Free Reign In Your Own Hands

Hello everyone!

So, I've decided to spice up the blog posting this week. I feel we've discussed many aspects of translating original works into different media, yet we haven't explored this idea by doing it ourselves. I feel to fully understand what it entails we should practice what we preach!

I thought it would be neat if we translated any of the works we've covered in class, just so we would all be on the same page, into our own interpretations. Particularly, I had poetry in mind but the purpose of this exercise is freedom of expression so go with whatever you feel. After your translation if you could just give a quick overview of your inspiration for the piece that would be great!

For example, I'll begin with a haiku:

S.O.L

Strange to family

Outcast from society

Left to be WICKED

I loved Maguire's central message within the novel Wicked, putting forth the question of what is evil and how is it "born". Overall, he answered this very question posed by Elphaba with the novel's plot showing that life events mold a person into what society has labeled them. This was my inspiration for the haiku.

Everyone in this class is super creative can't wait to read what you all write!!

Aubrey

Involvment in their Adaptations

In these couple of weeks of class, we have had the chance to read several interesting works and evaluate their adaptations.
We all are aware that Gregory Maguire sold the rights of his novel and gave full creative reign to the producers of the musical. On the other hand, Arthur Miller was more involved in making the adaptation to his play. Similarly... We never got to have our discussion on 300, so I did a little research on my own. Did any of you notice how closely the movie followed the graphic novel? In fact, Frank Miller not only was the author and illustrator of 300 but also helped produced the movie!
So my questions are:
1. How important is it for the originator to be involved in on the making of the adaptation?
2. Does this involvement make the adaptation better or worse?
and...
3. Is it ok for the originator to NOT be involved (much like Maguire)?

Why Translate?

We’ve talked a lot about what makes a “good” translation, which translations we like/dislike and why, and we’ve touched on what a translation does to our perceptions of original works. I think the change in perceptions of original works is really interesting, especially after my experience with the Wizard of Oz and Wicked. I started to wonder what possessed Maguire to write a “spin off” of the original idea; why did he choose this type of fiction writing as opposed to a completely original work? (I’m not saying Wicked isn’t original, but it’s not completely his.) So, here’s my question(s): Why do you think people translate works? Is there a purpose (cultural etc.) to making an original print work into a visual work? And, (so this isn’t such a dry topic, sorry guys) can you think of examples?

Interpretations of novels

I have heard many say that the translation of Wicked from a novel to a Broadway musical was not appropriate for the novel because of the darkness and theme of the book. I was wondering, what qualities must a novel have to be successfully transformed into a musical or play? Why do you think that it is necessary to have these qualities? If the novel doesn't have these qualities, what type of adaptation is more suited for that book? (movies, TV series, comics, etc.) What are some examples that you have seen successfully made into a musical or play? Thanks! I am excited to see what you all think! :)

Preference

Recently I heard someone mention a quote from the film theorist Bela Balazs, saying that "one may perhaps make a good film out of a bad novel, but never out of a good one." The idea that really good books have some sort of hard-to-catch something that makes them a little extra stubborn when it comes time to move into another form appealed to me, even though it is far too absolute of a statement to really feel true. I was thinking about it, though, and I wondered how much truth there is in that line of thinking. I can't count the number of times I have heard someone say that "the book is better than the movie". After all, there really are very few movie or stage adaptations that I prefer to the original work, when I have been exposed to both (although Wicked is now on that list).
So, what do you think? Do good books make the transition into a different medium with more difficulty? What are some instances where you have preferred an adaptation to the original and vice versa? Is that preference based on how “good” the source material was to begin with, or does it have more to do with how much you personally care for the source work?

Versions of Wicked

I know we were all a little surprised at how different Wicked the book and Wicked the play are. I was wondering if people thought that a play that followed the book more closely would work on the stage or if the format of the book would be too difficult to transfer to the stage. If you were to include different scenes or themes or change some aspects of the musical what would they be? I read yesterday that ABC is planning to make a tv mini series that is based only on the book. Would this be a more suitable medium for the book's content? Are there other example's of adaptations that worked better in one medium( like a play) than in another(a movie or tv show)?

Post from Tara

Hi Everyone!
So due to all of the weather across the country I am actually stuck back east at the moment! But I thought that we could maybe touch on a sort of different topic today. In one of my other classes, we are reading a book that has been translated from the original french- its actually for Ed DeSantis's class, "A Phenomenology of Love", called "The Erotic Phenomenon". Anyways, while we were discussing the text itself, I noticed a lot of people complaining about the style of writing and how lengthy and complex the sentences were. However, having spoken french for about 10 years now, I recognized the slower and more eloquent style of writing and had no trouble reading it at all. I suppose my question is this, do you think that translating works from one language to another drastically changes the way that the piece is interpreted by the reader? Or does the work usually keep it's tone, as was my experience with "The Erotic Phenomenon"?
Can't wait to see everyone's thoughts!!
-Tara

The Other Side

Bonjour!

As I am sure that all of you know Wicked is the the story of the wicked witch of the west from the "Wizard of Oz". Many times stories are translated to tell the same story from another characters point of view. Stories also get adapted to focus on specific aspects or characters that may have not been touched on in the original work. What purpose does hearing the same story from another characters point of view serve? Does getting more background information on a certain character help or hurt the way they are portrayed in an original work? Give examples of other stories that are told from another characters point of view or characters that were taken from an original work and had their stories told outside of that original work.