Today I was thinking about a conversation I had with a coworker a couple weeks ago. (Ha Ha, that word looks like “Cow worker”) I work at a church that is trying to incorporate a more “modern” feel into its worship service. This is not my first ride on the “make church more relevant” train.... rollercoaster.... thingy. It's a slippery slope taking beloved hymns and strapping electric guitars and drumsets to them. I've experienced a wide range of reactions to “modernized” hymns. A particular reaction popped into my head when I checked out the movie “Hamlet” today. I choose a “modernized” version and as I stared at the shiny hollywood cover, that overused protest, which comes when the tradition bucket gets upsot, shrieked in my head, “The author is rolling over in his grave”.
The conversation I had with my coworker (who's a youth leader and has no personal affiliations with cows .... that I know of... I mean, he could, of course, own cows. It's not like I have a problem with that. Cow people rule. Totally. ... ... it's just that I don't believe he has any bovine connections). So, this guy I work with and I were talking about people's reactions to having their hymns messed with. We were in agreement that there's a very good chance that the authors would be delighted that their words are still relevant and that people still care about things they wrote hundreds of years ago. As an aspiring writer, I think it would be an honor to have some futuristic band with cool hair and shiny outfits attempt to work through my words using their personal art form. Of course, the downside is that some creepy group could get a hold of my work, mess it up royally and from that point on, my brilliant work of art will be soiled by its connection to those goof-balls.
This subject is a timely one for me personally. There are positive and negative sides to taking something that was written hundreds of years ago and inserting it into the current culture of our times. I'm not sure what my thesis will be, but it probably will have little to do with cows and more about the pros and cons of converting old prose. So now, I don my multicolored headband, turn up my “Hair” album, and settle into my thinking chair with the hope that a workable thesis will soon be forthcoming.
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2 comments:
I tend to think most artists would love it if people reworked their creations. It's an affirmation of the relevance and timelessness of their themes. You bring up an interesting point about the rub, but it seems to me that a terrible remake would then just serve as a foil against which the original shines the brighter. Anyway, I just cannot imagine Shakespeare having a problem with remakes, traditional or radical. He's sometimes referred to as the Great Plagiarist. I think he saw the artistry as residing in the rearrangement of preexisting parts rather than in the inviolate crystallization of a purely original vision.
That said, I've been to a few electrified church services, and the experience was not entirely pleasant.
Yeah, most definately, only way I can really relate is through some of the online forums I visit for smash bros. I'll post videos from time to time with some strategies and new techniques I've discovered to help out other members of the Link community that look up to me. It's always a good feeling to see another player using something I came up with, and even moreso if they give me credit in their videos. I also understand what you mean about completely ruining your work though. There have been a few occasions where People will take a setup I created and do it completely wrong and say I was the one that discovered it while I'm just sitting there thinking, "no, why would I ever do that? It totally goes against my playstyle."
but yeah. . .that's competitive video games for ya.
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