[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Editing literature to conform to current custom

[Kathryn]

Briefly addressing the  subject of West Side Story - the edit of the song
strikes me as silly and supremely pointless. If the edit had been done to a
version of the musical re-staged to be set in the modern day then fine but I
think most people are bright enough to understand that a girl in the 1950s
is using the word to mean exactly what it did at that time and isn't trying
to claim she's suddenly changed her sexual orientation. Anyway that wasn't
what I wanted to respond to so we'll skip over that and get straight to
editing movies and tv.

I have no problem with a film or tv show being edited, although I may have a
problem with the way it's been done in certain cases (I'm thinking
particularly of the way Angel was edited by Channel 4 to fit a ridiculously
early slot, the resulting mess causing viewers to turn off in droves).
However, getting back on track (again) a movie is a collaboration to start
with, unlike most books. Most books are pretty much the creation of one
person (the author) whereas a film is the work of at least one script writer
 possible a script editor or two, the actors (how they interpret the script)
 the director and an editor, so there really is no 'original' version to
work with. In fact many director's cuts of movies are worse than the
original and stand as a great example of why editors are employed in the
first place. 

K


-------Original Message-------

From: HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com
Date: 01 July 2002 22:39:40
To: HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Editing literature to conform to current
custom



OK, a very quick aside before I take on some inflammatory issues 
quite directly.

I was thinking more about this view that an author's words shouldn't 
be touched no matter what, that they are owed tremendous deference, 
etc. I was wondering whether the people who feel that way have the 
same view of other forms of art. Two that come to mind for 
discussion are music lyrics and movies.

Lyrics first. My niece came over recently, and she was singing the 
song from _West Side Story,_ "I Feel Pretty." Now, I believe the 
original lyrics contain the phrase, "I feel pretty, and witty and 
gay." But lo and behold, the sheet music had something else 
like "pretty and witty and *bright*," I believe. "Gay" had been 
dropped. I assume this change was made because "gay" now has a very 
different meaning when the lyric was first written. It would strike 
modern audiences as rather off for a young woman in a story in which 
she falls in love with a man to be singing that she is "gay."

So is this change offensive? 

Similarly, there is a state in the South in the U.S. (Virginia?) 
that has a state song that does or did have the word "darkies" in 
the original version. Would it be wrong to change that lyric on the 
ground that it is offensive to some citizens of the state? Or 
should the state retain the racist language on the ground that that 
is what the original lyricist wrote?

Lastly, movies in the U.S. are routinely edited for broadcast 
television in the U.S. to delete offensive language and sexual 
scenes. I have heard this is not done quite so much in Europe, but 
this is required in the U.S. So does this sort of editing rape the 
vision of the director and screenwriter, or is it OK? How is it 
different from deleting the N-word from Kipling?