Shakespeare in the multiverse
June 13, 2017 6:44 PM Subscribe
I'm looking for instances in fiction, any media, where Shakespeare and/or the works of Shakespeare are used as a comparison point (for the benefit of the audience or explicitly for the characters) between alternate/parallel universes or alternate histories.
Two examples I have:
* In the parallel universe episode of Red Dwarf, the genderflipped characters mention that in their universe, Wilma Shakespeare wrote Rachel III.
* In the homonormative alternate universe of the musical Zanna, Don't!, Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Julio, Antoinette and Cleopatra, and...Two Gentlemen of Verona.
These examples I already have are both name/title changes via gender, but I am interested in finding any pop culture example that uses Shakespeare or his works to illustrate how universes differ from one another.
Two examples I have:
* In the parallel universe episode of Red Dwarf, the genderflipped characters mention that in their universe, Wilma Shakespeare wrote Rachel III.
* In the homonormative alternate universe of the musical Zanna, Don't!, Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Julio, Antoinette and Cleopatra, and...Two Gentlemen of Verona.
These examples I already have are both name/title changes via gender, but I am interested in finding any pop culture example that uses Shakespeare or his works to illustrate how universes differ from one another.
Best answer: (P.S. In the show cannon, the fact that they're basically the same is also remarkable.)
posted by General Malaise at 6:58 PM on June 13, 2017
posted by General Malaise at 6:58 PM on June 13, 2017
Best answer: In The Never-Ending Story, some of the denizens of Fantasia discuss Shaxper, a fellow who used to to visit them occasionally to get ideas.
posted by Soliloquy at 6:59 PM on June 13, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Soliloquy at 6:59 PM on June 13, 2017 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Aha! You may be interested in Pratchett's "The Science of Discworld II: The Globe"
posted by The otter lady at 7:08 PM on June 13, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by The otter lady at 7:08 PM on June 13, 2017 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I feel like this definitely comes up in one of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books.
posted by galvanized unicorn at 8:24 PM on June 13, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by galvanized unicorn at 8:24 PM on June 13, 2017 [1 favorite]
Best answer: In Pamela Dean's Secret Country trilogy-plus, lines that are from Shakespeare turn up as history or epic because somehow what's poetry in our world is real in the other (it remains elegantly ambiguous which way causality runs).
posted by clew at 10:52 PM on June 13, 2017
posted by clew at 10:52 PM on June 13, 2017
Best answer: Well the most obvious one, if the most terse: You have not experienced Shakespeare till you have read him in the original Klingon.
posted by glasseyes at 3:19 AM on June 14, 2017
posted by glasseyes at 3:19 AM on June 14, 2017
Best answer: Speaking of Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters has the conceit that powerful stories unfold in a predetermined way; circumstances that resonate with the main stories are more or less forced into their pattern. Thus the Witches do a bit of nudging to make the details of a lost heir line up with the Hamlet and MacBeth stories, in order to bring things to an acceptable conclusion.
posted by glasseyes at 3:35 AM on June 14, 2017
posted by glasseyes at 3:35 AM on June 14, 2017
Best answer: Any medium? Well, in the card game Chrononauts, you play as a time-travelling historian who can change the timeline. One of the artifacts you can retrieve is Shakespeare's last play, titled Mona and the Dragon.
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:31 AM on June 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:31 AM on June 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Robert Silverberg's 1967 novel "The Gate of Worlds" takes place in an alternate history where Ottoman Turks conquered the British Isles after a much more virulent Black Death decimates Europe. Shakespeare is still born in this timeline, and still a great playwright, but his plays are set in the Ottoman Empire and are written about the new Islamic rulers of England. I remember reading it as a child thinking how cool it was that an Aztec character says to the protagonist, "I learned Turkish so I could read Shakespeare in his native language." I have always suspected that is where the Star Trek screenwriters cribbed from-- it was a popular novel by a popular writer.
posted by seasparrow at 5:00 AM on June 14, 2017
posted by seasparrow at 5:00 AM on June 14, 2017
Best answer: Neil Gaiman's Sandman series had a full episode (and the plot/theme/characters recur in the series) based on Midsummer Night's Dream.
posted by k5.user at 7:33 AM on June 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by k5.user at 7:33 AM on June 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Obligatory Doctor Who episode - reboot Series 3, Episode 2, "The Shakespeare Code" (spoilers within)
posted by wintersonata9 at 11:04 AM on June 14, 2017
posted by wintersonata9 at 11:04 AM on June 14, 2017
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posted by General Malaise at 6:57 PM on June 13, 2017