walking & talking all over again

March 2, 2009

The Final Countdown

Here's Salman Rushdie, from Saturday's Guardian, on the subject of adaptations:

We can learn this much from the poets who translate the poetry of others, from the screenwriters and film-makers who turn words on the page into images on a screen, from all those who carry across one thing into another state: an adaptation works best when it is a genuine transaction between the old and the new, carried out by persons who understand and care for both, who can help the thing adapted to leap the gulf and shine again in a different light. In other words, the process of social, cultural and individual adaptation, just like artistic adaptation, needs to be free, not rigid, if it is to succeed. Those who cling too fiercely to the old text, the thing to be adapted, the old ways, the past, are doomed to produce something that does not work, an unhappiness, an alienation, a quarrel, a failure, a loss.

He was not talking about you know what, but this week, with the doomsday clock ticking its last, he might as well have been.

Tragic fanboy that I am -- and following an unfortunate double-booking incident -- I'm seeing the 00.01 IMAX show. I'll let you know how the world ends.

Posted by matt at March 2, 2009 8:54 AM