Time and Text Travel

[Rachel-K]

In what ways would it be dangerous to tamper with the words of a classic text? And what are the dangers of tampering with time? Are there ways the two might the two be compared?

And, more lightly, what classics would you protect? Any you would gladly toss out to be rewritten. (Yes, this is an audience participation-type quiz.)

[craftimoose]

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rkubie wrote:
In what ways would it be dangerous to tamper with the words of a classic text? And what are the dangers of tampering with time? Are there ways the two might the two be compared?

And, more lightly, what classics would you protect? Any you would gladly toss out to be rewritten. (Yes, this is an audience participation-type quiz.)

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1. The dangers of tampering with words of a classic text: As everyone interprets books differently, I'm sure the words on the page are mentally tampered with by each person who reads them. However, one change of phrase can make a character we love to hate a misunderstood one. It can change the meaning of the whole story.

2. The dangers of tampering with time and are there ways the two might be compared: Time and literature are linked together by cause and effect. Change one second in time and a whole plethora of things could happen...the same goes for books.

3. Classics I would protect: Midsummer Night's Dream has a pretty great ending (although Oberon ended up with the changeling child...hmmm). I love Jane Eyre, Much Ado About Nothing and Pride and Prejudice, so those have to stay....oh, if I had time, I could come up with quite the list.

4. Toss out to be rewritten: Tess of the D'Urbervilles would be my first choice for a redo. WHAT AN ENDING! Some books are boring. Some are morbid and depressing, but this one just gets under my skin and rankles me!

[songgirl7]

I think the main problem with tampering with published text is that the book, its characters and events, were created by the author. The author's original intentions should be honored. This is also something that bugs me about unauthorized sequels like Scarlett or Mrs. Darcy. The stories continue in a way the authors did not originally intend.

Messing with time travel is similar because if one believes in God's will, or in fate, or in destiny, as the "author" of our life stories, then changing history is in the same way changing the "author's" original intent.

[bookbabe56]

Answering very lightly and quickly: protect Austen, rewrite much of Dickens, especially David Copperfield!