Remix commentary

 
I leave tomorrow for two weeks’ duty in Pennsylvania. I may or may not be able to get Internet access at the right time to change my my remixredux08 sockpuppet name with my own LJ name at the time of the Big Reveal. This, then, would probably be a good point for me to comment on the remix done for me.

Actually, there are two. “run_dean_mc” (whoever may be behind the alias) posted “A Cool Dry Place (the Snakes on the Brain Remix)”. Meanwhile, my daughter sroni, to make up for the fact that I was the only entrant in last year’s gen_remix who never was, in fact, remixed, just posted “Twisted Road (the Bad Intentions Remix)”.

Both authors, independent of one another, chose to remix some aspect of my 2001 story, “Hell Hath No Fury”.

sroni, in my opinion, restricted herself too much to my original narrative. She explained this as a deliberate choice: her approach, she said, was not to do ‘the story she would have done if she’d had the idea first’, but to re-present the original with something added. She met her own goals — the same tale told from a different perspective, with original insights — but I would have liked to see her artistry at work, rather than a too-respectful re-rendering of mine.

As for the other entry, I’m more inclined to compare “A Cool, Dry Place” with “Voices in the Dark (the Dance of Death Remix)”, done for me by faith1922 in last year’s remix_redux. Both authors focused on a small segment of a larger story; both chose stories I didn’t expect as their remix target; both posted relatively short entries. I felt that the fundamental premise of “the Dance of Death Remix” was more original and intriguing; I feel that the execution of the idea in “A Cool, Dry Place” was better, with precise artistry in the language and presentation.

I’ve seen some good stories in this year’s remix. I’ll keep participating, for as long as I keep doing fanfic.