thread: 2005-07-05 : Setting and Source Material
On 2005-07-12, Elliot Wilen wrote:
I don't know if this should be classified as a definitional quibble, conceptual objection, or irrelevancy but I feel that pastiche is often quite creative. E.g., the original Star Wars movie was pastiche yet can also often be read as an ironic commentary on its source material. My favorite illustrative line is when Luke breaks into the prison cell and announces, earnestly, "I'm Luke Skywalker. I'm here to save you!"Even more of this can be found in The Princess Bride.
Drawing on some dimly-recalled memories of college reading, it also seemed that Irish myths eventually reached a point of self-parody and commentary, something I think you can also find in American folktales such as Paul Bunyan.
What I am getting at is that in good pastiche the higher-level structures of source material can be absorbed whole and then recombined to produce new levels of meaning.
