“Because literacy itself is undergoing rapid and radical changes, the conventional interpretive essay and its convention may no longer be adequate either for academic or broader purposes. Therefore, a part of this course will be devoted to critiquing the traditional writing about literature, exploring the new modes of communication now emerging, and critically evaluating them. . .” (Burton 2). A part of this course? I will boldly say that is an understatement; the entirety of this course has been devoted to exploring, creating, consuming and evaluating literature in ways that are not traditional. This course of action brought into question what is considered to be the primary text of a piece of literature. With new technology being developed on a daily basis, it is understandable that the arts should not go unaffected. The traditional primary text is the physical book that is published and sold in bookstores; however, using non-traditional adaptations of a novel such as film, audio or other versions will create a new experience and understanding of the text that is unique to each form and beneficial to consumers.
Unfortunately, there is no record of the first book turned big screen, but whatever that text might have been, it paved a road lined with Grammys and academy awards. In Linda Hutcheon’s book, Now a Major Motion Picture: Film Adaptations of Literature and Drama, she poses the argument that adaptations make explicit what seems to be implicit in a book. She defines explicit as “a recognition of ghostly presences and a shadowing or doubling of what is on the surface by what is glimpsed behind” (195). To all who crow that film makers twist the plot line, create or kill characters or morph the original out of shape, this is why. The medium of visual literature has been sculpted out of the implicit words behind, between and below the original text. That being understood, this new vehicle of literature is now a new experience of the text. As I read Charlotte’s Web, I came across a passage that was so beautifully written I read it twice. Chapter 19 of the story begins with a scenic description, “Next morning when the first light came into the sky and the sparrows stirred in the trees, when the cows rattled their chains and the rooster crowed and the early automobiles went whispering along the road…” (144). As each description is read, it is added to the imaginary scene; however, I could pinpoint this exact scene in the movie when the screen faded into the beautiful morning complete. The visual was a new experience as it was given in its entirety rather than pieced together word by word. Experiencing a text through a visual medium is not a lazy way to consume; in fact, it can enhance an already beautiful passage into a powerful scene of film.
Another hybrid of primary text is the audio book. First produced in 1935 for war veterans returning home from World War I suffering blindness, Agatha Christie and Joseph Conrad were the first authors to be transformed into spoken word (Philips, 294-295). With this knowledge, it is now discrimination to say that listening to a primary text is not really reading the book. That may be extreme, but that does not make it any less true. Over time, however, what was once produced as a resource for the blind is now marketed as new medium of literature. I purchased the audio book version of Charlotte’s Web after I had read the original text, and even though the words did not change, the experience of listening to the author read his own words enhanced the story. The parting lines are normally piercing, but in audio format it was an entirely different piercing. Instead of snapping the cover of the book shut in triumph over finishing the text, I sat in thunderous silence as E.B. White read his parting lines about Charlotte. “She was in a class by herself. It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both” (184). In audio format I was forced to give these lines and the story as a whole a moment of silent reflection before the end credits began. This is not guaranteed when reading the text in its primary form. The reader sets the pace and gives as little or as much reflection as he sees fit, but in audio, the consumer is required to wait, to listen to anticipate the next words, which turns a typical reading into an active participation of the text.
The list of non-traditional texts is not limited to film and audio. There are countless ways to experience traditional writing via art, music, comics, plays and even video games. Each one of these unique vehicles of experiencing has their own set of pros and cons. I chose to go outside of my box (way outside), and experience Charlotte’s Web in video game format. For one evening I became a character in White’s classic tale by spinning my own web of words to save the life of a piglet. I left the realm of merely reading about Charlotte’s creations, or even listening or watching her spin a web, and I became Charlotte. I chose the words to weave and where to weave them. I left the bystander position of consumer and became a creator along with the author and characters. Experiencing the text through this medium develops an appreciation for modern technology. A video game was no longer a way to waste time, but it became a medium of teaching a reader exactly how difficult it is to spin words in a web. In a digital literature study, Anna Gunder claims that “the digitisation of the media scape has affected the nature of . . . media migration by giving birth to new artistic forms such as computer games and digital hyperfiction. But it has also provided new means for storage and presentation of texts and works (Gunder, 31). This movement enhances the original; it creates new means for literature to be consumed, and each one gives the reader a new experience with any particular passage of text.
There is no longer a solid definition of the primary text because in the modern technological world, a piece of literature can be consumed in multiple ways, and depending on the medium in which it was experienced, that can become the primary text for readers. You may disagree, and to that I have only Manuel Castells’ response to give:
Some people you meet, artists, intellectuals, business people, technological innovators are having a great time because we are inventing so many new things, we are in a whirl, or an extraordinary whirlwind, in which there are all kinds of stimulation. The people who are excluded from this system are not simply poor, exploited or even irrelevant, they’re those who don’t understand this enjoyment of creativity and innovation. That’s why we’re living in two different cultures: a culture of bewilderment about the world we live in and a culture of innovation, creativity and the opening of new frontiers (4).
Burton, Gideon. “Writing about Literature in the Digital Age.” 2011. Print.
Castells, Manuel. The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on Internet Business and Society. Oxford: Oxford University, 2001. Print.
Charlotte’s Web. Dir. Gary Winick. Paramount Pictures, 2006. Film.
Geraghty, Christine. Now a Major Motion Picture: Film Adaptations of Literature and Drama. Mary Land: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. Print.
Gunder, Anna. Hyperworks: On Digital Literature and Computer Games. Uppsala: Uppsala University, 2004. Print.
Philips, Deborah. “Talking Books: The Encounter of Literature and Technology in the Audio Book.” Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 13.293 (2007):293-306. Print.
White, Elwyn Brooks. Charlotte’s Web. New York: Harper Collins, 1952. Print.
White, Elwyn Brooks. Charlotte’s Web. Unabridged Audiobook, 2002. CD.
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