In “On the Origin of Adaptations: Rethinking Fidelity Discourse and “Success” Biologically”, the authors discuss how an adapted narrative should determine its success not on how well it follows or replicates the original source of inspiration but how it has evolved to form itself into an independent entity. I thought a useful exercise to demonstrate various parts of the article would be to examine an example of an adaptation. “I Met The Walrus” is an animated short film, adapted from an original interview with John Lennon, conducted by a 14 year old Jerry Levitan. The original interview was 30 minutes long but for the film, it was edited down to five minutes. The short film was hugely successful and won numerous awards including an Emmy and it also secured an Oscar nod. It is now also a best selling book with the same title, written by Levitan.
I believe this is an example of a successful adaptation because it speaks to the notion of diversity, as mentioned in the article. In this case, it is the different forms of media: an interview, which only existed in audio format was then translated into a visual form which now has been translated into text. I’d also argue that the success behind the short film is also the fact that the medium or vehicle through which the core narrative was delivered was so different from the original source, that it wasn’t difficult for the adaptation to exist as an independent entity. Critics watch this film and see it as its own work of art, as opposed to something that wishes to imitate or recreate the success of an existing piece.
As a general comment in regards to the article, I found it to be a very engaging piece. As an future English teacher, I’m constantly finding ways to bridge the gap between science and the arts, and the fact that the authors managed to use evolutionary theory as an analogy in the context of literary adaptation successfully, made for an interesting read.
For a better version of this video, click here: I Met The Walrus
Sources: “I Met The Walrus” Wikipedia Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Met_the_Walrus
-Kiran Aujlay
1 response so far ↓
TMD // Oct 10th 2012 at 7:21 am
Thanks, Kiran, for this interesting commentary on the reading. Your short film selection is an excellent example of an adaptation that moves well beyond the original and in so doing generates unique interpretations and new audiences. Many of Shakespeare’s adaptations of his sources work in a similar fashion.
It is interesting that fidelity discourse has not been key in Shakespeare criticism. I suspect this is so because we know Shakespeare’s sources through Shakespeare and a sort of “reverse fidelity” unfolds — a fidelity to the adaptation over the original. What we become attached to as the “original” invariably depends on what we see or view first.
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