Brief Thought on Artistic Adaptations

I cannot overstress the value of thinking through the implications of what you say before you begin to speak. This was a lesson that was reinforced to me today when I began griping about the new Sherlock Holmes movie.

"It's going to be terrible!" I groaned to the stepmother of my best friend. "I mean, I just know they're going to change the source material, and then what? I was raised on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I just won't be able to handle it if they ruin it for me."

She thought about this for a moment. "How will they ruin it for you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if the movie isn't good, that won't stop you from reading the original stories, will it?"

"Well, no, but I still want them to be faithful to the original work."

"But what's wrong with an artist interpreting an older piece for a new medium? Life changes, and art naturally changes it. Many great pieces of art comes from individual finding new ways to look at old material."

Perhaps I should have remembered the words of Sherlock Holmes himself...

The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession.