We Haven't Got There Yet

by Harry Turtledove

William Shakespeare is mightily out of sorts -- every scribbling wagtail cullion in London is shamelessly pilfering his ideas, and this new fellow is the cheekiest of all. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead? What kind of name is that for a play? In Harry Turtledove's Tor.com Original, We Haven't Got there Yet.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Time Travel, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Shakespeare, Theatre

26 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 19, 2009

About the author

Dr Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced a sizeable number of works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.

Harry Turtledove attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977.

Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within this genre he is known both for creating original scenarios: such as survival of the Byzantine Empire; an alien invasion in the middle of the World War II; and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by other authors, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War; and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme.

Reviews

[karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!

this explanation/intro will be posted before each day’s short story. scroll down to get to the story-review.

this is the SIXTH year of me doing a short story advent calendar as my december project. for those of you new to me or this endeavor, here’s the skinny: every day in december, i will be reading a short story that is 1) available free somewhere on internet, and 2) listed on goodreads as its own discrete entity. there will be links provided for those of you who like to read (or listen to) short stories for free, and also for those of you who have wildly overestimated how many books you can read in a year and are freaking out about not meeting your 2020 reading-challenge goals. i have been gathering links all year when tasty little tales have popped into my feed, but i will also accept additional suggestions, as long as they meet my aforementioned 1), 2) standards.

GR has deleted the pages for several of the stories i've read in previous years without warning, leaving me with a bunch of missing reviews and broken links, which makes me feel shitty. i have tried to restore the ones i could, but my to-do list is already a ball of nightmares, so that's still a work-in-progress. however, because i don't have a lot of time to waste, i'm not going to bother writing much in the way of reviews for these, in case GR decides to scrap 'em again.

i am doing my best.
merry merry.

DECEMBER 18: WE HAVEN'T GOT THERE YET - HARRY TURTLEDOVE

TIME TRAVEL MAGIC makes possible a fun little scenario: shakespeare (you heard of this guy?) watching a production of tom stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which performance blows the assembled audience's mind with its cheeky modernity and blows shakespeare's specific mind with BUT WAIT.

How many messengers and knights and nobles and constables and other such folk has Shakespeare written into his plays? More than he can remember. More than he can count if he could remember. What do they do? Whatever the action requires of them. They come on stage. They say their lines and make their motions. Sometimes they exit.

Sometimes they die.

In a way, that is as it should be. The play could not advance without them. But never has Shakespeare thought to wonder what the world—the world of the play, the world within the play, the world as a whole—might look like through the eyes of such a personage. A playwright is but a lesser God. How do his smaller, less favored creatures live—do they live?—when his eye is not fully on them?

Like this Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, perhaps?

They are damned. And the worst of their damnation is, they know not that they are damned. They cannot cry, with poor dead Kit’s Faustus, Why this is hell, nor am I out of it. They have to try to kick against the pricks, until . . . the play is ended.

which is probably what tom stoppard scribbled in his diary the night he decided to write Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

that's all my brain can do here today. duty calls.

read it for free here

THE STORIES:

DECEMBER 1: NIGHT STAND - DANIEL WOODRELL
DECEMBER 2: MR. DEATH - ALIX HARROW
DECEMBER 3: THE FRUIT OF MY WOMAN - HAN KANG
DECEMBER 4: THE TINDER BOX - KATE ELLIOTT
DECEMBER 5: BABYCAKES - NEIL GAIMAN
DECEMBER 6: HIS MIDDLE NAME WAS NOT JESUS - NOVIOLET BULAWYO
DECEMBER 7: SING A SONG OF SIXPENCE - LILLI CARRÉ
DECEMBER 8: DARK TIDE - MARK LAWRENCE
DECEMBER 9: DARKER TIDE - MARK LAWRENCE
DECEMBER 10: BREAK - MISHELL BAKER
DECEMBER 11: A RUMOR OF ANGELS - DALE BAILEY
DECEMBER 12: THE ENGLISHMAN - DOUGLAS STUART
DECEMBER 13: IT CAME FROM CRUDEN FARM - MAX BARRY
DECEMBER 14: NO MOON AND FLAT CALM - ELIZABETH BEAR
DECEMBER 15: A STUDY IN SHADOWS - BENJAMIN PERCY
DECEMBER 16: ART APPRECIATION - FIONA MCFARLANE
DECEMBER 17: THE SOUND OF FOOTSTEPS - SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA
DECEMBER 19: THE DUNE - STEPHEN KING
DECEMBER 20: THE WORTHINGTON - EMILY CARROLL
DECEMBER 21: SUNBLEACHED - NATHAN BALLINGRUD
DECEMBER 22: BLOOD DAUGHTER - MATTHEW LYONS
DECEMBER 23: THE LINE - AMOR TOWLES
DECEMBER 24: PIGEONS - NIBEDITA SEN
DECEMBER 25: WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED, WHAT WE WILL FORGET, WHAT WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO FORGET - EUGENE LIM
DECEMBER 26: ONE/ZERO - KATHLEEN ANN GOONAN
DECEMBER 27: MATINEE - ROBERT COOVER
DECEMBER 28: ACCESS - ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 29: UNNECESSARY THINGS - TATYANA TOLSTAYA
DECEMBER 30: HOOK - DANIELLE MCLAUGHLIN
DECEMBER 31: HE'S VERY WELL READ - CATHERINE LACEY

previous years' advent calendars (what's left of 'em):

2016
2017
2018
2019
2020

come to my blog!

[Eve Jacqueline · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are more things ...than you have ever dreamed of'

Intrigued by the title, I bought the text. I began to read, re-read , and read it again next morning. This demonstrates Stoppard's play's theme, the nature of acting, and, while toying with time, ownership of ideas and of text, explores reality, existence and purpose. All done with quotation and humour. Thoughtful fun.

[Jesse Field · Rating 3 out of 5]

Time travel plot: what if Shakespeare watched Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead?

Somewhat fascinating concept, a few funny lines. Flabby pairing of motivation and reaction, though — it’s not easy to keep the focal character in place and tell the action of the play at the same time.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Made my theatre nerd heart fill with joy.

[Victoria Sanchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

a bit too short but enjoyable. big fan of Harry Turtledove

[chvang · Rating 2 out of 5]

William Shakespeare, incensed that someone has plagiarized him, intends to give them what for and attends a play, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead.

It's like a reaction video: Shakespeare reacts to time traveling theater troupe. That's it. It's pretty amusing, but the joke does drag on too long.

[Badseedgirl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh.