posted
For no good reason, I watched the movies The Angry Red Planet and 2010: The Year We Make Contact, one right after another. Of course the level of sophistication of the movies themselves, and the acting -- oh my word, the acting! -- was eons apart, but I was floored by the similarity of storylines, especially the endings. Both had aliens telling us to leave that planet or moon and never come back.
Now I'm familiar with the idea there are really only so many plots, but watching these two movies in such immediate juxtaposition with each other still hammered home that there are myriad ways to tell a tale. Cliched is only that if we mishandle our material.
posted
You all may have seen this, or done it, but I haven't, and I'd like to see a group take a well-known tale and have each member re-tell it. It would be interesting to see the varied routes to the same goal. I'm not saying that the stories should be set in the same universe, use the same characters, etc.; rather, the opposite.
Has anyone created an edited anthology of retellings of the same story?
Let's say we challenged OSC, Charles deLint, Tanith Lee and Stephen King to all retell >>place your favorite tale here<<. If they all agreed (unlikely, but fun to think about)it would make for an interesting evenings reading.
posted
Oh hell yeah it would. I mean, besides the fact that they are all professional writers whereas we wish we could be, it would be interesting to do the exact same thing here. Pick some classic fairy tale (randomly of course) and have people submit them somewhere and then post them all at the end of the week or something.
This whole story thing is becoming apparent to me too. Several times I come up with something very cool and then a friend said, oh yeah that's like in <insert book here>. Sometimes I'll go pick up that book and it is sorta the same story except, not. On the way back from a friends house (two hour drive) this weekend I thought of this interesting vampire-esque thing where they feed on your soul too, which all ties in very neatly with some of the things I've already planned. Fifteen minutes later I realized that sounded exactly like what the dementors from Harry Potter do. (What can I say, they're interesting) When I first tried to explain it that's what it seemed like, but then I realized that that element would be totally different in my story. I think it's sort of like cooking, we've been using basically the same ingredients since the beginning of civilization but we keep coming up with interesting and yummy things to eat. Same with writing, maybe.
Ok, enough blabbering. Surely, nobody actually reads these posts.
Jon
[This message has been edited by bladeofwords (edited August 03, 2004).]
quote:I actually read these posts. And stop calling me Shirley!
LOL It works fine written, EricJamesStone.
Back to the topic, this makes me think of the history of inventing. You discover that many people had the same idea, a few really worked hard at it, but only one person got credited with it because they'd either put in the most effort or just got lucky.
What made me think of this is that I noticed one of the posters here (was it Lorien?) was toying around with a story about a vampire who was once a priest. I was working on a story like that a year ago, but gave it up because it was too dark for me.
This makes me wonder if there are "muses" whispering stories in our ears and the writers are the ones who bother putting them on paper. And maybe the reason there are so many writers nowadays is because the muses are getting more insistent about the stories that need to be written.
posted
Anyone read the Fairy Tale series edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling? If you haven't go pick up any of the anthologies in the series. They are excellent retellings of fairy tales for adults. Sometimes you get the same story in radically different ways.
I participated in a theater workshop where teams were handed the same one page script and sent away for a week. The ten different shows that resulted were radically different, and yet each supported an aspect of the script. It was very exciting. It's one of the reasons I don't get upset about the platitude that there are only 'x' number of plots. It's the telling of the story, and the details that make it interesting.
What's that other one..."God is in the details?" I think that's where the good books are too.
posted
ooooh, that was a good one goatboy, nice and rhetorical and stuff. Oh man, that would be awesome to come up with a truly new idea, then again you would probably get killed for being a heretic or something (or maybe it would just sink your career).
I was speaking in reference to my posts in particular, Shirley. :-) Maybe somebody bothers to read even mine sometimes.
posted
Has anyone read Twice Upon a Time by Denise Little?
It is a great collection of short stories based on faerie tales, just retold from a different POV. i.e. Is the "big-bad-wolf" really the villian in Little Red Riding Hood? Is there a connection between the Princess and the Pea and Rapunzel?
