Re: Several points

[Dan Lyke <danlyke@flutterby.com>]

Jason Joel Thompson writes:
> What useful distinction are you drawing here?

In the case of the storyteller pacing a story to the audience (and
I've got a whole long response to Coilin's amalgamation of my response
to Kenneth's notes in the works where I'll expand on some of that),
the core structure of the story isn't changing. The plot turns still
happen in roughly the same place, the overarching message is the same.

In a way, what's really changing is the pacing of the story, the
storyteller has the option of embellishing this scene or glossing over
that in order to make an act stronger.

On an extreme level, it could be argued that "A Bug's Life" is just
John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton retelling Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai",
and he was undoubtedly retelling some earlier story, it's just that
Lasseter and Stanton were telling to the USAnians that fit the Disney
demographic. I think this is an extreme oversimplification, but for
the sake of argument a way that you can completely revamp the telling
but keep the story.

And Disney's "A Little Mermaid" is not simply a retelling of Hans
Christian Andersen's "A Little Mermaid" because the underlying forces
that cause the different endings, even though the tales are often
similarly told, are different.

Fulfilling story, except for certain genres of farce and comedy (from
which a few of the action genres draw heavily), needs a meaning for
each change and each action. If you're mucking with those changes and
actions based on the expectations of your audience you're destroying
the underlying meaning and dramatic structure.

If, on the other hand, you play with the symbols and icons that appeal
to each audience without changing the structure, that's just messing
with the retelling.

Dan