The Entertainment vs. The Iceman Cometh, among other references

[eli]

As Voider pointed out in another thread, Lem Doolittle's play A Reckoning is based on playwright Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, featuring a similar story and characters. While playing through "The Entertainment" again, I found few more references/connections/allusions, and noticed on the website[kentuckyroutezero.com] for the bonus content/game that there was a print version of the script available. Curiously, the print version has its author listed as Lem Doolittle, the fictitious character from the game (…KRZ has crossed the boundary into real life[littleberlin.org] in the past). Looking more into the print version of "The Entertainment," I stumbled across a comment[www.goodreads.com] on Goodreads, pointing out the similarities between "The Entertainment" (TE) and O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh (TIC). Highlighted below are the ones that struck me the most:

• The published copy of TE claims Library of Congress Card Catalog Number 57-6498. This number actually belongs to TIC.
  
• TE’s bartender is named Harry Esperanza. “Esperanza” is the Spanish word for hope. Harry Hope is the name of the bartender in TIC.
  
• A trio of TE’s characters bear the surname Slade. Larry Slade is one of the central characters of TIC.
  
• Both TE and TIC take place in Raines Law hotels. Raines Law left a loophole in its liquor tax that exempted hotel restaurants. TE celebrates the legend of bar owners who mocked the law by serving “brick sandwiches” - two pieces of bread with a brick between - to satisfy the food requirement.
  
• In TIC, Harry Hope hasn’t left his own bar/hotel in years, not since his wife Bessie died. In TE, Harry makes reference to his late wife Bess several times. [Evelyn suggests he did not take a vacation in New Orleans at all, as he hardly gets out of the town, much less the bar.]
  
• "Sardonic" is a word that means "grimly mocking or cynical". Eugene O’Neill used it liberally in TIC, particularly when characterizing the speech of Larry. In modern writing it is considerably less common, so I attribute its frequent use in TE to be a stylistic homage to O’Neill.
  
• In Scene 4 of TE, Evelyn at one point says, “Don’t be a fool. Buy me a drink.” In TIC, Hugo Kalamar is a Russian anarchist who spends most of the play passed out on a table. When he does wake up for brief moments, he usually demands of anyone and everyone, “Don’t be a fool. Buy me a trink!”
  
• In TE’s Scene 4, Lawrence Slade names Rosa’s manager at the supermarket where she works as O’Neill. Eugene O’Neill is the playwright of TIC.

Apart from this, KRZ references Shakespeare's Hamlet, Samuell Beckett's Waiting for Godot and Act Without Words, Samuel Coleridge's Kubla Khan, Peter Shaffer's Equus and probably more. If you haven't seen this article[superlevel.de]—"Kentucky Fried Zero"—about KRZ's numerous other references to art, culture and history, I'd highly recommend it.

[aphotic]

The elusive Magnus Hildebrandt actually has a piece on the second episode[superlevel.de] as well.

[eli]

Ooh, surprised I haven't seen that. Thanks for the link!

[magnus]

Originally posted by aphotic:

The elusive Magnus Hildebrandt...

Not as elusive as you might think.
You also might find the video of Cardboard Computers hour long Panel Discussion at the WordPlay Festival interesting.
http://handeyesociety.com/wordplay/

[aphotic]

Nice to see you Magnus! :) I'm nobody.
Looking forward to the inevitable Act 3 untangling.

[eli]

Originally posted by magnus:

Not as elusive as you might think.
You also might find the video of Cardboard Computers hour long Panel Discussion at the WordPlay Festival interesting.
http://handeyesociety.com/wordplay/

Hey, it's you. :) Thanks for the link! Looks pretty interesting—the whole idea for the WordPlay festival seems great. I'll try to get around to watching the video tomorrow.

[magnus]

Yes, the person aphotic believes to be a figment of Cardboard Computer imagination ;)

[aphotic]

Believed, rather. Obviously I wouldn't have disclosed the identity had I continued to hold that opinion. You have to admit, that could have been quite interesting. :)

[magnus]

Originally posted by aphotic:

Believed, rather. Obviously I wouldn't have disclosed the identity had I continued to hold that opinion. You have to admit, that could have been quite interesting. :)

I could still be a ChatterBot, that would fit with KRZ :)

[besmirched·tourist]

Originally posted by magnus:

Originally posted by aphotic:

The elusive Magnus Hildebrandt...

You also might find the video of Cardboard Computers hour long Panel Discussion at the WordPlay Festival interesting.
http://handeyesociety.com/wordplay/

Huh, I never would have guessed that KRZ started life as a platformer.