Some good reading.
p.s. I'm intrigued with the writing assignment. Maybe we should ask Kathleen if we can create the assignment and post the responses in the writing class.
posted
OOOHH!!Yeah! This writing assignment sounds VERY interesting. But I would prefer that we pick something a bit more obscure, something that won't already have been done TO DEATH in retellings. Or, better yet, a short story from one of the masters or even a recent Hugo winner or...
So who made the initial suggestion? I think it was Mike. So, Mike, you wanna choose a story for us? And how do we want to handle it? A new post?
posted
I'd like to be part of this assignment, too.
The best re-telling of a fairy tale I read was a chilling re-make of Puss in Boots called "Puss". If I remember right, it was in the anthology Snow White, Blood Red and was by Esther M. Friesner. The cat isn't a cat at all, the boy is more than stupid, and the princess...if I say anything more, I'll give away the story. It was a fantastic read and I absolutely loved it.
posted
Stories that haven't been overdone? I'm not familiar enough with this to say. But two of the stories I'd like to see re-done are "The Youth Who Could Not Shiver and Shake" and "The Twelve Brothers".
posted
I didn't think that was really such a great analogy but if you want to quote me go ahead, I'm flattered. Speaking of redone fairy tales have any of you guys heard of the musical "into the woods." From what I've heard (and seen) it's insanely hard to pull off but if done right it's awesome. The story is very cool. I like the idea of doing something not quite so often rehashed as the classic fairy tales. The good thing about them though is that they are fairly simple and ambiguous (at least the disney versions with which we are mostly familiar are).
Hopefully Kathleen will stumble across this thread soon and we can talk turn it into a writing assignment, somebody would just need to pick a new story, one without too many details probably.
Has anybody ever read/seen "Wicked" (I haven't but I have several friends who are obsessed with it). It's a retelling/expounding of the story of the Wizard of Oz in which Glenda isn't such a good which and the Wicked Witch of the West isn't so bad (they were once friends according to it.)
posted
And how much text are we talking about posting?
Y'all know I have this thing about more than 13 lines, dontcha?
How about if we keep the assignment right here, and just have you brainstorm (along the lines of OSC's 1000 ideas in an hour sessions, for those who know what those are) all the different ways you can reinterpret a story.
To make it more interesting, we could add the rule that you have to come up with a description of how you think some famous writer would reinterpret a story, instead of giving away how you'd do it (in case you want to write it up and try selling it someday).
For example, for a high school English assignment (umpty-ump years ago), I wrote a version of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" the way I thought F. Scott Fitzgerald would have written it (after having read THE GREAT GATSBY).
You could make your own choice of what story to retell and use the working title to show what you're combining: "Goldilocks and the Three Bears meet the Great Gatsby," anyone?
posted
OK. So if we're going to do this we can't do it here. We need to work semi-independent of Hatrack. OR (Idea just popping into my head!) we could turn it into a 13-line flashfiction assignment. I dunno.
Maybe someone ought to begin a new post to see who wants to participate. Ask anyone interested to read this thread before jumping in and also to suggest a story to rewrite. Then we can exchange by email on or before a given assigned date. Anyone not meeting the deadline is SOL. And anyone else interested in 'reading only' can sign in too if they want.
As far as posting on "Writing Assignments," that's a bit of a problem. Posting all our stories would seriously overburden Kathleen. So, maybe we could, at a later date, start a discussion on how it all went and what we learned, or each post thirteen lines from our stories or...???
Kolona, since you started us in on this, I defer to you the first rights of authorship for a new post and to set the rules.
posted
I think we set the assignment, then post thirteen lines each in Fragments and Feedback. Then we can all trade that way. Just like normal exchanges, but we'll have a theme. I'm a big fan of using existing technology instead of reinventing the wheel.
Posts: 2022 | Registered: Jul 2003
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However, if you guys want forum capability, I have a private bulletin board on my (perpetually unfinished) personal website and I can easily create a forum for us all there. You have to register and be approved by me etc, so there would be some emails flying around for a bit, but it would work very much like this forum does. To see it, go to http://www.munsil.net and click on Forums.
