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Posted by Brian Crecente at 11:00 AM on March 8, 2008
To: Bash
From: Crecente
Re: Little Help Finding a Nice Chair for Sitting?
Having something you really pour your heart and soul into edited can be a real bitch, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about Ash. We typically only write non-fiction and even that can be painful to have heavily edited. But can you imagine what it must be like for those who write fiction. I don't know how well I'd cope.
George Bernard Shaw, apparently, was super touchy about people reimagining his stuff. After he wrote Pygmalion (My Fair Lady to the uninitiated) with its not so happy ending people kept reworking it to make it a happy ending, or at least a happier one. It was such a problem (at least to Shaw) that he actually wrote a whole an entire essay explaining why the play couldn't end happily. And by essay I mean, essentially, a lengthy and painfully detailed afterward that minutely describes why Liza and Higgins are doomed to be single or unhappy.
It starts out with this charmer: "The rest of the story need not be shown in action, and indeed, would hardly need telling if our imaginations were not so enfeebled by their lazy dependence on the ready-makes and each-me-downs of the ragshop in which Romance keeps its stock of "happy endings" to misfit all stories."
Wow, he would have made one hell of a blogger.
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Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
c-lin' Fanboy
Posted 10:32 PM 19/3/08
I can't be the only one who thought this was going to mention us being able to edit our comments.
c-lin' Fanboy
Bobby McPresscott
Posted 10:32 PM 19/3/08
@TheDollHouse: Speaking of the original versions of Disney stories, Hans Christian Andersen sure could have used an editor himself. People talk shit about Disney changing things around, but the animated movie is a total classic and the original book is just 19th century Danish nonsense.
I can't say what people took it as back then, but today the ending of The Little Mermaid is simply a joke. The textbook example of what happens when a writer doesn't listen to the needs of the story and throws in an arbitrary happy ending.
Look up the book on Wikipedia if you haven't read about it. It'll make you laugh.
Bobby McPresscott
balgeary
Posted 10:32 PM 19/3/08
@boxofthegods: the ending to harry potter was not jk rowlings fresh shit in a box with a note. you are crazy!
balgeary
jayntampa
Posted 10:32 PM 19/3/08
I write fiction, and I love to be edited ... it helps make a tighter, stronger story. However, you have to have a good editor. A good editor is just as important as a good writer, imho.
jayntampa
boxofthegods
Posted 10:32 PM 19/3/08
@balgeary:
While the journey might be worthwhile, it would still suck to find that instead of treasure in the box someone took a shit in there and left a note that said bite me.
boxofthegods
shimage
Posted 10:32 PM 19/3/08
I don't think he wrote an essay about it, but Terry Gilliam had a similar problem with the American release of Brazil (the so-called "love conquers all" version). I know this is off-topic, but since I've never seen My Fair Lady I thought I would just talk about something else instead.
On-topic, I don't really like it when someone starts fiddling with my words. I'm usually pretty picky about my diction, so ordinarily I prefer comments to edits.
shimage
TheDollHouse
Posted 10:32 PM 19/3/08
I saw She's All That. It's basically a modern adaptation to Pygmalion. The ending irked me so much.
When I read this I was thinking of some fairy tales that Disney has made into films. If you actually read the original Grimm tales they are pretty dark. Unfortunately, Disney needs everything to end "happily ever after". Basicly, acording to Disney, if you dream hard enough and with a little magic you can make some one love you. *tries not to puke*
The guy always gets the girl or vice versa. There are two films that I've seen that this doesn't happen and they are Hunchback of Notre dame(if you're pretty you'll get the girl) and Pocahontas.
The funny thing they usually it's their first "love". Can you actually imagine if we ALL married our first crushes?
TheDollHouse
balgeary
Posted 10:32 PM 19/3/08
in one of his many misc essays of self-reflection, stephen king wrote about cujo: apparently he tried many times to write a happy ending where the kid doesn't die, and each one rang false -- so he finally had to write the ending the story wanted.
comedy, i'd have to disagree about harry potter. those books are much better than tolerable, even if you dislike the way they end. it's the journey, not the destination.
balgeary
kickass solo(my GT)
Posted 10:32 PM 19/3/08
@Brian Crecente: ninja edit?
kickass solo(my GT)
jboze84
Posted 10:32 PM 19/3/08
Damn, looks like you need an editor :P Interesting article though and I would hate having to deal with someone changing something I created!
jboze84
comedy
Posted 10:32 PM 19/3/08
i agree. now i know it's slightly different, but if you look at the end of harry potter (the very end) the last paragraph is clearly jk's answer to those idiots out there who said shit about how she'd just write more books after... so she writes this damned chapter about them in 20 years or whatever, but it makes a tolerable (not good i must add) series of books just terrible.
comedy
Brian Crecente
Posted 10:32 PM 19/3/08
yes yes, i fixed it already.
Brian Crecente