As an audio producer who has worked on audio dramas and audiobooks, and as a fan of audio dramatizations of novels, the topic of adaptation is one that I think about often. Most people will probably think about this topic from the angle of adapting for television or film as those are more well-known mediums/media in the public conscience. But since I am an audio producer I want to come at it from that perspective, though I believe anything I say can be applied across the board.
I have always been of the opinion that any adaptation should remain as faithful to the source material as possible for a few reasons. Foremost in my mind is respect for the author who put in the hard work to create a captivating and compelling story that has found and resonated with an audience; and in the case of classic literature has found readers for decades or centuries. A good story is a good story. It doesn’t cease to be good just because a lot of years have elapsed since it was published and it therefore requires me to make it relevant again. Secondly, the existing audience that I mentioned is going to expect an adaptation to remain true to the material that they love. And you can’t blame them for that. They will let you know if and when you deviate, often quite vehemently! Now this should not be the main reason, some fans will not be satisfied with even the slightest change and you can’t please everyone, but I still think it is worth keeping in mind. Especially if you want to market your adaptation to the fans of the original work.
I recently came across a blog post from George R.R. Martin titled “The Adaptation Tango”, in which he addresses this very subject. I was quite interested to see that my thoughts were closely aligned with his in this regard. Though I likely won’t ever read his major series as our opinions diverge in terms of the type of content we want in stories. But that is a separate issue.
Martin says, “Everywhere you look, there are more screenwriters and producers eager to take great stories and ‘make them their own.’ It does not seem to matter whether the source material was written by Stan Lee, Charles Dickens, Ian Fleming, Roald Dahl, Ursula K. Le Guin, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Raymond Chandler, Jane Austen, or… well, anyone. No matter how major a writer it is, no matter how great the book, there always seems to be someone on hand who thinks he can do better, eager to take the story and ‘improve’ on it. ‘The book is the book, the film is the film,’ they will tell you, as if they were saying something profound. Then they make the story their own. They never make it better, though. Nine hundred ninety-nine times out of a thousand, they make it worse.”
This brings me to one of the major reasons for not hugely changing the source material. Exactly what George articulated here; who am I to think I am a better writer/producer than the one whose work I am adapting? It’s a matter of humility and not having an inflated view of my own ideas and opinions. Keeping the ol’ self in check and making sure that whatever alterations I may make are truly because they will serve the story and the goal of bringing it successfully to a new medium. Not simply because I think it would be cool, fun, hip, or whatever else.
To be clear, I’m not against changes completely. Sometimes you will encounter racist or sexist references and stereotypes, especially in classic literature. Perhaps they need to be preserved if the point is to show the error and injustice of such things, but I do think these are a couple of examples of things in classic lit that could, and often should, be removed or changed. Also, some things written in prose just don’t translate well to the audio medium and will need to be rewritten or removed in order for the story to work in a new storytelling vehicle.
There are some fun twists, inventive ideas, and switcheroos that folks have done with well-known intellectual properties, such as taking the character of Sherlock Holmes and moving him to a contemporary environment, or retelling a piece of classic literature with woodland animals. And those can be interesting and fun, but I believe a writer needs to be very careful and make sure they are not altering the spirit of the material in an effort to add their own flavor to it.
My team and I at the Audio Drama Alliance are in the process of producing a full-cast audio dramatization of the first Hardy Boys book and this is an issue that we discussed at length before a single word of the script was ever written. We wanted to make sure that any changes were actually needed or had a valid reason for why we did what we did. In the end, we opted to not modernize the story and are keeping it set in its original early 1900s setting.
As is always the case, there is much more one could say about this subject that I don’t have the time for here. The whole idea behind broaching this topic is to share a few of my thoughts and to see what you think. As either a fan or a creative, what are your thoughts on adapting a beloved book into another medium?
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