Modern Adaptations

This post references games but I promise it's Veeky Forums related. Stick with me for a sec.

I recently played The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone and loved it. The plot is essentially a modern adaptation of Faust; CD Projekt's writers took an old German folktale that's been retold across dozens of other adaptations and then gave their own spin on it, writing characters and dialogue which were appropriate to the game's universe but still keeping with the spirit of the original work.

Hideo Kojima is currently developing a game which, according to him, is heavily inspired by Kobo Abe's "The Man Who Turned into a Stick." I doubt Kojima's work will end up becoming a "modern adaptation" of Abe's writing, but it shares a similar premise with what CD Projekt did with Hearts of Stone.

Obviously, movies have been doing this stuff for a long time, but I thought it was interesting that games are just now coming around to this idea.

My question for Veeky Forums is, do you know of any folklore or otherwise very old literature which you believe could produce an interesting adaptation today, in the form of a new media? If so, then why? Have you enjoyed any modern adaptations of very old works, yourself?

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historia_von_D._Johann_Fausten_(chapbook)),
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

my diary desu

my dairy desu

Start with the Greeks.

my dairy desu senpai

Modern adaptations are for faggots who are too stupid to read and understand old books.
Hint: video games are for children

Kneel before this superior man!

Why don't you fuck off back to ? You can discuss these things with your fellow teenagers.

he's right, tho...
i'd even go further than him: video-games are like drugs, you're probably addicted to them

There he goes again! Every word typed by his blessed hands are like miniature parables sung by all the angels of Heaven!
Amen.

I bet you haven't read Faust but at least you have "modern adaptation".

I don't really play games. I'm not OP; I just hopped on this thread now.
I just hate it when people like him bellitle someone for enjoying a harmless hobby such as playing video games. As long as you're not addicted, and know how to manage your time properly, then what's the problem?

sure, no problems if they stay on their containment board

Well, to be fair, in this case OP is actually asking a Veeky Forums related question.

"Modern media" is not Veeky Forums related.

he actually watched the movie adaptation

He's asking if there is old literature which could possibly be adapted into modern media.
That is Veeky Forums, /v/, and /tv/ related.

stupid questions should go on

You may wanna tell that to 90% (at least) of posters on Veeky Forums.

OP here. Came back to a real shit show. Guess I should have expected that.

It's okay if you guys haven't read anything interesting you'd like to share with me. I'll hang around just in case though :3

Serious question from OP: Does anyone here think an "original" variant of Faust would be worth reading? (I'm using quotations there because it'd have to be a translation--I don't speak German)

I've always thought that the "books are better than the movie" saying was far more often true than not, but I'm really wondering how many people in this thread have read and enjoyed sixteenth century Germanic folklore and have the authority to recommend it.

Sorry we let you down, OP.

Is this a joke? Are you seriously asking if one of the greatest book ever written on the human condition is worth reading? And I'm not even talking about Goethe's genius in writing since it's a translation.
I've read Faust and you won't find many books which are more worth reading.

Let me add that it's full of references to ancient, mostly Greek, literature so if you are not familiar with that you will miss a lot.

The "original" Faust would be the chapbook (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historia_von_D._Johann_Fausten_(chapbook)), which is basically a collection of stories of Faust and Mephistopheles getting into various wacky hijinks, along with some protestant moralising.
The most Veeky Forums Faust, and the one that people usually refer to when they say they've read Faust, is Goethe's, which is a long poem that is a retelling of the original version. Goethe's Faust has two parts, but Part I is much more widely read than Part II.
The chapbook is mostly intersting as a historical curiosity, but Goethe's Faust is with good reason considered one of the masterpieces of world literature, and it is absolutely worth the read.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is an adaptation of the Iliad.

Not a joke. I'm seriously adding it to my backlog because of your remark.

I rarely go beyond 20th century Veeky Forums and I've also become more of a non-fiction reader lately. But hearing about Faust after playing the Witcher got me intrigued. There appears to be some debate over whether or not, in the original telling, he sells his soul or is tricked into it, and that grabbed my interest (along with the subtle differences between variations throughout history).

I assume you would recommend Goethe's (especially as a first read)?

Goethe plays around a lot- for one, Faust makes a bet rather than selling his soul.
You should try Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus for a more conventional telling first.

So I assume that Goethe's Faust is the one with references to ancient Greek literature? I read some Greek in my early college years, and had to study many Greek themes in two of my classes, but it's been so long I do kind of doubt I would catch many of these references.

It's okay. The discussion is actually going quite well now, even if it's not what I originally intended.

