If I asked you to think about “Shakespeare and Science Fiction” you’d probably go with Forbidden Planet (a spacey version of The Tempest). If you’re more TV inclined you’d probably go with Star Trek, maybe even name the episode entitled “The Conscience of the King” outright. That’s the one that features a near perfect inversion of the traveling actors sequence in Hamlet (as well as part of the production of the play itself).
And yeah, Shakespeare himself may appear as a character in Science Fiction stories. Isaac Asimov’s The Immortal Bard is perhaps my favourite example of that. But no actual Science Fiction can be found in any play by William Shakespeare. Right?
Shakespeare’s plays have many fantastic elements (ghosts, magic, witches, prophecy), but those are all Fantasy tropes, not SF. Not one the the plays of William Shakespeare could possibly qualify as Science Fiction outright. Right?
But then, I was thinking about the very Philip K. Dickness of the opening sequence of Shakespeare’s farcical romp called The Taming Of The Shrew. It’s called “The Induction” and features a character named Christopher Sly, a drunkard, who while unconscious, is abducted from the street where he lays and is taken into a mischievous Lord’s home. There, he’s put to bed, and when awakened, is told by the household’s servants that he’s been “asleep” for fifteen years, that he is the lord of the manor, and that he has a beautiful young wife! All the household’s servants are in on the jape and obey his every command. The Lord who arranged this practical joke says,
Persuade him that he hath been lunatic;
And when he says he is, say that he dreams,
For he is nothing but a mighty lord.
This do and do it kindly, gentle sirs:
It will be pastime passing excellent,
If it be husbanded with modesty.
Only then, once the ridiculous question of identity is hatched does The Taming of the Shrew begin (performed by a troupe of traveling actors who visit Christopher Sly’s manor). We’ve talked about Fictional Fictional Characters, on the SFFaudio Podcast before, this is a case of a fictional fictional play. The actors in the play are playing actors in a play.
“Christopher Sly’s presence as a spectator in Shakespeare’s The Taming Of The Shrew makes the entire drama of wife-taming into a mere science fiction spectacle of household order.” -From the introduction to Poor Women in Shakespeare by Fiona McNeill
I’m betting that’s as close as The Taming Of The Shrew gets to Science Fiction.
This is all apropos of some recent reading of the play proper and a visit to RadioArchive.cc where you’ll be able to find a terrific sounding 1988, BBC Radio 3 dramatization that faithfully adapts the play to audio.
The Taming of the Shrew
By William Shakespeare; Adapted by Jeremy Mortimer; Performed by a full cast
CD or MP3 (via TORRENT) – Approx. 2 Hours [RADIO PLAY]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 3 / BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: 1988 / 2005
Publisher: BBC Audio
Published: 1999
ISBN: 056355391X This hearty comedy has always been a favourite with audiences. Three suitors pursue Bianca Minola, but her father won’t let her marry until her older sister, Katherine, is married. Kate is wilful, loud, volatile and above all, shrewish. Her suitor Petruchio is stern, jolly, and somewhat odd. A match made in heaven? Cast:
Bob Peck, Cheryl Campbell, Moira Leslie, Robert Glenister, Stephen Tompkinson, Douglas Hodge, Christopher Fairbank, Michael Deacon, Anthony Jackson, Willam Simons, John Badley, and Paul Copley Crew:
Directed by Jeremy Mortimer
Music composed by Mia Soteriou
If there’s one public domain novel I don’t mind seeing endless re-releases and re-recordings of it’s this one…
The Call Of The Wild
By Jack London; Read by Jeff Daniels
CDs – Approx. 3 Hours 12 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: May 25, 2010
ISBN: 9780307710260
Sample |MP3| Jack London’s The Call Of The Wild was written in 1903, but Buck’s gripping adventure makes for a thrilling listen on audio more than 100 years after it was first published. This gripping story follows the adventures of the loyal dog Buck, who is stolen from his comfortable family home and forced into the harsh life of an Alaskan sled dog. Passed from master to master, Buck embarks on an extraordinary journey that ends with his becoming the legendary leader of a wolf pack.
