Friday open thread: retellings

[dolorosa_12]

Welcome to the end of another working week! I'm kind of shattered, and am looking forward to a weekend with no social obligations, and lots of cooking.

This week's open thread prompt is in response to a rather disappointing book, which happened to be a retelling of a work of classic literature (I'll say more about it later when I do my Sunday post wrapping up the week's reading). I gave it a 3-star rating, and on reflection feel that that's being overly generous. There are a couple of reasons why it failed as a retelling, and many more why it failed as a work of fiction in general, but in any case, it got me thinking about retellings, and what makes them work or not.

Therefore, the prompt is: tell me about a retelling that succeeded for you — and why — or tell me about a retelling that failed for you, and why.

I'm specifically interested in retellings rather than adaptations. There can be a shift in medium (the book I'm talking about is a retelling of a stage play), but it needs to do more than just make a broadly identical new version of an older work. If it helps: Clueless is a retelling of Emma, whereas Mamma Mia! the film is an adaptation of the Mamma Mia! musical.

Comments

[windancer]

Most of the recent-ish wave of myth retellings haven't been my cup of tea, even though on paper they seem they should be EXACTLY my cup of tea (as one of the legions of Myth Girls who are now adults with cash to spend on books). I did love Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane, in part because it was a bop (as Greek myths tend to be; amid the violent transformation and suffering is a lot of wackiness and humor) and also because I felt it approached the gods not as sexy, super-powerful humans but as different type of being entirely.

[dolorosa_12]

Yeah, I feel similiarly to you (and am a similar kind of Myth Girl) — as in one of the comments above,

I don't want yet another story with feminist tag slapped onto it just because it's about a named female character, and I resent the expectation that I, too, must love it because it's an empowering feminist retelling.

I went through a long phase of seeking out every Briseis-centric Iliad retelling, and coming away disappointed (the nadir was when — on the recommendation of Tumblr — I was recommended The Song of Achilles as a retelling that 'did right by Briseis'), and then I read The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker. This gave me what I wanted — it was essentially the Briseis-centric retelling that I'd been searching for all my life — and I stopped my seeking, because I'd found what I needed.

I felt it approached the gods not as sexy, super-powerful humans but as different type of being entirely.

I've heard lots of good things about this book, but (due to what I said above re: The Silence of the Girls) I never picked it up. What you've said here, however, has really sold it for me — if it's in my public library system, I'll give it a try.

[windancer]

Pretty much. I don't want to paint with too wide a brush, because I've more or less given up on Greek myth retellings--but that's because I read book after book that seemed so uninterested in its actual sources. I'm not a scholar, and although I'm a writer who enjoys remixing the canon I'm not a writer who does retellings per se, but many of the efforts in recent years really seemed to think they were Doing Something that wasn't already in the source. I find this bent patronizing and usually inaccurate.

I did like Silence of the Girls as well! But I think my favorites are still things like Lavinia (Le Guin), Wildwood Dancing (Marillier), and--for a Shakespeare take--Hag Seed (Atwood). Also, on a total other note, On Beauty by Zadie Smith walloped me upside the head when I read it alongside its source, Howards End.

[dolorosa_12]

many of the efforts in recent years really seemed to think they were Doing Something that wasn't already in the source. I find this bent patronizing and usually inaccurate.

Yes, this is it, exactly.

I like all of the other retellings that you mention here, although I've still only read excerpts of Howards End, meaning On Beauty didn't have quite the punch it would have had with that deeper context.