>do you know of any folklore or otherwise very old literature which you believe could produce an interesting adaptation today
Dude, you're a fucking idiot.
Your question is stupid, it doesn't even deserve a serious answer.

Illiad is an adaptation of Aeneid

>So I assume that Goethe's Faust is the one with references to ancient Greek literature?
Yes, but they're mostly in Part II (AKA the difficult part nobody cares about)

I'm sorry if it didn't resonate with you, man. The reason why I think the Faust adaptation is so interesting is because the themes it presents can take on much different meaning when read by a living person today than someone in 16th century Germany. This idea can of course be applied to literally any piece of literature more than a couple decades old, but certain themes and philosophical ideas can still apply more strongly to one era than another.

If you want me to be specific, I guess I was trying to ask what older pieces of lit might be more pertinent to Western culture in the year 2017 than others. Revivals of interest in long dead authors and artists happen all the time. I remember a couple years ago everyone suddenly remembered the British Romantic John Martin existed, and that was excited for me because my local art museum had some of his most famous works, and that made me a bit of a fan.


A good adaptation should look at how an original work's themes have evolved over the years, and use that to their advantage. I thought Hearts of Stone did just that. Seems like an interesting discussion to me.

>movies have been doing this stuff for a long time, but I thought it was interesting that games are just now coming around to this idea.
Obviously story-oriented games have been influenced by literature from the start. More often than not superficially, but your example is no better.

Okay, thanks. I don't have a lot of time for Greek literature, so I'll probably go ahead and just read it, possibly checking out a critique afterwards that might fill in some blanks for me. I'm sure there's still plenty to be had out of it regardless, but I'll definitely keep that in mind.

The Kojima example is pretty damn superficial, but Hearts of Stone was much more deliberate than anything successful I can think of. That entire series of game has been based partially on Polish folklore though. I think there's a difference between a deliberate retelling of Faust and recycling literary themes that have been around since written word.

so God of War?

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Hearts of Stone was really good, a better Faust than Marlowe's, but not Goethe's!

Videogames arent harmless, I saw WoW destroy like 20 lives, and the medium themselves takes GPA down a solid 25% on average. Never saw an honor student who played more than passing FIFA.

Chanson de Roland would make a great dynasty warriors game if they had the balls to have actual academic input into art direction and narrative.

Several Icelandic Sagas would be great strategy or third person games, especially a blood feud simulator based on Burnt Njal or a raiding sim based on Jomsvikings

Unfortunately, the problem with vidya is that you have to fill in the long stretches of time between "happenings" with gameplay. The reason Dark Souls is the height of craft, to say nothing of the gameplay, is narrative through art direction and interactivity, which is unique to vidya as a medium.

Actually a Jomsviking game based on the Black Flag iteration of the AC engine would be pretty fun. But again the best parts of black flag are visual and auditory, like when the waves are picking up and sea shanties are being sung.

Jesus christ

These are really neat ideas! I haven't read any of these personally, but I've heard of The Song of Roland before from the Dark Tower series. Strategy games do seem like a natural fit for epics, since there are plenty to pull from about war. And come to think of it, I don't know why more games haven't tried to dramatize what's likely the most important aspect of ancient/medieval Icelandic culture; the actual sailing. I'm looking at you, Skyrim! Witcher had some decency in that regard.

I think there are a lot of ways to overcome the issue of time you mentioned. Games don't have to be sold in chunks to be "episodic." TLOU maintained a strong (if not somewhat overrated) narrative by breaking itself up into 4 individual but connected stories.

Pulling from Icelandic literature could be a well of untapped potential. Besides The Banner Saga, I really can't think of much that's tried to explore that whole culture.

People will get 'addicted' to anything ubiquitous and pleasurable. I'm willing to wager facebook/social media has destroyed more lives and GPAs than videogames have, and I'm willing to bet the average person spends far more time on social media than games. If it isn't video games people will bitch about cellphones and TV. If none of those existed they'd probably bitch about fiction books.

I don't think there's a valid argument for any artistic medium being intrinsically harmful. But I'll give you that video games are much more conducive to addictive behavior than really any other good or popular form of entertainment out there. You can obviously blow your life away on pot or bad TV, but games fall into this dangerous intersection of being actually worth your time in reasonable doses and also very easy to become lost in given the right conditions.

I can personally attest to having well enough self control to just not-play-games when I'm trying to make a deadline, and yet, I will at times find myself on my phone or browsing Youtube almost involuntarily if I'm not careful. I detest social media overall. If there was any better way to keep in touch with certain people in my life, I would deactivate my Facebook today.

Gilgamesh would be a 10/10 3D coop hack and slash game.

Goddamn, this is a good one. At least we have Civilization VI.