In the Loop: July 2023
Remake, Reboot, Remix
Mark Twain once said: “There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.” Dang. That dude is smart, right?
Sometimes ideas benefit from getting rejiggered. A movie remake has all the comfort and nostalgia of the familiar, but with a sassy new hat. A good cover of a good song can be pure alchemy (Check out The Cure’s cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” on this month’s playlist.) And a new edition of a book can bring about improvements on the original (in terms of content, format, or price). And who wouldn’t want that?
Editing Q & A: How to Cite a Book "Remake"
MLA
Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women, illustrated by Anna Bond, Puffin Books, 2014.
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble. 1990. Routledge, 1999.
Chicago: Notes and Bibliography
1. Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle, rev. ed. (New York: Greenwillow, 1986; New York: HarperCollins, 2023), 27. Citations refer to the HarperCollins edition.
Chicago: Author-Date References
McCourt, Frank. (1996) 1999. Angela’s Ashes. New York: Scribner. Reprint, New York: Touchstone. Citations refer to the Touchstone edition.
(McCourt [1996] 1999)
APA
Bradbury, Ray. (2012). Fahrenheit 451: A novel (60th anniversary ed.). Simon & Schuster (Original work published 1953)
(Bradbury, 1953/2012)
A Playlist That Covers It All
What's the Diff?
There are a lot of sneaky words out there—words with similar spellings, similar sounds, or just similar vibes. Here’s the lowdown on some of those commonly swapped-by-accident words.
Remake (n.): A remake is a story (usually a film, play, or television show) told in a new way. The new work often sticks closely (even slavishly) to the original in plot, character, and format, but introduces new bits to appeal to modern sensibilities. Some aspects that are commonly changed include location, genders, ethnicities, language, and genre, among others. It’s a new version of an old story that maintains the basic plot. Let Me In (2010) is an English-language remake of Let the Right One In (2008).
Reboot (n.): A reboot is a new story that restarts an entire story franchise or series. It is a complete reset to the story’s continuity and includes new and different versions of characters and plots. Robert Pattison was the lead in the most recent Batman reboot (2022).
Cool Guide
Stuff We Like
Check out these fresh takes on classic stories.
Remember when Wes Anderson “staged” (get it?) recreations of Out of Sight, Armageddon, and The Truman Show for the 1999 MTV Movie Awards?
Some Agatha Christie classics have been rewritten to update language and to remove some questionable content.
Remakes, remakes, everywhere. Helvetica gets a fresh new look.
The most remade movie in history will probably surprise you (because it’s not Batman).
Loosen up! The reinvention of fine dining is here.
Star Wars recreated by fashion house Balenciaga is exactly as awesome as it sounds.
Even the Volkswagen bus likes a reboot.
Watch this Lego stop-motion recreation of The Shining.
The zero-waste movement is remaking fine dining.
Sometimes remaking a classic can be a big, stinking blunder (looking at you, New Coke).
There are differing opinions about remaking Notre Dame after that crazy fire.
Here are five designers who completely reinvented established fashion brands.
You should make any of these 54 recipes (that deserve a comeback).
There are some classic movies that should never be remakes. There are remakes that are better than the original material. But you can probably think of a few remakes that are real flops.
Do you know the most covered songs of all time? (Spoiler alert: A lot of them are Beatles songs and Christmas songs.) One of these songs appears on this month’s playlist!
Pay It Forward: Greg Beckett Talks about a Bunch of Zombies
Greg Beckett is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Western Ontario, where he teaches, among other things, a course on zombies in Haiti and the United States. He is the author of There Is No More Haiti: Between Life and Death in Port-au-Prince and the co-editor of Trouillot Remixed: The Michel-Rolph Trouillot Reader. He lives in London (not that one), Ontario, and promises he is not a zombie.
He talks about zombies over on the blog, though.
