söndag 30 december 2012

A fight at the opera

Jajaja. Jag fick fem (!) PS3-spel i julklapp och dessförinnan en expansion till Trail of Cthulhu, som jag därför började råplugga, och så har jag läst en massa roliga böcker. Vem fan hinner blogga?

I alla fall. Apropå debatten om våld och tv-spel, som då och då blossar upp, tyckte jag det var hysteriskt roligt Ubisoft ger en känga åt alla moralister och moralpanikare i sitt tämligen våldsamma spel Assassin's Creed III.

I AC3, liksom i övriga spel i serien, så spelar man huvudpersonens förfäder. Detta sker genom att huvudpersonen befinner sig i något som kallas Animus, och allt eftersom man upptäcker världen så uppdateras Animus databas med inlägg om de olika platser, personer och händelser man möter. Dessa skrivs av den högintelligente men väldigt sarkastiske medhjälparen Shaun Hastings.

Assassin's Creed III:s inledningssekvens börjar på Theater Royale* i London år 1749, under en föreställning av Tiggarens opera, då man ska lönnmörda en herre i publiken. Följande lilla text finns om denna opera, i spelets databas:

The Beggar's Opera opened in London in 1728. It's a musical - one of the earliest ever created. It was written by John Gay, a writer and friend of both Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, two of the prominent literary figures of the day. 
The Opera was both popular and controversial. Popular, partly because it was an excellent skewering of Italian Opera, which was very popular at the time. However, instead of complicated Italian songs, the Beggar's Opera featured folk tunes that the audience could recognize, meaning you could hum along even if you don't know Italian. 
It was controversial because of the subject matter. It's set in the Newgate Prison, and the main characters are all criminals - who act much like the upper classes. It was a sendup of the British nobility, including veiled criticism of the head of government - neither of whom traditionally have a sense of humour. I've never met a Queen who liked a knock-knock joke. Actually, I've never met a Queen. 
The Beggar's Opera was accused of being a "base form of entertainment" and - because its main characters were criminals - accused of causing increase in crime. It's nice to see that criticism isn't just for movies and video games. Bloody opera - corrupting our kids...

Nyeh, nyeh, nyeh.


* Om Theater Royale har Shaun Hastings följande att säga/skriva:
You might hear this referred to as "Covent Garden" (which it faces) or the "Royal Opera House" (Which it later became). However, this is the original Theatre Royal building - opened in 1732, destroyed by fire in 1808. It will be rebuilt - then destroyed by fire again in 1857 - and then almost completely renovated in the 1990s. They've installed a smoke detector this time. 
The original theatre lineup was varied, containing ballet, operas, even acrobatics. Many of Handel's operas opened here, right up until his death in 1759, when he mysteriously stopped writing them. But the building was mainly used for presenting plays, at least for the first hundred years of its history. The reason? It held the exclusive rights to perform spoken drama in London - awarded by King Charles II. Yes, kings could do that. Though why they would, is beyond me.

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