Analysis: If We Change, Will They Watch?

Written on Monday, March 17, 2014 by Unknown

"If you love something, then let it go." Said no one who ever belonged in a fandom ever.

They also don't say things like "I accept every decision this author/director/creator made without second guessing it or having any kind of opinion about it."

Yep. Letting things go and accepting change are two things that die hard fans can be really bad at. And internet fandoms are just as ridiculous. They also love to use abbreviated terms. Take for example...

Ship/Shipping (other fun versions can be found here*):
This is an abbreviation of the word "relationship" and basically means you are rooting for a relationship to happen/continue. Ex. "I ship Stefan and Elena." A sub category of shipping is "otp" or "one true pairing."

 *for a much longer explanation go here (note to my advisor, this website claims it originated with fans of The X-Files)

Fans are passionate. Very passionate. Borderline crazy passionate. (Okay, not all of them.) Some of them are even like, "There's a line? Well we definitely have to step over it then. Lines are for irl conversations only, and even then it will still be crossed."

So the creators of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries had an interesting dilemma. They wanted the show to be a modern adaptation, but how modern were they allowed to make it? How far off could they go from the original text that would a) please fans of the novel and b) appeal to new fans (who may or may not have liked/read the novel). As I have established, fans are freakin' passionate. They have needs. They have feels. And messing too much with the original content could make Janeites go berserk, but then not messing enough could make new fans roll their eyes.

The first line of Pride and Prejudice is iconic. Any English major can probably quote it to you, as could any Austen fan. LBD tried to incorporate it as best they could (honestly, I didn't exactly love what they did) because not doing so would have upset P&P fans.

The show was also written by feminists, who don't consider the first line to be a truth. So they changed things, the ending especially, so that it fits into a modern feminist context. Austen was more constricted by her time period and the ending of the novel is indicative of that, but not really suitable to 21st century ideals. Lydia can't marry Wickham in this era, because what he did to her in LBD's version is morally wrong and unforgivable (this, of course, is arguable—but not so much my point). 

What might happen if there was a major deviation from the original text? Would an audience be lost? What if the deviation wasn't so "major"? To what extent are they allowed to change? What is the audience comfortable with? 

I know that there have been occasions where some Austen fans have been like "Hell no, that is not supposed to happen" but then other times where they say "I really like how you updated this particular scene." Sometimes both of those statements exist in the same comments thread, and other times it can be a vast majority pulling one way or the other. 

There are major benefits and limitations to adapting. You have a built in audience which is a plus, but as I said you also need to appease them and new viewers too. It is certainly a predicament. 

I seem to only have more questions than when I started, but that is why I am writing them out. 

Time for more serious investigation...

http://static.tumblr.com/78cd2fba4f565ebc532512b104305f6c/jrunfq5/XM4mgts7h/tumblr_static_gif1.gif

-Danny

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A note on adaptations

Written on Thursday, January 23, 2014 by Unknown

It is hard to create an adaption. Any book that has ever been turned into a movie has run the risk of "not being as good as the book." Take these for example. See any that you would dub, "not as awesome as the novel I cherish so deeply"?


Yep. It happens. And yet adaptations are completely unavoidable. Why is that? Because they sell tickets. People want to see their favorite characters come to life on the big screen. Sometimes it works. Most of the time it doesn't, and then you just love to hate it which somehow manages to reinforce your original dedication to the book/series. You aren't a true Harry Potter fan if you haven't seen all eight movies and have strong opinions on things like the decision to remove S.P.E.W. or the lack of quidditch matches.

I mean come on Water for Elephants, I'm looking at you here. Why the hell did you choose Reese Witherspoon as the love interest when she could basically be Robert Pattinson's mom? She was not that old in the book. Not even close. I call bullshit.

I believe that when an adaptation is done right and done well, fans won't need to draw so many comparisons to the book. Instead, the media should stand on it's own and be judged thusly. No need to point out all the moments that were done wrong, but instead look at all the parts that were done right or maybe even done differently.

This is why I love The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. I don't need to jump back and forth from novel to web show and say "ugh, I hated that they did this" or "why did they take that out when it could so easily have been incorporated?" While I have read (and love) the novel and enjoy the sly references they make to Austen's other works, I don't think about it in terms of the book whenever I watch it. Instead I see the characters as they are and appreciate the show for what it is. Yes it has it's faults. Especially in the beginning there were quite a few problems. But, I'm not going to fight about the decision to make Kitty a literal cat. I actually thought that was an awesome and creative way to incorporate the character without needed to hire/introduce a new actress. All she does in the novel is follow Lydia around anyway, and so that's what she does in the show, just in cat form. It's modern, it's funny, it worked.

And so, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is my artifact.


-Danny

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