On Familiar Characters

[Peg Herring]

Some hate it, but the general public likes the trend of putting famous characters, whether real or imaginary, into new stories. I just finished Laurie King's THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE, in which she does a nice job of extending the Sherlock Holmes story by introducing a young woman who meets him in his later years and becomes his partner. No Watson she; she's as sharp as Holmes and just as unique.

I used Macbeth, of course, walking a line between the real one and Shakespeare's greedy one, and my upcoming mystery involves Elizabeth Tudor. I was surprised when one critic used the term "chutzpah" to describe my choice, implying that I was either very bold or very foolish to take on such large characters. It never occurred to me that it was either; I simply wrote down the story in my head.

We like familiar things. Children will listen to their favorite book over and over again, and woe to the parent who tries to skip a page here and there from boredom. We also like new twists: getting to know something about a character that we didn't know before or seeing him/her in a new situation. It has to work with what we know of the character, however. Poe can't become a superheroic tough guy. Jane Eyre can't play the wanton. An author can only stretch history or another author's character so far.

But Sherlock Holmes might find it difficult to retire. And Elizabeth Tudor would enjoy the challenge of ferreting out information about a crime. If we know enough about a character, real or not, we can picture them in other times of life, other scenarios. Just look at how many people will pay this weekend to see how Jim Kirk and Spock first met.

[Dana King]

Sara Paretzky was vicious in her condemnation of this on The Outfit blog last week, especially of the trend of resurrecting Jane Austen for modern purposes. (Pride and Prejudice and Vampires drew considerable ire.)

I'm a reformed musician, where there's an honorable tradition of writing variations on therems of other composers, so I don't get too worked up about it. (Bear in mind all of my comments assume all copyright standards have been met.) Some books and characters are fertile grounds for satire; some can even be enhanced by a different perspective. So long as the original work is shown some respect, I don't see the harm to it.