by SCC Overton
April sees the publication of the Hong Kong Writers Circle's latest anthology, Of Gods And Mobsters - a collection of "Classic Tales Retold in Hong Kong".
Retelling the classics has a long and upstanding history in literature, so here are ten tales that have been retold, often time and time again.
April sees the publication of the Hong Kong Writers Circle's latest anthology, Of Gods And Mobsters - a collection of "Classic Tales Retold in Hong Kong".
Retelling the classics has a long and upstanding history in literature, so here are ten tales that have been retold, often time and time again.
1. Ulysees by James Joyce (1922)
Retelling of: Homer's The Odyssey
Often cited as the defining work of Modernism, Ulysees takes place on a single day in the lives of Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus in Dublin (the sixteenth of June, in fact, still celebrated in Ireland as 'Bloomsday'). Joyce tied characters and events in his novel to those in The Odyssey, and also peppered his work with literary references and allusions designed to "keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant."
Retelling of: Homer's The Odyssey
Often cited as the defining work of Modernism, Ulysees takes place on a single day in the lives of Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus in Dublin (the sixteenth of June, in fact, still celebrated in Ireland as 'Bloomsday'). Joyce tied characters and events in his novel to those in The Odyssey, and also peppered his work with literary references and allusions designed to "keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant."
2. Robin Hood
Retold: since the 16th Century
One might imagine that a story like that of Robin Hood, being so much a part of the popular consciousness, must have a definitive version. But in fact, the story comes from a long and tangled web of ballads, folk tales, poems, plays and, eventually, novels. The most famous of these novels must be Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott (1819) where our hero appears as Robin of Locksley. He appeared in his own novel in Howard Pyle's The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (1883) and then pretty much consistently throughout the 20th Century, where his adventures were also televised, filmed, and made into comics, video games and even operas.
Retold: since the 16th Century
One might imagine that a story like that of Robin Hood, being so much a part of the popular consciousness, must have a definitive version. But in fact, the story comes from a long and tangled web of ballads, folk tales, poems, plays and, eventually, novels. The most famous of these novels must be Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott (1819) where our hero appears as Robin of Locksley. He appeared in his own novel in Howard Pyle's The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (1883) and then pretty much consistently throughout the 20th Century, where his adventures were also televised, filmed, and made into comics, video games and even operas.
3. Grimms' Fairy Tales (1812)
Retelling of: German folk tales
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected and published around 200 'Children's and Household Tales' in the early 19th Century. Their research grew out of an interest in the origins of the German language and the mythology of the German people. They would visit the houses of peasants and listen carefully to the stories, noting down details of the story and the manner of its telling before arriving at a final version, to which, they maintained, "We have added nothing of our own, embellished no incident or feature. Each is given substantially as we received it, though skill was needed to distinguish one version from another." These tales have themselves been retold in innumerable versions and formats, which reflects the oral tradition out of which they first appeared.
Retelling of: German folk tales
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected and published around 200 'Children's and Household Tales' in the early 19th Century. Their research grew out of an interest in the origins of the German language and the mythology of the German people. They would visit the houses of peasants and listen carefully to the stories, noting down details of the story and the manner of its telling before arriving at a final version, to which, they maintained, "We have added nothing of our own, embellished no incident or feature. Each is given substantially as we received it, though skill was needed to distinguish one version from another." These tales have themselves been retold in innumerable versions and formats, which reflects the oral tradition out of which they first appeared.
4. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (2005)
Retelling of: Bram Stoker's Dracula
It may be a controversial claim, that the wildly popular series of young adult novels is essentially a rewrite, but when one considers the wild popularity of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel perhaps it isn't. Vampires existed before Stoker put pen to paper, but the Irish novellist defined the modern vampire whose image persists today; one associated with gothic romanticism, sex and virginity. In fact, such is the pervasiveness of Stoker's Count Dracula that one might be excused for thinking that he did invent the vampire. Twilight takes these same themes and gives them a 21st Century twist. Now, the Victorian sexual conventions have become the subtext-that-everybody-knows-about (sexual abstinence), and the cordial count has become an angsty teenager. It is a best seller today just as Dracula was over a hundred years ago.
