3pm Journal of Digital research & publishing - artichoke web design

3pm Journal of Digital research & publishing
for new social structures that enable the production and circulation of knowledge within a
networked society (Long. 2000. 21).
Digitisation or ‘Fidgit’-ization?
The artful application which producers use through convergent technology to make stories
more alluring and enjoyable mean that everyone can enjoy a text such as Lord of the Rings
regardless of what our preferred medium of consumption is. This is conceptualised through
Julia Kristeva’s notion of ‘intertextuality’ whereby every narrative is interconnected with
other narratives which either influence it, or are influenced by it. Examining the basic
underlying principles of intertextuality leads to a better understanding of the special
challenges and benefits of weaving a narrative across multiple media forms.
Geoffrey Long notes that adaptations of a narrative are never identical to the original
work. He believes that this is not a bad thing because the changes often ‘reflect both the
benefits and disadvantages inherent in particular media types’ (2000. 56). ‘Lord of the
Rings’ would have had fans complaining about the many plot central moments which Peter
Jackson left out of the movie due to ‘time constraints’, however Jackson added battle scenes
which were absent from the novel to add to the ‘spectacle’ and ‘theatricality’ of the film.
Thus the film is not a retelling of the novel but a reinterpretation, whose medium enabled
different effects and elements to come through and make the text stronger. Similarly there
was a positive response toward Lord of the Rings gaming online; ‘Shadows of Angmar’
which is a multiplayer online role-playing game released in 2009. You choose a character
from ‘Lord of the Rings’, good or evil, and you take off on a completely individual extension
of the original narrative, interacting with computer controlled characters and other entities
in the world. This online narrative extension exists as a completely individual entity which
utilises the concept of ‘middle earth’ to suit the format and advantage of the medium.
As William Uricchio recalls Jackson’s theatrical re-imagination of ‘Lord of the Rings’:
“no one ever ‘saw’ frodo or the rest: every casting decision, every image, every sound, ‘trans-
lates’ tolkien’s words, and is but one of an infinite number of such translations or embodiments
or performances; and these, it seems to me, are profound ‘changes’ in their own right.” (2006. 18)
However each mode of technology still upholds the same recognizable narrative, the
plot and characters has been slightly adjusted but the universe which is projected is near
identical. Lord of the Rings has maintained its popularity through holding onto the idea
of this one grand narrative, this one unique universe, which is so foreign to our own.
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