Lanefan
Victoria Rules
Familiarity, perhaps?I already have well-executed and enjoyable versions. Why do I need another?
The extended version of each of the LotR movies runs north of three-and-a-half hours and yet each is still too short, in that there's still parts of the book that get left out.So... Branagh's Hamlet, as far as I am concerned, suffers exactly from the issue of making a slavish version of the classic. Most versions (film or stage) have the good sense to edit it down quite a bit, but his Hamlet is unabridged. As a result his has a runtime of four tedious hours.
How many times have you re-read that copy, is the question?Let me put it another way - I have a copy of Le Morte d'Arthur. I do not, in fact, need two copies on my bookshelf. If you are going to produce a book of Arthurian fiction, that simply follows Le Morte d'Arthur... why do I need yours? I already have it!
Also, if someone doesn't have a copy of the version you have - or any version at all - is there a problem with said person having several different-yet-similar versions from which to choose?
Counting both books and movies I've got about 7 different versions of Robin Hood here, if not more. And if I stumble on another, chances are I'll pick it up or at the very least read/watch it, just to see what that version does with the legends and-or what the authors' writing/moviemaking style brings to the table.I have other books of Arthurian bent. They are all different takes on the legends. One's a scholarly work that breaks down the legends to fit into know historical events, with the idea to show that Arthur was not really a single individual, but an amalgam of various legends. Another casts the Arthurian characters as immortals (Arthur was known as Gilgamesh and Baldur before he hooked up with Merlin and became Arthur), and mixes them with other immortal beings to see how it plays out. Another has the characters reborn in the modern era on the road to simply repeat the same tragedy again, while desperately trying to avoid that fate. And there are others...
Same stories, with novelty. Far more engaging than just rephrasing Le Morte d'Arthur four and more times over.