Story, Scene, Setpiece: The Base Units of Narrative

The primary shift, it seems to me, is a kind of rebalancing of literature and storytelling away from exposition and toward scenes. The adjective “cinematic” is noted as a selling-point for stories, more so than “musical” or “architectural” or “sculptural” or “painterly,” because the ideal of storytelling is no longer the epic novel, but instead the film. This shift isn’t just a slow move, though, it’s an ongoing vector of movement: because film and literature – as major narrative art forms – are tied together, a shift in one often has a knock-on-effect on the other.

Commentary, Literary Theory, Written by: CameronCameron SummersFebruary 15, 2023Writing, Scene and Setpiece, Adaptation Comment

The Art of Adaptation

In the McLuhanian read, an adaptation is just the old medium being placed in the new medium wholesale. To an extent, this is true: all adaptations are going to have baggage from their original version. The number of people who declared that they would leave the theater if the sound effects of Wolverine’s claws in the first X-Men movie didn’t match the “snikt” noise used in the comics was mind boggling. Of course, that was stupid. Because “snikt” is a nonsense word and English orthography isn’t 1:1 – if you don’t believe me, just google “ghoti.”

Literary Theory, Written by: Cameron, AnalysisCameron SummersFebruary 23, 2022Adaptation, Translation, Marshall McLuhan, Strange Brew, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Lord of the Rings, Dungeons and Dragons, Pride and Prejudice, House of Leaves, Disco Elysium, Hench, Natalie Zina WalschotsComment