Now this should be interesting…
Wolf: The Lives of Jack London
By James L. Haley; Read by Bronson Pinchot
10 CDs or 1 Mp3-CD – Approx. 13 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: May 25, 2010
ISBN: 9781441758965 (cd), 9781441758972 (mp3-cd) Jack London was born a working-class, fatherless San Franciscan in 1876. In his youth, he was a boundlessly energetic adventurer on the bustling west coast—by and by playing the role of hobo, sailor, and oyster pirate. From his vantage point at the margins of Gilded Age America, he witnessed such iniquity and abuses that he became a life long socialist and advocate for reform. His adventures in the American wilderness and underworld informed his fiction, and his writing came to captivate the nation as it defined his era. Within his own short lifetime, London became the most popular, and bestselling, author of his generation. By adulthood he had matured into the iconic American author of such still-universally loved books as The Call Of The Wild, White Fang, and Sea Wolf, but in spite of his success, he was at war with himself. The highest-paid writer in America, he was constantly broke. Famous as he was for conjuring the brutality of nature in story after story and novel after novel, upon the actual deaths of his favorite animals he would dissolve into helpless tears. Sick, angry, and disillusioned, after a short, breathless life, he passed away at age forty, but he left behind him a glorious literary legacy. Award-winning author James L. Haley explores the forgotten Jack London—a man bristling with ideas, whose passion for social justice roared until the day he died. In Wolf, Haley returns Jack London to his proper place in the American pantheon, resurrecting the author of White Fang in his full fire and glory.
Made by makers…
Made by Hand: Searching for Meaning in a Throwaway World
By Mark Frauenfelder; Read by Kirby Heyborne
7 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – Approx. 8 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: June 07, 2010
ISBN: 9781400117819 (cd), 9781400167814 (mp3-cd) From his unique vantage point as editor in chief of Make magazine, the hub of the newly invigorated do-it-yourself (DIY) movement, Mark Frauenfelder takes listeners on an inspiring and surprising tour of the vibrant world of DIY. The Internet has brought together large communities of people who share ideas, tips, and blueprints for making everything from unmanned aerial vehicles to pedal-powered iPhone chargers to an automatic cat feeder jury-rigged from a VCR. DIY is a direct reflection of our basic human desire to invent and improve, long suppressed by the availability of cheap, mass-produced products that have drowned us in bland convenience and cultivated our most wasteful habits. Frauenfelder spent a year trying a variety of offbeat projects, such as keeping chickens and bees, tricking out his espresso machine, whittling wooden spoons, making guitars out of cigar boxes, and doing citizen science with his daughters in the garage. His whole family found that DIY helped them take control of their lives, offering a path that was simple, direct, and clear. Working with their hands and minds helped them feel more engaged with the world around them.
Frauenfelder reveals how DIY is changing our culture for the better. He profiles fascinating “alpha makers” leading various DIY movements and grills them for their best tips and insights. Beginning his journey with hands as smooth as those of a typical geek, Frauenfelder offers a unique perspective on how earning a few calluses can be far more rewarding and satisfying than another trip to the mall.
I always bet on the man with the bigger mustache…
Deathride: Hitler vs. Stalin—the Eastern Front, 1941-1945
By John Mosier; Read by Michael Prichard
10 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – Approx. 12.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: June 15, 2010
ISBN: 9781400117369 (cd), 9781400167364 (mp3-cd) John Mosier presents a revisionist retelling of the war on the Eastern Front. Although the Eastern Front was the biggest and most important theater in World War II, it is not well known in the United States, as no American troops participated in the fighting. Yet historians agree that this is where the decisive battles of the war were fought. The conventional wisdom about the Eastern Front is that Hitler was mad to think he could defeat the USSR because of its vast size and population, and that the Battle of Stalingrad marked the turning point of the war. Neither statement is accurate, says Mosier; Hitler came very close to winning outright. Mosier’s history of the Eastern Front will generate considerable controversy both because of his unconventional arguments and because he criticizes historians who have accepted Soviet facts and interpretations. Mosier argues that Soviet accounts are utterly untrustworthy and that accounts relying on them are fantasies. Deathride argues that the war in the East was Hitler’s to lose, that Stalin was in grave jeopardy from the outset of the war, and that it was the Allied victories in North Africa and consequent threat to Italy that forced Hitler to change his plans and saved Stalin from near-certain defeat. Stalin’s only real triumph was in creating a legend of victory.
We’ve talked about it on the podcast, and here it is…
Terminal World
By Alastair Reynolds; Read by John Lee
15 Audio CDs or 2 MP3-CDs – Approx. 19.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tantor Media
Publisher: June 1, 2010
ISBN: 9781400117116(cd), 9781400167111 (mp3-cd) Spearpoint, the last human city, is an atmosphere-piercing spire of vast size. Clinging to its skin are the zones, a series of semi-autonomous city-states, each of which enjoys a different—and rigidly enforced—level of technology. Following an infiltration mission that went tragically wrong, Quillon has been living incognito, working as a pathologist in the district morgue. But when a near-dead angel drops onto his dissecting table, Quillon’s world is wrenched apart one more time. If Quillon is to save his life, he must leave his home and journey into the cold and hostile lands beyond Spearpoint’s base, starting an exile that will take him further than he could ever imagine. But there is far more at stake than just Quillon’s own survival, for the limiting technologies of the zones are determined not by governments or police but by the very nature of reality—and reality itself is showing worrying signs of instability.