[This message has been edited by mikemunsil (edited August 04, 2004).]
posted
Thanks,dakota, but the only thing that's running through my mind as I read all this is "Pippi Longstocking Meets Godzilla in Space" -- and I don't think that's where you folks are going. I will respectfully further defer to someone who's more on the same page with the spirit of this endeavor and see if I can get past my mental block.
Posts: 1810 | Registered: Jun 2002
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posted
Maybe we could brainstorm a few stories (5 or 6) that could be retold or combined.
Those who sign up can choose from the list and do one of three things:
1) Re-write the story with your own twists
2) Re-write the story the way you think a famous author would have told it
3) Combine two of the tales into something new
When you finish your story, post the first 13 for people to read and reference "Retold" in the heading.
Those who want to read the whole can have it e-mailed to them.
As most faerie tales are fairly short anyways, maybe we could limit it to 3000 words or so. Not too long to write, small attachments and quick reads.
We could set a deadline for the end of August. Plenty of time in case "life" happens. If you have something to post sooner, power to you! Just reference it as a "Retold" story.
posted
Sounds good Robyn Hood. But do you think we should all post on a single thread? The first post could be an outline of the rules, followed by our thirteen-line posts. Anyone who wants to read can contact us by email instead of posting a request on the thread? We still need some story suggestions.
I thought of:
The Odyssey The Three Billy Goats Gruff The Bremen Town Musicians King Midas Deadalus and Icharus The Gift of the Magi Johnny Appleseed (as suggested by NewsBys)
Any of those sound interesting? And since this whole discussion started out as Kolona pondering on the different ways the same story can be told, I think we should concentrate on a single story--two or three at the VERY most. I also like Robyn HOod's idea of choosing how you want to do it--twisting, copying the style of someone else, or combining two.
I'd be willing to spearhead this thing, but we need to decide on the story(ies) and how we want to proceed.
[This message has been edited by djvdakota (edited August 04, 2004).]
[This message has been edited by djvdakota (edited August 04, 2004).]
posted
I'd agree that we should just pick one. My personal vote from that list would be "King Midas" or "Deadalus and Icharus."
Posts: 2022 | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I like the idea of posting all of our first 13 on a single thread. Sounds like it will be easier to organize. I like the basic guidelines outlined in Robyn Hood's post. King Midas sounds good, I can think of a bunch of things he could turn stuff into, when he touches them. How about the legend of Johnny Appleseed? He could plant anything and travel in all sorts of lands! End of August deadline sounds good. Count me in!
Posts: 579 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
I haven't read Deadalus and Icharus but Echo and Narcisus is interesting. I would definitely like to see it limited to one or two stories if possible, that way we would actually be seeing how many ways we could retell the same story. If it works out we could definitely do it more than once. The Odyssey is just way too freaking long to do this.
Looking back I think I like Johnny Appleseed. It leaves all sorts of possibilities open, I mean it's basically just a creation story type of thing. Are we going to try and have any other similarities between the stories than just inspiration?
I wouldn't mind helping organize this if dj needs help or isn't interested. I think it's a good idea to make just one thread or to get our own forum, personally I like having our own forum so that we can all share thoughts on the stories.
Jon
Haha, everybody is just like, "yeah I'll do it if you want." Sooner or later somebody is just gonna have to do it.
posted
I'm definitely in. So are we agreed on a 3,000 word limit? With the option of either twisting or writing under the persona of an established author? Kathleen, you tell us! And should you be the one who starts the thread or does one of us have to?
[This message has been edited by autumnmuse (edited August 05, 2004).]
posted
Sounds great! Hey, welcome to my Tasmanian friend, Hoptoad!
I think it's also important to post an introduction/invitation that establishes the rules.
Something like:
***
The First Annual Hatrack Re-Write Challenge!
Welcome! This thread is the brain child of a discussion that began in the Open Discussions section of this forum. There Kolona began a discussion concerning how essentially the same tale can be told in so many different ways.
And the Re-Write challenge was born.
Here is the challenge:
1. Re-Write the story, Three Billy Goats Gruff, (http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0122e.html) in one of three ways: *Twist the story to suit your own creative bent. And, as Kathleen suggested, don't restrict yourselves to goats and ogres. *Write the story in the style of another well-known author. *Combine the tale with another tale of your choosing.
