King Lear as an Electricnovel?
Yeah, we heard that question a lot as we collected the research that became the text of LEER.
And then the question became, is LEER Electric?
The answer to that is, yes.
If you look around you'll find many of our common features and in truth this version of LEER developed as most of our Electricnovels do, the only difference was that this time we had a famous progenitor.
When we began writing LEER it was a combination of the usual and the not so usual methods. First, the boss had been reading Harold Bloom's The Western Cannon and in that book Professor Bloom talks at great length about the strengths of the play and the weaknesses of modern audiences.
The boss thought about a modern adaptation, in the same style as Buz Lehrman's Romeo + Juliet. He looked around but the violence and the role of Lear as a "King" defied him.
The usual part was that, as usual, the story for LEER was just lying around out there in old news reports, books, films, and memories. When the boss happened upon the parallels between the fictional play and the real events it was obvious what had to be done: Change the real names to play names, improve the language and motivations a little and simply start typing.
(We're sure you can guess who in our organization got those jobs.)