Death Cloud is the first in a series of novels in which Sherlock Holmes is re-imagined as “a brilliant, troubled and engaging teenager”…
Young Sherlock Holmes: Death Cloud
By Andrew Lane; Read by Dan Stevens
3 CDs – Approx. 3 Hours [ABRIDGED?]
Publisher: Pan Macmillian Audio
Published: June 2010
ISBN: 9780230745124 The year is 1868, and Sherlock Holmes is fourteen. His life is that of a perfectly ordinary army officer’s son: boarding school, good manners, a classical education – the backbone of the British Empire. But all that is about to change. With his father suddenly posted to India, and his mother mysteriously ‘unwell’, Sherlock is sent to stay with his eccentric uncle and aunt in their vast house in Hampshire. So begins a summer that leads Sherlock to uncover his first murder, a kidnap, corruption and a brilliantly sinister villain of exquisitely malign intent…
Jesse Brown of TVO’s Search Engine podcast interviews Member of Parliament Marc Garneau, the Liberal industry critic, (and former astronaut). Sez Jesse Brown:
The number of ways you can break the law by playing with your own property is set to multiply if the new copyright bill becomes law. An interview with Liberal industry critic Marc Garneau on whether he plans to let that happen.
Canada’s Conservative government has tabled a new copyright bill (a proposed law). Bill C-32 contains a provision to prevent the legalization of most of the rights it purports to be enshrining. The DRM (Digital Rights Management) protection provisions in Bill C-32 would trump Canadian citizen’s rights on a number of fronts.
Listen to Nora Young of CBC’s Spark talking to CBC’s Peter Nowak about Bill C-32 |MP3|.
After listening to the segment it sounds to my like Bill C-32 is a hipper, slicker version of Bill C-61. The question is will better talking points be enough for it to get through? I sure hope not. Bill C-32 means…
-We’ll have to say goodbye to fair dealing (using portions of copyrighted material in your own work). Circumventing what the government is calling “TPMs” (technological protection measures) on copyrighted materials would not be unlawful under Bill C-32. TPM, by the way, is the new, less tarred acronym for DRM.
This is really bad folks. The most read story I’ve ever written includes a Wall-E with a “copyright criminal” sign. I photoshopped from two different copyrighted images. That’s fair dealing, right there. That image has been widely used around the net (do a search for it on TinEye.com if you’re curious).
-Goodbye format shifting! No more ripping a DVD to MP4 for your iPod. It would be legal under Bill C-32 only if your DVD didn’t have any DRM. I guess it’s just too bad that virtually every store bought DVD you’ve ever purchased has DRM on it!
Under Bill C-32 you won’t be allowed to rip your own legally owned DVDs. You’ll just have to keep buying the same movie over and over folks.
-Lawyer up if you’ve ever installed a PC game! DRM can lock out a game’s owner from their own legally purchased products.
I recently bought the Medal of Honor 10th Anniversary Bundle (at Future Shop), I played through the first two games in the series only to discover the fourth (Medal of Honor: Airborne) had a bad install on my Vista machine. I entered the activation code three times, and was locked out. I had to download a keygen to make my own game work.
I’m not much for poetry. Perhaps that’s because, as a published poet myself, I know just how crappy most poetry really is. Still, there are a few poems that do speak to me. Here’s one, a popular one, from 100 years ago, that I revisited recently.
If
By Rudyard Kipling; Read by Chip
1 |MP3| – Approx. 2 Minutes [POEM]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: January 29, 2006 Described as “a memorable evocation of Victorian stoicism” and the poetic crystalization of the British virtue of keeping a “stiff upper lip.” First published in 1910.
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man my son!
—Rudyard Kipling
Pearl Pirate
By L. Ron Hubbard; Read by ????
1 |MP3| – Approx. 47 Minutes [UNABRIDGED?]
Publisher: Galaxy Press
Published: March 2010 American captain Smoke Engel loses his ship, the Witch, to a corrupt Chinese money lender and must then embark on a deadly errand to regain his rightful property—by stealing a fortune in black pearls from the most ruthless pirate on the South Seas.
The Taming of the Shrew
Jesse Brown of TVO’s Search Engine podcast interviews Member of Parliament 
