Activity

Howl’s Moving Castle! I just watched the movie the other day, and I feel like there’s a LOT more to that story. I’m very interested in reading the book now. It felt like a much bigger story had had it’s wings clipped to fit into the movie length.

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I need to choose a story to read this month! I have been trying to read life books and theological books mostly, but I think I need to mix it up and regularly read fiction, too. So here’s to turning over a new leaf!

But in the meanwhile I can talk about other stories and stuff that people brought up in here!

@princess-foo asked what makes a retelling worth telling at all. I think I would have to say that it’s worth retelling when you’re exploring a different theme (or themes) that the original story didn’t touch, or when you’re approaching the themes of the original story in a completely different way.

A good retelling also asks a few well-placed “What if?” questions, and plays out the aftermath of those questions. These questions should overturn our perception of the original story. An easy (almost too easy) way to do this is by gender-bending a character or characters. For example, what would Beauty and the Beast look like if Beauty was a dude and the Beast was a cursed princess? How would the themes play out differently? How would the plot resolve in a satisfying way that mirrors the original story, but adds something to it that wasn’t there before.

Gender-bending characters almost always makes for an interesting retelling. It challenges our perception of gender roles and reveals what we think of as normal, and what we think of as out of the ordinary for relationships between men and women.

But there are so many other “What if?” questions that we can ask. Finding one or two of them and playing out the possibilities can create a truly original retelling.