Potential Research Topic: "To Be Or Not To Be"

As I mentioned previously on a couple posts in this blog, I helped to Kickstart a book called To Be Or Not To Be: That Is The Adventure by Ryan North. I've described it to most of my friends as a "Choose-Your-Own Hamlet"; it runs through the story of Hamlet from a couple different perspectives, written in an informal, modern tone, and littered with decision points (for example, Hamlet can choose to go and kill Claudius immediately after talking to Hamlet, Sr., instead of agonizing over the decision).

The book is really entertaining, but academically interesting for a number of reasons. Specifically, the book itself criticizes many of the "Canon" choices--when you (as Hamlet) choose to go into Ophelia's room with fouled stockings, etc., then persist in choosing to act crazy in front of her, the narrator actually forcibly takes the reins from you: "You know what? I think you've made enough choices for a while. Move over. I'm driving" (308). Also notable is the "lost" pirate fight scene, which goes on for at least a dozen pages, and is filled with enough bad puns to make even Shakespeare himself groan.

What could make for a really interesting semester project would be a review/survey of To Be Or Not To Be, talking about what changes were made and how that affects the narrative, possibly comparing and contrasting it to other modern "renditions" (Better Myth's "Hamlet is Very Bad At Revenge" comes to mind [language warning]). What could make it even more substantial is talking about why we feel the need to "modernize" the narrative, and, possibly, how books like To Be Or Not To Be could be used to help teach Shakespeare.

If you'd like to check the book out, it retails for about $28 on Amazon, and might be available at one of the local libraries. You're also more than welcome to borrow my copy, and you can also take a peek at the Kickstarter bonuses I got (which is how most of the first edition readers would experience it). Go ahead and email me if you're interested; commenting on this post might send me an alert still, but I'm not sure.

Good luck this semester!
David G.