10-23-2013, 03:27 PM | #31 |
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I'm going to disagree. I think that it may be a good idea. Have you ever watched a teenager or someone who isn't a "die hard" reader try to read any of the classics? It's an instant way to turn that person off, not only to the book in question, but to classics in general, and even to the whole idea of reading. I'm not suggesting that these new modern versions should replace the originals, but if they get people to read the stories, then isn't that a good thing? Perhaps they'll then be inclined to go back and read the originals?
Or think of it this way: We don't expect people to read Tolstoy in Russian if they don't speak Russian; we don't expect people to read Dumas in French if they don't speak French. A modern audience, especially a younger modern audience, doesn't speak Victorian or Georgian English either. I guess we have to ask whether the books are being read, at least in part, for their content and not just for their writing style. Again, please don't think that I'm suggesting that the originals be dumped or replaced; but I think it would be far better for people to have an entree to books that they might otherwise pass by than for those books to begin to pick up more and more dust on library shelves. |
10-23-2013, 03:29 PM | #32 |
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Cane we call the The Austen Powers Project?
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10-23-2013, 04:47 PM | #33 |
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Poohbear_nc summed up my feelings on this on the first page pretty well.
If I had done a rework of the original stories, I'd be accused of plagiarism (and rightfully so). But because they're advertising and marketing the books, it's all A-ok and on the up-and-up. I don't see the difference. |
10-23-2013, 05:08 PM | #34 | |
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10-23-2013, 06:37 PM | #35 | |
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Writing style. |
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10-23-2013, 06:45 PM | #36 |
o saeclum infacetum
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Didn't I see that Ovid was suing Shakespeare for plagiarizing Pyramus and Thisbe?
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10-23-2013, 07:54 PM | #37 |
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I read Jane Austen when I was young, as I did Dickens, Shakespeare, Lucy Maude Montgomery and Louis L'amour and many others. Mainly because the books were there in my house or my grandparents house. Even at 10 or 12 I didn't find them excessively boring or offensive or even hard to understand.
Sure adapt them and turn Pride and Prejudice into a Harlequin Romance. As Catlady said the value is in a good part the writing style and possibly some insight into how Jane Austen thought. Take that away bit by bit and eventually you have 50 Shades. Helen |
10-23-2013, 09:03 PM | #38 | |
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See Mr. Bennett. See Mr. Bennett read a book. Mr. Bennett is in his library. Mr. Bennett has many daughters. It is very noisy in Mr. Bennett's house. But it is quiet in the library. I guess I must have been a child prodigy because I read Austen when I was about 14 and actually understood what I read, in the style it was written. |
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10-23-2013, 09:48 PM | #39 | |
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10-23-2013, 11:08 PM | #40 | |
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But this isn't the lowest common denominator, that would be considerably lower. No one is taking away Jane Austen in the original. This is a tempest in a teaspoon. |
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10-23-2013, 11:21 PM | #41 | |
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A "classic" is just a story, and isn't something so important that the message needs to be translated by other authors. The re-writes may be wonderful to read, but that will be down to the new author's writing style, and nothing to do with the original material. |
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10-23-2013, 11:34 PM | #42 |
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I'll just stick with my Classics Illustrated comics.
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10-24-2013, 12:59 AM | #43 | |
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As much as I'd like to read "Ivanhoe", I just can't get into that book. But if someone rewrites it so that I can breeze through it, they aren't doing me any favors, because I'm not experiencing the author's words or voice. I'm merely reading story; they are removing the other dimensions of the work. Sort of like eating an entree that is missing the umami. Classics Illustrated is a completely different thing. That is a transformation into a new medium. |
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10-24-2013, 01:57 AM | #44 |
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I don't see the point. Part of the flavor of a book is the vocabulary that the author used in writing it. To change that would be like making a copy of the Mona Lisa in crayon and trying to say it's as good as the Michaelangelo original. When I was in Jr. High school I remember I came across a copy of a book of Shakespeare's plays that had been written in modern English. To me it just fell flat. I think it would be the same with any other classic author whose works were re-written in contemporary English. Yes there is a learning curve when antiquated words are used in a text like say Le Morte D'Arthur, but at the same time having to look those words up to find their proper meaning can draw the reader deeper into the story in the long run.
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10-24-2013, 02:03 AM | #45 | |
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