adaptations of literary works - what are you looking for?

[imperiex]

there's a lot of books and poems and works that have inspired or been adapted into other media like movies, songs or books.

obvious examples are Harry Potter, LOTR, Pumpkinhead (a horror movie inspired by a poem), Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower' {edit}
question is, what are you looking for in works inspired by or adapted from literary works? does it need to stay true to the plot or can it deviate? should it be abridged or conserved? should it retain the original's flavor or can it be subjected to "re-imaginations"? or anything else you feel should be in a literary-derivative work.

im currently working on a rap album inspired by classic literature and so would love some input from the intelligent people in this forum.

Cheers
imperiex
{edit}

[kiki1982]

Hello! Good that you ask, at least one artist who is humble enough to do so.

What I think about plot:
The whole film/piece (mostly film of course) should reflect the message of the work, or the partial message the artist wants to give. If there is a book with a love story, but beyond that there is a bigger theme, then you, as an artist, have two choices. You either make a piece about the bigger theme, with the love story embedded in it, or you choose to keep it simple and only to evoke the love story, but then you need to be very cautious in taking everything out that is not concerned. And that is where everything mostly goes wrong... They forget to take out things, and then you're there, not knowing what the hell it's about, unless you have read the book...
So, when it comes to changing the plot. I'm am not greatly in favour of it, but if it is too long, too difficult, too deep (related to the higher theme, that you are not evoking) etc, in short, if you have a bloody good reason, then you can change the plot, BUT it should be done with care, which is mostly not the case, and it should reflect the message the book brings or you want to bring (with a sub-plot).
You can not take out characters that have great importance in the end. Because if you do that, then you have to take the non-existant character out of nothing, to be able to make an end to the story and then nobody who is watching or listening, is able to comprehend what you mean. For example, if you would take out Gloucester (the father) out of King Lear, then you would give the evil son Edmund, who would be able to bannish his brother Edgar, a different reputation. He would not be half as bad.
Then you can of course change the ending but that's very treacherous. In this case, there is no reason for Edgar to fight his brother, other than revenge, but then you would make Edgar slightly bad, and he is suposed to be good. If you would then change the ending, you would be able to have Edmund killied in battle, but that's not according to the good-bad-image of Shakespeare and he wouldn't be able to order the death of Cordelia and King Lear himself after winning the battle, and then you would be able to make him live, but he is a bad character, so he is upposed to die. Finally if you wuld be really daft, you would be able to make him die of some disease but then the piece is going to be longer and it is again not according to the image Shakespeare wanted to create.

Abridging also touches the paragraph above. I can imagine that Les Misérables is slightly too long, too difficult..., and so abridging is a good option, but it should be done with care. Do not take out the life of Marius before he sees Cosette again when they are abushed by Thénardier and do not take out how he searches for her. You can take out the parts about how Fantine ends up with a daughter, what Thénardier did on the battlefield of Waterloo and those kind of things you can easily evoke in some other way...

I hope that is kind of clear...
Foremost remember the fact that the message should be true.

[vjalan]

Dear friend,

i am a playwrite and I have written many plays based on old myths. I have also written a play inspired by O. Henry's story.

I think the ideas contained in good literature is always relevant. I also feel that if the idea can be adapted to modern times or various cultures, then it should be done, to make it simpler to understand, or more entertaining.

[imperiex]

thanks for your replies; i didnt mean to look like i ignored this thread just that i couldnt find time to post so yea

so you saying faithful reproduction of the plot is second to the message? so is it alright if i just rap about Macbeth's ambition and the struggle he's facing inside rather than retelling the story and about the witches and Duncan's murder and so forth? i reckon it should be easier to write a decent rhyme that way, if not for the sake of brevity.

vjalan: yeah man that's what im trying to do, so im glad you understand that. i was fortunate to have learned Literature in college which i quite enjoyed, so i want my listeners to experience that enjoyment as I felt, but with a different and fresher medium. people tend to get scared when they hear 'classic literature' but i hope the phrase 'hip hop inspired by classic literature' will go down with them.

cheers
imperiex

[DapperDrake]

I think if you do it well you can get away with just about anything but that's the key, it has to be done well or it will just sit in the shadow of the original.

As a rule I don't like adaptations, the reason being that most adaptaions are unfaithful to the atmosphere of the original, they're not just adaptations they are also modernisations, reinterpretations.
For example I recently read a play adpated for radio from Homer's Odyssey, and it was great! It didn't try to change the original but rather just converted it into a different format, it distilled the key essences from the original and just slimmed down the story where necessary.

I think a good adaption can reinvigorate the original, bring it to life, add to it even; Bramstoker's Dracula is much better as a film than as a book. Sadly there are many examples of bad adaptation, take 90% of costume drama :sick:, Ok so the original is sexist, racist, classist, repressed, etc.. but thats what it is! you can't just discard all that without fundamentally destroying the material.

[kiki1982]

so you saying faithful reproduction of the plot is second to the message? so is it alright if i just rap about Macbeth's ambition and the struggle he's facing inside rather than retelling the story and about the witches and Duncan's murder and so forth? i reckon it should be easier to write a decent rhyme that way, if not for the sake of brevity.


As long as you don't put words in his mouth that are totally beside the point... It regularly happens, sadly.:sick: