Simpsons Already Did It

Do you know the episode of South Park where Butters wants to pull a nasty prank, only to discover that his every idea has already been brought to fruition on The Simpsons?



Well, this week I read Christopher Moore's new book, Fool, and I listened to Ron Rash's Serena, and I can tell you that . . . SHAKESPEARE ALREADY DID IT. Serena is a take on Macbeth and Fool is a King Lear mishmash. Moore is very upfront about using the Lear story, but it was still odd to be dealing with two pieces of non-Shakespeare Shakespearean fiction at the same time.

Both books are good reads. Serena is much darker, but the writing is very rich and descriptive, and does a great job of evoking the novel's landscape and moment in time. It's one of those wonderful books teachers can assign to reluctant students to prove that literature is serious, yes, but not boring. Fool, obviously, is funny, but there's still some darkness. And Moore's underlying sweetness lingers on every page.

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Here's a question: Am I crazy, or should the word biopic be pronounced "bye-OP-ick," rather than the "BYE-oh-pick" that I keep hearing? I mean, if the latter pronunciation were correct, wouldn't there be a hyphen after the "bio," to prevent it from rhyming with topic? Or is it just me?