Post by wheelspinner on Apr 28, 2009 8:38:57 GMT -5
This is a thought that's sort of related to the Author's Duty thread.
There are many instances where a writer takes on characters invented by someone else, and writes new stories about them. I refer here to invented characters, not folkloric characters like Arthur, Robin Hood, etc. Christopher Tolkien's Middle Earth books are an example.
When writers do this, do you believe that they owe a duty of care to the originator? Should the writer ensue that s/he does not take too many liberties with the characters being appropriated. Is there a tradition that they should respect?
An egregious example that I can think of is the series of books that William Horwood wrote using the characters from The Wind in the Willows. Horwood writes fantastic books about animals, constructing very believable animal societies and cultures, and weaving intricate and lengthy plots around them. He is mainly known for the Duncton Wood series about moles, but he has written similar books about eagles and wolves. I think personally that he exceeds Richard Adams in this arena, and was excited to learn he was writing about Graham's characters.
The books themselves turned out to be pretty good, although they lack Graham's elegiac quality. But what stunned me was that he concluded his series by killing off all of the characters. I took this as a massive affront. What right did Horwood have to dispose of Graham's characters? Was this some kind of attempt to close the book on others' attempts to use them?
I was so disgusted by this that I swore off Horwood for life. Up until then I had read everything he had ever published.
Did I over-react, or is it a legitimate expectation by a reader that borrowed characters will be treated with respect for the tradition surrounding them?
There are many instances where a writer takes on characters invented by someone else, and writes new stories about them. I refer here to invented characters, not folkloric characters like Arthur, Robin Hood, etc. Christopher Tolkien's Middle Earth books are an example.
When writers do this, do you believe that they owe a duty of care to the originator? Should the writer ensue that s/he does not take too many liberties with the characters being appropriated. Is there a tradition that they should respect?
An egregious example that I can think of is the series of books that William Horwood wrote using the characters from The Wind in the Willows. Horwood writes fantastic books about animals, constructing very believable animal societies and cultures, and weaving intricate and lengthy plots around them. He is mainly known for the Duncton Wood series about moles, but he has written similar books about eagles and wolves. I think personally that he exceeds Richard Adams in this arena, and was excited to learn he was writing about Graham's characters.
The books themselves turned out to be pretty good, although they lack Graham's elegiac quality. But what stunned me was that he concluded his series by killing off all of the characters. I took this as a massive affront. What right did Horwood have to dispose of Graham's characters? Was this some kind of attempt to close the book on others' attempts to use them?
I was so disgusted by this that I swore off Horwood for life. Up until then I had read everything he had ever published.
Did I over-react, or is it a legitimate expectation by a reader that borrowed characters will be treated with respect for the tradition surrounding them?