Oh that Joe Queenan; never afraid to take on difficult targets. Here he considers what it would be like if Amazon reviewers were unleashed upon a few classic books:
It is always fun to go back in time and speculate on what might have happened had Anne Boleyn been on Facebook, or had Pharaoh's army included amphibious equipment. This is why I cannot help wondering what a typical Amazon.com review might have looked like had the Internet existed centuries ago:
• "King Lear"—Average reader rating: Two stars. The author tells us: "As like flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport." Oh, right, like I didn't know that? Like I didn't know that to be or not to be is the question? Like I didn't know that the fault lies not in us but in the stars? Tell me something I don't know, Mr. Bard of Whatever.
Oh ho! Hi-hi-hi-larious! Of course, it’s not quite right, seeing as how Queenan’s examples contain few spelling errors, fair grammar, and a respect for placing capital letters on the first words of each sentence. Still, Queenan’s piece is still a well-formed humor analog, so we’ll let it slide.
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