tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67881661576743990.post6941687929839296164..comments2024-03-28T20:43:00.579-05:00Comments on Uncanny Valley: The Fiction of OriginalityUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67881661576743990.post-45936018251061455762010-12-11T01:02:55.728-06:002010-12-11T01:02:55.728-06:00Okay, I found the book of retellings whose title I...Okay, I found the book of retellings whose title I couldn't remember, and learned it will be released at AWP: http://ampersand-books.com/home/re-telling.Tim Dickshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17108326838218032812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67881661576743990.post-58817552817823565242010-12-10T10:41:27.143-06:002010-12-10T10:41:27.143-06:00Okay, cool. I buy that.Okay, cool. I buy that.Mike Meginnishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10445063490812318140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67881661576743990.post-77786636876926913852010-12-10T09:57:46.469-06:002010-12-10T09:57:46.469-06:00Mike: Text has a unique relationship to our brains...Mike: Text has a unique relationship to our brains, requiring a step in processing that the other plastic arts don't. There is/can be no visceral reaction to it, in other words. Which I don't think limits the depth of emotional response on the part of the reader (or the writer for that matter). It does, however, limit the variety of those responses. Music, for instance, undoubtedly has access to emotions no other art form shares; truly ecstatic feelings that would seem manipulative in any other medium. The divide, I think, is between those art forms which have a truly visceral component, and those that only have a virtually visceral (which is to say, not visceral at all) component, though I think that even the truly visceral arts lay claim to distinct areas of the psyche.Gabriel Blackwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10810434661231289700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67881661576743990.post-60414016194807688182010-12-10T09:38:10.486-06:002010-12-10T09:38:10.486-06:00Tim: Will I be in the theater? Sadly, no, but less...Tim: Will I be in the theater? Sadly, no, but less out of aesthetic concerns than financial ones. We rarely go to the cinema. But then, we rarely go anywhere. I hardly see how "Rare Exports" could be half as bad as "Home Alone 2," the ultimate Christmas movie appropriation (a hollowed out shell of a hollowed out shell, as cynical as they come and just unwatchable). John Carpenter's "The Thing," (1982) was, of course, brilliantly "adapted" (Hollywood has its own, evolutionary terminology) from the original Howard Hawks "Thing from Another World," but also from H.P. Lovecraft's "The Mountains of Madness" and Lovecraft's work more generally. And Hawks was, in turn, working from John W. Campbell Jr.'s short story, "Who Goes There?"Gabriel Blackwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10810434661231289700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67881661576743990.post-1940785499626362002010-12-09T20:24:25.631-06:002010-12-09T20:24:25.631-06:00I agree with this generally Gabriel, pretty strong...I agree with this generally Gabriel, pretty strongly actually. But one thing stuck out to me: "We writers are all dealing with the very small set of emotions that can be conveyed by the written word."<br /><br />You go on to say stuff that makes it sound as if this set of emotions is small because the set of human emotions generally is small, which is something I more or less agree with, but this initial sentence makes it sound as if the number of emotions accessible to text is unusually small when compared to the reach of other media. And I'm not sure that's wrong, either, but I'd like to see you expand on the idea.Mike Meginnishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10445063490812318140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67881661576743990.post-12454467803892417342010-12-09T15:22:25.965-06:002010-12-09T15:22:25.965-06:00Edit: I accidentally addressed this comment to Mik...Edit: I accidentally addressed this comment to Mike instead of Gabriel: Thanks for the considered response. But you forgot to answer the implied question: will you be in the theater for Rare Exports?<br /><br />You're right that we all appropriate, and fairly obviously, if we're honest with ourselves. I was thinking as I wrote my post about how pervasively some of my favorite novels and movies have influenced my work, even if in ways that would be undetectable to another reader.<br /><br />There's an anthology out soon--I tried to find its name earlier this morning--that is made of authors expressly retelling classic lit stories, I think. Anyone know the title?Tim Dickshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17108326838218032812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67881661576743990.post-58444075083606668602010-12-09T15:08:36.200-06:002010-12-09T15:08:36.200-06:00Let me bring up a question from the consumer's...Let me bring up a question from the consumer's end, using the (admittedly ridiculous) Rare Exports example: is a retold story enhanced by our experience with its original or previous telling, and should it matter? If there were no Santa mythology, and this story was entirely new, would I be more or less likely to entertain it as serious fiction? Would I come at it like I come at The Thing (a great film about finding stuff buried in ice) or like Killer Clowns from Outer Space?Tim Dickshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17108326838218032812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67881661576743990.post-55473873136879437442010-12-09T14:58:46.223-06:002010-12-09T14:58:46.223-06:00This comment has been removed by the author.Tim Dickshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17108326838218032812noreply@blogger.com