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Nov. 28th, 2003 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hafoc
They Shoulda Stopped
One of Rafferty's questions got me thinking about the problem of endless sequels.
We all know why they get made; money. But if you were looking at it from the point of view of quality, just when should the writer/ cinematographer/ animator / etc have stopped?
Sometimes it's painfully obvious, even to the writer. As when David Eddings just about said, in so many words, that "destiny" was going to force him to keep rewriting the story of The Belgariad, with only tiny variations, over and over again for as long as he kept working with those same characters. Oh, he put it in terms of how Belgarion's world worked, the gods, the forces of fate, but I've never come across such an obvious cry of "You fans leave me alone! I don't want to do this over, I want to go on to new stuff!"
Sometimes, though, it seems almost as if the author doesn't have a clue he should have stopped.
Oh, well. All that aside, here are my nominations for They Shoulda Stopped Sooner:
The Matrix: After the first movie.
Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, etc: Before the first movie.
J.R.R. Tolkein: I would say he shoulda stopped after LOTR and before The Silmaraillion, except he apparently wrote that godsawful tome FIRST. At least he had the good sense not to let it see daylight until his fans forced him to. Too bad he gave in.
I Love Lucy: Should have strangled her in her cradle. "Ricky! Waaaaahhhh!"
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A trilogy was about right. Granted it doesn't exactly end, it just sort of runs out of pages. But the endings Adams came up with for Books 4 and 5 of the 'trilogy' weren't any more satisfying.
The Foundation Trilogy: Asimov came up with a classic, he and his heirs should have let it rest after the three.
Flanker's Tale: I should have remained satisfied with sending it around to friends, and given up trying to get it published. Oh, well.
Windows: If they'd stayed with Version 3 they might have the bugs out of it by now.
I'm sure there are a zillion other examples, but they are left as an exercise to the reader, as my textbooks always used to say when the authors were too lazy to explain something.
One of Rafferty's questions got me thinking about the problem of endless sequels.
We all know why they get made; money. But if you were looking at it from the point of view of quality, just when should the writer/ cinematographer/ animator / etc have stopped?
Sometimes it's painfully obvious, even to the writer. As when David Eddings just about said, in so many words, that "destiny" was going to force him to keep rewriting the story of The Belgariad, with only tiny variations, over and over again for as long as he kept working with those same characters. Oh, he put it in terms of how Belgarion's world worked, the gods, the forces of fate, but I've never come across such an obvious cry of "You fans leave me alone! I don't want to do this over, I want to go on to new stuff!"
Sometimes, though, it seems almost as if the author doesn't have a clue he should have stopped.
Oh, well. All that aside, here are my nominations for They Shoulda Stopped Sooner:
The Matrix: After the first movie.
Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, etc: Before the first movie.
J.R.R. Tolkein: I would say he shoulda stopped after LOTR and before The Silmaraillion, except he apparently wrote that godsawful tome FIRST. At least he had the good sense not to let it see daylight until his fans forced him to. Too bad he gave in.
I Love Lucy: Should have strangled her in her cradle. "Ricky! Waaaaahhhh!"
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A trilogy was about right. Granted it doesn't exactly end, it just sort of runs out of pages. But the endings Adams came up with for Books 4 and 5 of the 'trilogy' weren't any more satisfying.
The Foundation Trilogy: Asimov came up with a classic, he and his heirs should have let it rest after the three.
Flanker's Tale: I should have remained satisfied with sending it around to friends, and given up trying to get it published. Oh, well.
Windows: If they'd stayed with Version 3 they might have the bugs out of it by now.
I'm sure there are a zillion other examples, but they are left as an exercise to the reader, as my textbooks always used to say when the authors were too lazy to explain something.
