Comments on: Est-ce un homage?

by: Kathleen Bolton

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 12:59:04 +0000

It really is a fascinating area for literary criticism. How film and popular fiction adaptors take the classics and reinvent, refashion, elide certain plot points the original authors deemed important at the time but mystify us today can provide endless fodder. They’re a snapshot of OUR preoccupations (I’m thinking of the new sexy BBC adaptation of Jane Eyre).

Thanks for linking to us! I’m going to be interested to hear what your readers think, too.

by: Bronteana

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 18:32:33 +0000

My first comment was eaten up by the internet…

Returning to my original post, I realise how badly I expressed myself! Truly, I did not intend so sharp a criticism. It is a fascinating issue you raised, and one which I have not done a lot with recently. Since I have begun reading about film adaptation, my thoughts have been displaced by new theories which tend to place literary adaptations beyond the pale. This has brought me back to my senses somewhat and merits more discussion (and so, I will probably return the favour and reference you in a new thread).

Also, I will try to correct the false impressions I gave with my initial post.

by: Therese Walsh

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 20:56:59 +0000

Yes, you and Kath definitely helped open my eyes to P&P!

Can’t I blame my high school English teachers for this lack in my education? C’mon. Do I really have to add more books to my teetering tbr list?

Oh, I suppose I must.

by: Elena Greene

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 18:41:52 +0000

Therese, I am aghast. Simply aghast. Well I may have been influential in causing you to read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE so I hope JANE EYRE will not be far behind.

by: Kathleen Bolton

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 15:59:29 +0000

Thanks for giving us your perspectives, Lauren. There is a BIG difference in writing a story with a sly wink and outright plagiarism, as you rightly pointed out. Bronte fans are passionate about JE, so dipping into that well can cut both ways.

Teri, I’m going to pretend I didn’t see that you haven’t read Jane Eyre yet. Stuffing fingers over eyes, lalalalalala…

by: Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:49:39 +0000

Thanks for the benefit of the doubt, Kathleen. I respect my readers and expect them to be intelligent, so it never occurred to me that they wouldn’t recognize my book as a re-visioning of the classic Jane Eyre. The things the other blog points to - using a faulty link, I might add - as indication of copying, like deliberately using the name Charlotte Bell and having other characters’ names begin with the same letters as characters in JE, hardly seem to me to be evidence of plaigirism. On the contrary, in Jane Smiley’s Pulitzer Prize winning and National Book Award winning novel A Thousand Acres, she uses the very same device, only this time using Shakespeare’s King Lear as her source material. I wasn’t very far into it when I realized Larry was Lear, Ginnie and Rose were Goneril and Regan, and so forth. Rather than thinking Smiley a plaigirist, I thought she was brilliant: taking something old and giving it a new twist…just as Shakespeare himself did time and time again. It is, as I say, a literary technique known as re-visioning. Now, I’m no Shakespeare, nor am I a Smiley, but I think if you stop and think about this, you’ll realize there’s a vast difference between an author giving the intelligent reader every clue to see what she’s doing and an author trying to pull the wool over readers’ eyes ala Kaavya Viswanathan. Just my two cents.

by: Therese Walsh

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:42:23 +0000

People seem unable to resist squeezing as much success/money/fame from a winning concept as they can. How many versions of Cinderella are there out in the world? I have to admit that I haven’t read Jane Eyre (ooh, I’ll be whacked for that), so I can’t comment on Baratz-Logsted’s story. But the inside flap text is now available for Deathly Hallows, and I wanted to share part of it with you. I’ll tie this back in to your post, Kath.

Harry has been burdened with a dark, dangerous and seemingly impossible task: that of locating and destroying Voldemort’s remaining Horcruxes. Never has Harry felt so alone, or faced a future so full of shadows. But Harry must somehow find within himself the strength to complete the task he has been given. He must leave the warmth, safety, and companionship of The Burrow and follow without fear or hesitation the inexorable path laid out for him…

Anyone else thinking that sounds an awful lot like Frodo Baggins–his impossible task, finding strength to complete the task he has been given (I swear those words were in a trailer), and leaving the warmth, safety and companionship of The Shire? Despite structural similarities, though, I doubt anyone would call JKR an idea stealer. There are ways to spin a concept to make it truly your own.