Tag Archives: Hamlet

Danny Fein’s “Litographs”

Some people read books as hardcovers or paperbacks. Others read them on Kindles or Nooks.

Danny Fein wants you to read them as beautiful, 24 x 36-inch posters. The entire text of classics — The Great Gatsby, Alice in Wonderland, Pride and Prejudice, even The Origin of Species — is there, on one gorgeous “litograph.”

The complete "Hamlet" text -- surrounding a skull -- hangs on a wall.

The complete “Hamlet” text — surrounding a skull — hangs on a wall.

Though the print is tiny, it is sharp and fully legible. What makes litographs special is that each design is unique, and comes directly from the book.

Siddhartha, for example, portrays Buddha. The Bible is inscribed on stained glass. The Art of War (Danny certainly covers the gamut) shows Chinese characters.

Danny is a 2006 Staples High School graduate. He also earned degrees from Harvard and Penn.

He founded Litographs because, he says, “I love books. I can’t imagine growing up without them. I want to do everything I can to make sure that students and communities around the world have access to literature and learning materials.”

A zoomed-in view of some of "Hamlet."

A zoomed-in view of some of “Hamlet.”

So in addition to providing handsome wall hangings — suitable for homes and classrooms! — Danny has partnered with the International Book Bank. For every poster he sells, he sends one new, high-quality actual book to a community in need.

New posters — in color and black-and-white — are released every Tuesday and Thursday. They’re available as t-shirt designs too (though you would not want to actually read those).

Ilene Mirkine framed Moby Dick for the Westport Schools Permanent Art Collection. Her sons Adam and Matt donated it to Staples, where it hangs — appropriately — near the English department.

Directly underneath a Permanent Art Collection painting of a whale.

For Danny Fein’s litographs, the writing is truly on the wall.

(To see all the litographs — and for ordering information — click here.)

Adam Mirkine stands next to the "Moby Dick" litograph. Above it is an illustration of a whale.

Adam Mirkine stands next to the “Moby Dick” litograph. Above it is a painting of a whale.

The "Peter Pan" t-shirt.

The “Peter Pan” t-shirt.

“Hamlet” Spoiler Alert: Everyone Dies!

Calypso makes Odysseus build “the US Airways of rafts.”

After 10 years — or the time it takes to read this story — Odysseus returns to his homeland of Ithaca.

Odysseus’ crew makes the Titanic staff look like NASA.

That’s The Odyssey in a nutshell. Say goodbye, Cliff Notes. Adios, Spark Notes.

Say hello, HighSchoolSummary.com!

Max Lance

The website — offering 4-minute summaries of high school English class standbys like The Odyssey, A Tale of Two Cities and Macbeth in clever web-video cartoon form — is the brainchild of Max Lance.

Before graduating from Staples in 2002 — and going on to NYU, USC film school and a career as a stand-up comic, screenwriter and author of the best-selling Amazon Kindle Single Crazy Girls — Max read his share of those English class, um, staples.

Now he’s turned them into an internet sensation.

“Hamlet” is about an emo teenager who is bad with confrontation.

Spoiler: Everyone dies.

Max — who lives in Los Angeles — works with his brother Dan (Staples ’05), a New York-based cinematographer, video producer and part-time editor for Fox News.

The first step, Max says, is to actually re-read each book. “When I was in high school, I could care less,” he says. “Now I think they’re pretty neat.”

He writes a one-page plot summary — straight up, no jokes — and then adds humor. There are sly asides, pop culture references, and plenty of sexual innuendoes.

After 4 or 5 drafts, Max tapes his shtick. He emails the sound file to Dan, who animates the summary to sync with the audio.

The site has caught on. Within 2 days of the Great Gatsby posting, it had 10,000 hits.

Max markets the videos through Reddit, BuzzFeed, CollegeHumor, his own blog, and  tweets and Facebook posts. But many students find it just by — desperately — searching for the books they were supposed to have already finished reading for an essay due tomorrow.

“That’s not why we did the site,” Max says. “We just thought we’d put up funny summaries for people who know the books. But if that’s part of our audience, fine.”

“1984” is a really inaccurate portrayal of the year 1984.

Dan Lance

Of course, the brothers hear from folks who accuse them of butchering their favorite books. As a stand-up comic, he’s used to people who don’t think humor is funny.

Next up: Huck Finn. The website also offers a list of future suggestions, for users to vote. It includes classics like Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies and Grapes of Wrath.

But already, Max and Dan have branched out beyond high school literature. “Art History” includes these observations:

The Phoenicians [illustrated with a map of Phoenix, Arizona] and Greeks perfected the technique of boring pieces of chipped pottery, which we ignore in museums.

Four Renaissance artists — Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello — are better known asNinja Turtles.

Chiaroscuro is an SAT word!

(To see all the HighSchoolSummary videos, click here.)