168
AdAptAtion in the Age of MediA ConvergenCe
remediations or, in Irina Rajewski’s terms, medial transpositions 21 – must
“add” and “subtract” something from the source(s), most importantly because
medium-specific representational techniques differ. 22 In addition, very
few if any adaptations do not introduce at least a single new idea or aspect;
remakes cannot logically (or ontologically, for that matter) be identical to
their premake, else they would not be a remake; with repetition inevitably
comes difference. 23
For example, with the conjoining of the two fictional universes of Alien
and Predator, much information is added, but new gaps and questions appear
about this significantly expanded universe. Of course, every new storyworld
exploits what is already there in the fictional universe and can alter, revise or
rework facts and stories, 24 albeit with an eye on the uncertain and unstable
limits of what might be considered acceptable by an imagined audience.
At the same time, however, the new storyworld adds new indeterminacies
and – although it sounds paradoxical – contributes to what is not there. In
fact, I would argue that with every additional storyworld, at least as much
of “what is not there” is added as of “what there is.”
Let me exemplify this in more detail. In Alien, we know next to nothing
about the crew, their past, the company that owns the space freighter,
Earth, the planet they land on and where they find the alien eggs, the alien
creature itself, the vast spaceship, how the company knows about the alien
creature, and so on and so forth. The novelization adds the dreams of the
crew in their sleeping pods, thereby adding a little bit of character depth,
hints about their families and their past, anxieties, etc., but, by way of these
minimal hints, also adds further questions about exactly these aspects:
their families, their past, their character. The second film, Aliens, takes
place more than sixty years after the first film, adding information about
Ripley’s family (she had a daughter who has died in the meantime), about
21 Irina Rajewsky, “Intermediality, Intertextuality, and Remediation: A Literary Perspective
on Intermediality.” Intermédialités 6 (Autumn 2005): 51.
22 Wolf stresses the crucial influence of medium as one of the most important factors in
determining how a world will grow due to “the medium’s unique combination of properties
available for the conveyance of the world and its stories.” Wolf, Building Imaginary Worlds, 248.
23 Rüdiger Heinze and Lucia Krämer, eds., Remakes and Remaking: Concepts – Media – Practices
(Bielefeld: transcript, 2015), 7–19. Vera Cuntz makes an interesting argument about the repetition
of so-called standard situations (birth, joint meal, medical examination, f inal f ight) in all
Alien movies. Not only do these situations reoccur in all movies, she argues; they always vary
slightly, and it is this “repetition with a difference” that contributes to the continuing appeal
of the movies. Vera Cuntz, Kalkulierter Schrecken. Standardsituationen in der Alien-Filmreihe
(Remscheid: Gardez, 2007), 13–17.
24 Parody, “Franchising/Adaptation,” 215–216.
AdAptAtion in the Age of MediA ConvergenCe
remediations or, in Irina Rajewski’s terms, medial transpositions 21 – must
“add” and “subtract” something from the source(s), most importantly because
medium-specific representational techniques differ. 22 In addition, very
few if any adaptations do not introduce at least a single new idea or aspect;
remakes cannot logically (or ontologically, for that matter) be identical to
their premake, else they would not be a remake; with repetition inevitably
comes difference. 23
For example, with the conjoining of the two fictional universes of Alien
and Predator, much information is added, but new gaps and questions appear
about this significantly expanded universe. Of course, every new storyworld
exploits what is already there in the fictional universe and can alter, revise or
rework facts and stories, 24 albeit with an eye on the uncertain and unstable
limits of what might be considered acceptable by an imagined audience.
At the same time, however, the new storyworld adds new indeterminacies
and – although it sounds paradoxical – contributes to what is not there. In
fact, I would argue that with every additional storyworld, at least as much
of “what is not there” is added as of “what there is.”
Let me exemplify this in more detail. In Alien, we know next to nothing
about the crew, their past, the company that owns the space freighter,
Earth, the planet they land on and where they find the alien eggs, the alien
creature itself, the vast spaceship, how the company knows about the alien
creature, and so on and so forth. The novelization adds the dreams of the
crew in their sleeping pods, thereby adding a little bit of character depth,
hints about their families and their past, anxieties, etc., but, by way of these
minimal hints, also adds further questions about exactly these aspects:
their families, their past, their character. The second film, Aliens, takes
place more than sixty years after the first film, adding information about
Ripley’s family (she had a daughter who has died in the meantime), about
21 Irina Rajewsky, “Intermediality, Intertextuality, and Remediation: A Literary Perspective
on Intermediality.” Intermédialités 6 (Autumn 2005): 51.
22 Wolf stresses the crucial influence of medium as one of the most important factors in
determining how a world will grow due to “the medium’s unique combination of properties
available for the conveyance of the world and its stories.” Wolf, Building Imaginary Worlds, 248.
23 Rüdiger Heinze and Lucia Krämer, eds., Remakes and Remaking: Concepts – Media – Practices
(Bielefeld: transcript, 2015), 7–19. Vera Cuntz makes an interesting argument about the repetition
of so-called standard situations (birth, joint meal, medical examination, f inal f ight) in all
Alien movies. Not only do these situations reoccur in all movies, she argues; they always vary
slightly, and it is this “repetition with a difference” that contributes to the continuing appeal
of the movies. Vera Cuntz, Kalkulierter Schrecken. Standardsituationen in der Alien-Filmreihe
(Remscheid: Gardez, 2007), 13–17.
24 Parody, “Franchising/Adaptation,” 215–216.