Shakespeare Remastered

A significant trademark of Harold Jaffe’s recent work is, perhaps, the lack of a trademark, it seems, with his defiance of readers’ expectations and a multi-genre approach to texts such as Othello Blues. Although labeled a novel, Othello Blues is part fictional, part epistolary, and poetic, as well as musical and dramatic, incorporating references to current multi-media at the same time. Furthermore, the diction, the form, and the rhythms draw from the style and spirit of the blues as, once again, Jaffe propels the reader to the forefront of where literature, politics, and social concerns merge—an area in which he excels as both writer and literary activist.

Just as with Shakespeare’s Othello (c. 1603), one might find it difficult to approach the text without some insight to the underlying issues of race within the story. In the case of Othello Blues, racial issues become even more complex and layered than in Shakespeare’s dramatic masterpiece as the treatment of the blues itself in the story hints at many concerns related to racial and cultural appropriation, and Jaffe does well to point out the persistence of racial matters that should have been long gone but are just as evident in our own time as they were in the era of Shakespeare. These problems are complex as well as simple. As society progresses, racial discrimination and related concerns persist, but they are manifested differently. Despite notable progress on the racial front in recent decades and the election of the first African American president, racism still appears to linger, perhaps often appearing in more subtle forms, as is evident in Othello Blues when Desdemona’s father, Gillette Gillette, and lover, Otis, first meet:

Gillette Gillette grimaced. —Desdemona, I won’t mince words. Have you been using drugs? Don’t be afraid to tell me the truth. Dez stared at him. —Why you say that? —Because I can come up with no other reason to explain your attachment to this person.

Pause. Mega-rich dad, privileged/principled daughter glaring at each other.

Despite Otis’s talent and stature as a blues musician, scenes such as these demonstrate that racism, although perhaps more demonstrably elusive than in the past, still exists, and Jaffe explores race and its complications in more profundity than the original Othello, exhibiting the complexity and correlation of class struggles along with such racial discussions. Jaffe’s Desdemona also proves a more sophisticated character than Shakespeare’s, thus adding another level of complexity where gender is concerned; in Othello Blues, Dez is intelligent, mobile, and very much in control of her situation.

Regardless of race, the characters in Othello Blues speak to us in the language of the blues. Jaffe expertly handles the rhythm and lingo of the characters, creating a genuine authenticity of voice and setting. Since the “novel” is set “20 minutes into the future,” as the author states, one might ponder the utilization of the blues as a backdrop for the work and blues musicians as the primary characters in this contemporary/futuristic setting. These days, it seems the genre is a dying art, one that has always, perhaps, been unappreciated by mainstream society, if not the popular artists who have benefitted from the genre as their musical precursor. The blues, nowadays, is a very specialized, trendy sort of music, and Jaffe does well to illustrate the ironic notion that, although it is the root of most contemporary music, it remains, perhaps, one of the most underappreciated forms of the medium.

Jaffe also takes the opportunity in parts of the book such as “Prison Ferries” to expose various issues plaguing contemporary American society through fictional, albeit similar, situations to those we face in areas such as our criminal justice system. As with our current problems, Jaffe’s fictional system demonstrates severe concerns with racial disparity in all areas of processing and incarcerating the accused:

The mammoth deserted stadia, 16 in various stages of construction, had to be somehow employed, right? Coincidentally, terrorism, race rioting, drug-trafficking, and petty crimes had...