Of Retellings & Reimaginings

I think it comes as no surprise to anyone who has been a visitor to my blog that I am fond of retellings and reimaginings of well-known tales. Fairytales, myths, even popular movies or books – if there’s a retelling, I’d like to hear about it.

But over the years I’ll admit to being more selective when it comes to reading them. There has to be a draw to them, and for a while I couldn’t figure out what it was.

These books are diverse and chockful of well-written representation, I would think. They’re playing with tropes I enjoy, they’re making the original story more fleshed out. Still, they would not click with me and I was frustrated because I did not know why.

And then recently, I read Victoria Adley’s Ko-fi post and had a lightbulb moment. Victoria talks about what one may get from a story – her example of Cinderella made me look at what I got out of that story. Some people see the point of the story as a woman needing a man to complete her, others as perseverance and kindness in the face of cruelty. There is no right or wrong answer, but what someone else gets out of a story colours how they would reimagine and retell it.

And so, if what they get out of the story and what I get out of the story does not mesh, then we’ll…

Sometimes of course, that difference in what another sees in a story is intriguing enough that I’ll still check it out. But at the end of the day, retellings and reimaginings are our interpretations of what the original story is about – and sometimes that just will not jive with fans of that original story.

What one gets out a story may change over the years too. I admit to having different takeaways from Romeo And Juliet over the years. I’ve gone through ‘they were in love and this was a tragedy!’ to ‘they knew each other for three days, they were young and selfish’ to ‘this is a tragedy and a failing of the adults around them’. All are valid takes to have, all are coloured by my experiences, and at all points of this, I would have approached a reimagining in very different ways.

Every interpretation leads to a different way of retelling the source material. It does not mean the retelling is not valid. It becomes its own story, this new interpretation, and as long as its done well (and without harming anyone), it’s a joy that it’s in the world.

Now, I’ve got to get back to my reimagining of Persuasion. Wish me luck!

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