AinurOlorin
Half-elven
Aug 18 2012, 4:59pm
Views: 11463
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I think the article did a fine job of explaining, in brief, what protect means (And thank you DanielB for the link)
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Protect means to preserve the legacy of the works.
People say, "you can always read the book," but that misses the point of the many people who have loved a work, as it was written, and desire to see that work faithfully visualized for larger masses. If the work is in any way misrepresented, the second hand telling can stick in the mind with a host of inaccuracies. And, ironically, the more sucessful an adaptation is, the more likelihood there is for the original work to all but become lost in it.
Consider L.Baum and fans of his original book. What if Baum was insistent about there having been four witches in Oz? What of all the people who loved Quadling Country, and The Witch of The North, and the other details changed or omitted from the 1939 classic? Baum's ideal, and that of the fans of his writing, might have been for there to one day be a film in which those aspects were presented (well . . . The Wiz does have the four witches), so that a larger audience could see and come to know them. . . but for millions of people Oz only ever had Three Witches, and there were no Quadlings in Oz. The movie overtook the books. Certainly you can still buy a copy of the book. . . but for most people, the films have become the cannon.
My girlfriend recently recounted a conversation to me, in which a friend of hers who was a fan of the movies, but not steeped in the book lore, attempted to argue with her about Gandalf's nature. She was explaining to the friend that Gandalf was actually a Holy Spirit sent in a human guise to aid the free people and creatures of the world. The friend refuted this. "No he wasn't. Not originally. He became a Holy Spirit after he fought The Balrog, but he wasn't one originally," was the friend's assertion.
Things like that happen all the time, and that is doubtless what Christopher wants to protect against, though I fear it is a loosing battle. They say that a lie is half way around the world before the truth can get its pants on. So to, the most popular version of a story is usually the one that the general populace refferences for the facts concerning a story. Alterations in a triumphant film truly can alter and degrade the facts of a tale. Because of popularized film versions, there are (and will continue to be for years to come) people who will fervently argue that Oz only had one good witch, and that was Glinda from The North (she is actually The Witch of The South), and that Elrond's daughter helped rescue Frodo from The Nazgul. 
"Hear me, hounds of Sauron, Gandalf is here! Fly if you value your foul skins, I will shrivel you from tail to snout if you step within this circle!"
"Do not be to eager to deal out death in judgement. Even the very wise cannot see all ends."
(This post was edited by AinurOlorin on Aug 18 2012, 5:00pm)
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