Quote and Question: Poletta and Freaks and Geeks

“What stands in the way of adapting old stories to new circumstances? More generally, how do time and place-specific beliefs shape stories’ interpretation?

... We argue that they do so by way of character. In other words, narrative does limit people’s capacity to imagine alternatives to the status quo, but not by way of canonical plots. The same events can be inserted into different genres of plot, whether heroic or tragic, comedic or ironic, to yield quite different conclusions. But audiences’ expectations of character are more rigid. Time- and place-specific ideas about how people properly behave – about how ambitious women should be, for example, or how emotional men should be – limit audiences’ ability to imagine them playing roles associated with different plot genres. Plots are transposable; characters are less so.” (Poletta 290)

 I’d like to speak on the questions posed in the paper itself. Specifically, “What stands in the way of adapting old stories to new circumstances?” Why do some classic stories that have set a model for future films sometimes flop when story runs too similar to the original? Do people crave originality after seeing the same storyline redone over and over?

"Sam, you want some advice....be a man." 

"It sure would be nice if you guys back me up every once in a while. My sister does and she's a girl"

Freaks and Geeks, Episode 1 (8:14-8:20)