan 14Liked by Terry Freedman

"The idea is that by imposing constraints on ourselves we can come up with interesting ideas, even if we don’t follow them through to their completion." It works in writing and in art, too, like drawing something with one's eyes closed, or with the non-dominant hand, or not looking at the surface one is drawing on. I would love to attend your class in June but I think it's impossible. However, I'm going to try re-writing something familiar. We'll see!

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Thanks Mary. Do have a go yourself! I like your constraints ideas, even though in my case they seem designed to enable me to produce rubbish. I think another constraint in art would be to use only one colour, of different hues, or the opposite: avoiding one particular colour completely. What do you think? There is a comics art version of oulipo called oubapo

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Jan 14·edited Jan 14Liked by Terry Freedman

Yes, yes, yes about using 1 color or avoiding 1 color! I'm going to give that a go tomorrow! Thanks for your inspiring encouragement, Terry. Please feel free to send me an invoice. 😄 Oh! I I'll check out oubapo!

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😂 brilliant. I hope you will share the result

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I will!!! Can't wait to post it on Thrivin'. Look for your name in lights. :-)

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I'll have to reread my copy of Hamlet. It's translated from the original Klingon ( I requested it that way. God, I'm a geek..... ). Kahless Rules !

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Sounds good! 😂

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QiPlah ! Oh, boy..... you may have opened the bottle, allowing the djinn to go & have a gin & tonic. 🧞

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