Nov
4th
2019
National Pony Writing Month, 2019 Iteration · 10:09am Nov 4th, 2019
Blog Number 64: Wan Edition
In deference to tradition, I'm participating in the NaPoWriMo once more. In deference to my being somewhat fed up and barely motivated, I'm only doing a modest 10,000 words. After that, I might need a break.
On a completely unrelated note, am I just jaded or is there a saturation of remakes, adaptations, and so on in popular media at the moment? Over the last few years, there have been remakes of old films, remakes of old video games, yet more adaptations of books, and so on. I'm honestly starting to wonder if originality is frowned upon and I just missed the memo. 
That's all for the time being. Impossible Numbers, out.
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Impossible Numbers · 132 views
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And yeah, I think the remake trend has been growing pretty strong this past decade. I think it's less risky for businesses, or at least, they perceive it to be less risk. Attach a release onto an already successful franchise or media source rather than risk something original slipping through the cracks. I don't mind an adaptation, I'm mixed towards remakes and I'm completely befuddled by the ones that are remakes in title only. That's where the fear really shows, I think.
Perhaps as times change and uncertainty becomes stronger as a norm, money-seeking storytellers are finding it a safer bet to stick with remaking things that people are already familiar with.
That may sound more cynical than I actually feel about it. Sometimes people like a story but want to put their own mark on it. Sometimes a remake is less strictly a remake and more about making something one's own.
Good luck! 10k is a nice goal.
A sign of decadence in our society is the complete lack of originality. Sometimes there is new stuff, but it tends to get drowned out by that which has been distilled down to pure ratings fuel, ie that which has worked in the past.
5150415
What does the emoticon mean there? I don't understand it.
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5150566
I definitely get the "safe bet" logic behind it. Moreover, I think it's part of a larger trend wherein stories are becoming less about having a chance to find something you identify with personally, and more about making product to sell. They're not mutually exclusive goals, by any means, but it seems to tilt a little too much towards the latter as time goes on. Disposable faddish churn-out, is one way of putting it.
Honestly, I'm less bothered by the fact that it's happening and more confused by the growing acceptance of it as time wears on, which in turn seems to embolden companies to do it more often (the Disney remakes are an obvious example). If I thought there was more public resistance to it, I probably would dismiss it as a temporary deviation.
5150542
It'd be very hard for a fanfic writer like myself to make any sweeping claims regarding derivative works, but I do think there's at least a similar risk in fanfiction too. It's less a matter of kind and more a matter of degree, from radical reinvention at one end of the spectrum to just repainting and selling the same thing at the other end.
Plus in mainstream media, you'd at least not expect it to happen all that often.
5150566
Alas, I wish I felt better about it, but I'm only taking it out of what seems to be personal health and necessity. Compared to other months I've had before this one, it's a bit of a letdown.
Not quite frowned upon. But we live in a time and age in which the entertainment industry has learned that making sequels to old, classical stories that no one needs nor asked for, brings in the big money, because doing that plays with people's emotions and nostalgia, making them run into cinemas in droves because their heart has taken over for their brain.
A nefarious scheme to make even more money, nothing else.
5157351
That commercial aspect would be my best guess too. It's a shame it seems to be working so well; if anything, such remakes seem to be increasing in number over time.
5158054
Indeed. It's a troublesome development that commercial and corporate interests are being put above art more and more these days. That will come crashing down on the entire entertainment industry eventually, if it doesn't stop.