William Trowbridge: “Fool, here and in my collection Ship of Fool, is based on the fool archetype, which runs from the beginnings of storytelling up to modern films (silent and sound), fiction, poetry, and stand-up comedy. He is combination schlemiel and shlimazel, alternately the spiller and the spilled-on. Often the scapegoat, he is, as St. Chrysostom put it, ‘he who gets slapped.’ My Fool, blundering into hell with Lucifer and company, is reincarnated in various historical times, with occasional unplanned visits back to the heavenly realm, operated as a mega-corporation by its Enron-style CEO. I thought I was through with my not-so-distant relative after the collection came out, but he’s back again, none the wiser.” (web)