Retelling of: Bram Stoker's Dracula
It may be a controversial claim, that the wildly popular series of young adult novels is essentially a rewrite, but when one considers the wild popularity of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel perhaps it isn't. Vampires existed before Stoker put pen to paper, but the Irish novellist defined the modern vampire whose image persists today; one associated with gothic romanticism, sex and virginity. In fact, such is the pervasiveness of Stoker's Count Dracula that one might be excused for thinking that he did invent the vampire. Twilight takes these same themes and gives them a 21st Century twist. Now, the Victorian sexual conventions have become the subtext-that-everybody-knows-about (sexual abstinence), and the cordial count has become an angsty teenager. It is a best seller today just as Dracula was over a hundred years ago.
5. A Dream of Red Mansions by Cao Xueqin (18th Century)
Retold: Ummm, well, read on...
A Dream of Red Mansions is regarded as the pinnacle of classical Chinese literature. It concerns two branches of the Jia clan and their rise and fall, which mirrors the rise and fall of the Qing dynasty. The novel's author, who based his narrative upon his own life, was said to have completed around 110 chapters, but only 80 of these were originally published. The version most commonly read today consists of 120 chapters and is a complete novel, but it is unclear to what extent the editor, Gao E, was merely editing Cao's original manuscripts, or was writing new sections from scratch, or was perhaps working from notes provided by Cao or his family. It is an authorship debate that is unlikely to be resolved.
Retold: Ummm, well, read on...
A Dream of Red Mansions is regarded as the pinnacle of classical Chinese literature. It concerns two branches of the Jia clan and their rise and fall, which mirrors the rise and fall of the Qing dynasty. The novel's author, who based his narrative upon his own life, was said to have completed around 110 chapters, but only 80 of these were originally published. The version most commonly read today consists of 120 chapters and is a complete novel, but it is unclear to what extent the editor, Gao E, was merely editing Cao's original manuscripts, or was writing new sections from scratch, or was perhaps working from notes provided by Cao or his family. It is an authorship debate that is unlikely to be resolved.
6. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
Retelling of: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
From the great to the dreadful. There are an enormous amount of these 'mash-up' novels available today and the very concept is a Media Studies dissertation in the making. The mash-up novel is born of the Internet age, where public domain and copyright-cleared books are available for free through Project Gutenberg and other outlets, and cultural ouput has become (as Jean Baudrillard predicted) 'simulacrum' and "bears no relation to any reality whatsoever". And yet, is it any better or worse a retelling than any of the others in this list?
Retelling of: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
From the great to the dreadful. There are an enormous amount of these 'mash-up' novels available today and the very concept is a Media Studies dissertation in the making. The mash-up novel is born of the Internet age, where public domain and copyright-cleared books are available for free through Project Gutenberg and other outlets, and cultural ouput has become (as Jean Baudrillard predicted) 'simulacrum' and "bears no relation to any reality whatsoever". And yet, is it any better or worse a retelling than any of the others in this list?
7. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
Retelling of: Shakespeare's Hamlet
Stoppard's play takes place 'in the wings' of Shakespeare's Hamlet, as it were, concerning two minor characters from the famous play and their thoughts on life, the universe and the tradegy unfolding through the keyhole. The play is an exercise in metatheatre, and the levels of this become bewildering, as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern perform role plays and mimic each other, and even pantomime parts of Hamlet itself.
Retelling of: Shakespeare's Hamlet
Stoppard's play takes place 'in the wings' of Shakespeare's Hamlet, as it were, concerning two minor characters from the famous play and their thoughts on life, the universe and the tradegy unfolding through the keyhole. The play is an exercise in metatheatre, and the levels of this become bewildering, as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern perform role plays and mimic each other, and even pantomime parts of Hamlet itself.
8. The Letters of Abélard and Héloïse (12th Century)
Retold by: Alexander Pope, among others
Abélard and Héloïse conducted an illicit affair during the 12th Century and their correspondance some fifteen years after their separation became legendary. Alexander Pope retold the tragic romance in a poem in 1717, and it was later quoted in the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind:
How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd ...
Retold by: Alexander Pope, among others
Abélard and Héloïse conducted an illicit affair during the 12th Century and their correspondance some fifteen years after their separation became legendary. Alexander Pope retold the tragic romance in a poem in 1717, and it was later quoted in the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind:
How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd ...
9. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Retold: Endlessly
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has (according to Wikipedia) 28 literary retellings and sequels, 26 works which reference or allude to it, not to mention 16 films and 18 television adaptations based upon it. The fact that it continues to be important (which is odd, as it is exemplary of literary 'nonsense') may be down to its universal themes - innocence, dreams, subversion, death, symbolism - or that it is a children's classic and is well remembered by adults.
Retold: Endlessly
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has (according to Wikipedia) 28 literary retellings and sequels, 26 works which reference or allude to it, not to mention 16 films and 18 television adaptations based upon it. The fact that it continues to be important (which is odd, as it is exemplary of literary 'nonsense') may be down to its universal themes - innocence, dreams, subversion, death, symbolism - or that it is a children's classic and is well remembered by adults.
10. Of Gods and Mobsters by the Hong Kong Writers Circle
Retellings of: everything from Homer to Holmes and Lady MacBeth to King Midas.
Classical gods and heroes. Men and women of myth, legend and folklore. Characters from the greatest nineteenth and twentieth century novels. All of them relocated, reimagined and retold in Hong Kong.
Why is that not a strange concept?
For a start, Hong Kong is one of the few places in the world where bumping into a person named Zeus or Aphrodite would occasion little surprise. The myriad ‘English’ names that are encountered here reflect Hong Kong’s own brand of cosmopolitanism: a kind of cheerful superficiality. The name you go by, just like the image you project here or the culture you embrace, can be worn as lightly or as sincerely as you choose. Hong Kong is a city where everything is available, and everything is permitted, and thus it is a city characterised by the incongruous and the anachronistic.
And so in this collection of short stories and poems, with little suspension of disbelief, classic tales are retold in Hong Kong and gods rub shoulders with mobsters.
Many would argue that all story-telling is re-telling, especially if you subscribe to the belief that there are only seven plots in literature: overcoming the monster, rags to riches, voyage and return, quest, comedy, tragedy, and rebirth. You can certainly find all of these within the pages of this book.
Hong Kong is a city where our writers have imagined a place for themselves, and its streets and topography provide a canvas on which to express their imaginations.
As Ovid wrote in his Metamorphoses, "Everything changes, nothing perishes." And re-telling is surely a form of literary metamorphosis. So, the HKWC invites you to find out what has changed and what has remained the same in the retelling of classic stories in this new anthology.
Retellings of: everything from Homer to Holmes and Lady MacBeth to King Midas.
Classical gods and heroes. Men and women of myth, legend and folklore. Characters from the greatest nineteenth and twentieth century novels. All of them relocated, reimagined and retold in Hong Kong.
Why is that not a strange concept?
For a start, Hong Kong is one of the few places in the world where bumping into a person named Zeus or Aphrodite would occasion little surprise. The myriad ‘English’ names that are encountered here reflect Hong Kong’s own brand of cosmopolitanism: a kind of cheerful superficiality. The name you go by, just like the image you project here or the culture you embrace, can be worn as lightly or as sincerely as you choose. Hong Kong is a city where everything is available, and everything is permitted, and thus it is a city characterised by the incongruous and the anachronistic.
And so in this collection of short stories and poems, with little suspension of disbelief, classic tales are retold in Hong Kong and gods rub shoulders with mobsters.
Many would argue that all story-telling is re-telling, especially if you subscribe to the belief that there are only seven plots in literature: overcoming the monster, rags to riches, voyage and return, quest, comedy, tragedy, and rebirth. You can certainly find all of these within the pages of this book.
Hong Kong is a city where our writers have imagined a place for themselves, and its streets and topography provide a canvas on which to express their imaginations.
As Ovid wrote in his Metamorphoses, "Everything changes, nothing perishes." And re-telling is surely a form of literary metamorphosis. So, the HKWC invites you to find out what has changed and what has remained the same in the retelling of classic stories in this new anthology.
References
- Ulysses - Richard Ellmann (1959) James Joyce OUP
- Grimm's Fairy Tales - The Brothers Grimm and their Fairy Tales from Grimms' Fairy Tales (1996) Penguin Popular Classics edition
- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Jean Baudrillard (1982) Simulacra and Simulation University of Michigan Press
- HKWC - Christopher Booker (2004) The Seven Basic Plots Continuum International Publishing
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