Thursday, August 28, 2008

King Lear as Marketing Device?

“Showpiece: Wanton.” Straighty 180. 27 August 2008.

One of the most devastating speeches in Lear is Gloucester's to Edgar at IV.i.28-39:
As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods.
They kill us for their sport.
You wouldn't think that those lines would easily lend themselves to commodification. But the people of Straighty 180 alter these lines slightly and use them to market . . . marketing itself. Or, at least, to market themselves. See the startling, distrubing ad below:


[Like] flies to wanton [girls] are we to the gods.
They kill us for their sport.

Links: Straighty 180.

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Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Gen. ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
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