marycatelli (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
marycatelli) wrote2021-10-22 10:47 pm
marycatelli) wrote2021-10-22 10:47 pm
Entry tags:
more rewriting legends
Another issue with rewriting legends -- and this one applies to fairy tales, too.
You lose out in ability to surprise people.
Unless you provide clear signals that you are twisting the story (or just rip off some stuff and disguise it), if you leave out an archetypal moment, people will feel cheated rather than surprised. Still more if you include something new unless you manage to make it harmonize with the story, which limits the scope.
If you take a while to get to the story, you may be able to better set up the events, but there is the inevitable bit that you can't set them up with as much suspense. An account of Robin Hood's childhood may leave someone wondering how he ends up an outlaw in the greenwood, but not so much whether.
A retelling of a legend or fairy tale has to win interest from the interesting things it does with the old tale, not from randomly leaving out things or putting them in.
You lose out in ability to surprise people.
Unless you provide clear signals that you are twisting the story (or just rip off some stuff and disguise it), if you leave out an archetypal moment, people will feel cheated rather than surprised. Still more if you include something new unless you manage to make it harmonize with the story, which limits the scope.
If you take a while to get to the story, you may be able to better set up the events, but there is the inevitable bit that you can't set them up with as much suspense. An account of Robin Hood's childhood may leave someone wondering how he ends up an outlaw in the greenwood, but not so much whether.
A retelling of a legend or fairy tale has to win interest from the interesting things it does with the old tale, not from randomly leaving out things or putting them in.