2. Submit the first 13 lines to this thread.
3. Anyone wanting to read a submitted story may contact the writer by email. Do NOT post the request on this thread. Do NOT post comments of any kind on this thread. A separate thread will be opened in Open Discussions after the deadline for discussing the submitted stories.
4. 3000 word limit.
5. August 31, 2004 deadline.
6. It is suggested that anyone participating read the original thread in Open Discussions titled Same Old Same New, by Kolona.
quote:Sounds good but this is the "first ever" challenge, not "first annual". You can't have a first annual, it isn't annual until the second one (Okay, okay, my journalism instructors pounded that into my head and I just can't shake it. I'll be quiet now )
Well, I'd like to dispute what your journalism professors told you.
I'm going to propose (hypothetically) six writing challenges (collectively known as the Eric James Stone writing challenges) with periodic deadlines.
One challenge will have a deadline every day at 5:00pm Mountain Time.
One challenge will have a deadline of 6:30pm Mountain Time every Saturday.
One challenge will have a deadline of 11:59pm Mountain Time on the last day of each month.
One challenge will have a deadline of 5:00pm Mountain Time on the last weekday of March, June, September, and December.
One challenge will have a deadline of 8:00pm Mountain Time on every June 30 and December 31.
One challenge will have a deadline of 12 noon Mountain Time every August 15.
You will notice that the deadlines for these six challenges recur on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and annual basis.
Now, it would be very messy if I had to refer to each of the first instances of these challenges as the "first ever," without making reference to their expected recurrences: I would have six indistinguishable "first ever" challenges.
If something is expected to recur on a regular basis, then information about its expected recurrence is relevant. "First ever" is less informative than "first annual," "first weekly," or "first quadrennial." In fact, in most cases "first ever" is redundant, because the fact of being first, without further qualification, necessarily means that there was not something before.
posted
I guess in the case at hand, how do we know that we will make this an annual event? We may think it's what we want but next year who's to say we'll do it again. On the other hand, we may decide this is a challenge that we want to issue every month. Then it would be a monthly challenge. Or it may become a periodic challenge.
Now in the example of six different challenges... Well essentially you do have six "first" challenges. However if you are issuing the same challenge with six different due dates that recur, then you actually have one challenge with six submission options. If each deadline group represents a different challenge subject then you would change your title to i.e. The First EricJamesStone Fantasy Challenge, The First EricJamesStone Sci-Fi Challenge, The First EricJamesStone Spec-Fic Challenge, etc.
Does it any of it really matter? No. Do I really care? No. Do I like discussing semantics ? Absolutely .
The word "ever" can be edited out as, yes, it is redundant. I only included it because it provides the same poetic lilt in the sentence as "annual".
posted
I wrote my story in a few hours this afternoon; posted the first 13 lines in the designated topic on the Fragments and Feedback board.
Of course, I did it purely for a laugh and it does amuse me (and my wife, too). I used our back garden for the scenario I created; seemed a good place at the time. Good fun. And a good idea to rework an old story like this. I hope others take up the challenge.
posted
Send it on, HSO! I'm at a point now that I can breathe again. *G*
And THIS time, I'll try to actually *finish* my review before I send it off! Though I understand this is more for fun than an in-depth crit.
I'm still trying to decide which permutation I want to write, and if I want to do it in any particular style. A number of ideas have come to mind, just a matter of choosing one! Or ah.. can we do more than one?
posted
mike... your earthlink has warned me that it has possibly blocked me... please advise if you've received the story. My email is aquilarift@(NOSPAM)hotmail.com if you need to add it to your safe list.
posted
PLEASE make this a monthly thing! I'm completely intrigued, but I'm also completely swamped for this month. (The MCAT loometh.) It sounds like a lot of fun, though!
Robyn Hood, I would hazard to say that you have a future in analytic philosophy
posted
Hey all, Im new to the forums, and I just finished reading about the rewrite challenge. Sounds intriguing. I would love to read your rerwite HSO, send it over.
Posts: 25 | Registered: Mar 2004
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