(no subject)

[scarfman]

Huh. Went Friday to Friday without posting anything this week. Well, here's something I thought about posting yesterday and never did.

I see a lot of people posting with (to put it, in some cases, mildly) consternation in reaction to news that The Day The Earth Stood Still and/or that The Rocky Horror Picture Show are being remade. My comments at the first of these posts that I saw:

But that's how legends live: they get reenvisioned for new times. Where would we be today if Caxton had said to Malory, "But all you've done is retold the French romances in English"?

Mind you, I'm not denying the basic principle of Sturgeon's Law here, nor that true classics deserve and will continue to receive due veneration. But it's also true that Shakespeare never invented a plot in his life, and no one cares.

Comments

Sturgeon's Law?

[guldensupp.livejournal.com]

Please elucidate. I'm ignorant.

Gregory

Re: Sturgeon's Law?

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Sturgeon's Law: "90% of anything is crap." Originally a response to someone complaining about how much crappy SF there was.

[alienfish.livejournal.com]

It seems that some movie studio(s) are making modern versions of "The Day The Earth Stood Still" and "The Rocky Horror Picture Show".

And our beloved Paul wants to swat the whiners upside the head.

[arujei.livejournal.com]

This is news to me. But I agree with what you're saying. So much of medieval literature was people taking the same general plot and running it with their own ideas.

So I know what I'll say when my friends start despairing to me about 'sacrilege' and 'ruination'.