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Tylar Farmer
Frechette
English AP 11.3
30 May 2014
State of American Literature: The Rise of Adaptations, Spinoffs, and Sequels
In 2002, Comedy Central aired an episode of South Park in which the plot centered
around one of the characters, Butters, attempting to take over the world in an original manner.
However, Butters is unable to accomplish his task because the television show The Simpsons has
already explored every original concept conceivable since the show has been running for 25
years. South Park is a show that is not necessarily meant to be taken seriously, but this episode
does dictate an evident truth: American Literature (excluding any form of music and poetry) now
has a lower concentration of original content than ever before as evidenced by the increased
emphasis on sequels, spinoffs, and adaptations. Music and poetry are specifically excluded
because they tend to be far too ambiguous to conclusively analyze. An adaptation in this address
is used as a broad term that includes word-for-word retellings, stories retold with small changes
(like character names or settings), and changes from written works to other mediums (such as
film or television). A sequel is any work that continues the plotline of a previous work, and a
spinoff is any work that uses the same characters but does not continue the storyline of a
previous work. An original concept is defined as a first work to utilize a certain theme, hook,
character trait, or otherwise defining feature. Plots can be similar, but as long as the work offers
something that has not been done before, it is considered original. For this address, contemporary
literature is any piece of literature published, aired, or debuted between the year 2000 and today.
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American Literature is any story-telling work of fiction or nonfiction that has been
concretely recorded by an individual or group of United States-born and raised people. The
literature portion thus excludes paintings but includes books, movies, and television; these three
will be the main focus when discussing the loss of originality in American Literature. The
American portion of this definition includes anyone born in the United States, excluding
territories, and has been raised in the U.S at least until he or she turned 18. Although some may
argue that American Literature should not include movies and television, since literature
etymologically means “writing formed with letters”, literature’s etymology does not change, but
the rest of the world around it does constantly. Thus, the etymology of the word “literature”
should not be considered when defining American Literature. To exclude television and movies
would be to exclude a large portion of modern story-telling art forms, and for the sake of giving
a State of American Literature address, it is important to include as many present story-telling art
forms as possible. Any works mentioned in this address were created by American directors or
authors.
Washington Irving, a Romantic author and one of the three men of the Knickerbocker
group who were pioneers in American Literature, wrote one of the first enduring pieces of
American Literature, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Written in 1820, the story is about
protagonist Ichabod Crane and his rivalry against Abraham “Brom Bones” Van Brunt for the
hand of Katrina Van Tassel. After unsuccessfully securing her hand, Ichabod travels through
Sleepy Hollow only to be met with paranormal beings, including a Headless Horseman. The
story, when published, was new to American audiences, although elements of the story, mainly
the Headless Horseman, may have been lifted from European tales. Although the tale itself was
inspired by European tales, it was completely new to American audiences, making it an original
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tale in the American annals of stories. However, a trend becomes visible once one travels further
down the timeline of American Literature. In 1922, a film adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow came out entitled The Headless Horseman. The plot is similar to the original story, with
all characters keeping the same name. Seeing as it was over one-hundred years ago since the
story was originally published and told, an adaptation would be necessary in reintroducing the
story of Ichabod Crane to American audiences. Then between the years 1923 and 1999, a larger
number of adaptations of Irving’s original story appear, mainly in film: The Adventures of
Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949), The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1980), and the Night of the
Headless Horseman (1999). Clearly a larger concentration of literature based on Irving’s work,
around three adaptations in 76 years as opposed to one adaptation in 102 years (note that some
adaptations are not listed because they were deemed too different from the original story, they
are merely television episodes rather than a television series, or they were not created by an
American, this applies to any list of adaptations present in this address). A trend becomes
prominent when viewing the number of adaptations of Irving’s story between the years 2000 and
2014: The Haunted Pumpkin of Sleepy Hollow (2002), The Hollow (2004), Sleepy Hollow
(2013). With about three adaptations in only 15 years, the trend appears to be that the
concentration of adaptations of Irving’s tale over the course of a set time span increases as the set
time span nears the present. This hints that American Literature is increasing in the number of
adaptations released per year; however, one example of this trend is not enough to make it a
trend of American Literature.
Gilded Age Realist author Horatio Alger Jr. set the precedent for the rags-to-riches story
with his magnum opus Ragged Dick. In this 1867 coming-of-age story, protagonist Ragged Dick
lives the life of a vagabond as he sleeps on the streets. Disappointed with this way of life, he
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looks to turn himself around by setting up rules he must abide by. At the end of the book, he
makes himself into a respectable man now calls himself a much more credible name, Richard
Hunter, Esquire. Years later, author F. Scott Fitzgerald published the modernist novel The Great
Gatsby in 1925, which contains a portion where the protagonist Jay Gatsby describes his
ascension from being a poor boy to a rich man, a classic reiteration of Alger’s work. However,
The Great Gatsby is certainly original enough in its take on the rags-to-riches story that it should
not be considered an adaptation or sequel to Ragged Dick. Fitzgerald changed the rags-to-riches
theme into a satirical take on the American Dream with a tragic ending, and thus it deserves to be
categorized apart from Alger. However, Fitzgerald appears to be the last to really build on the
original concept of the rags-to-riches story, as after The Great Gatsby came adaptations that
seem to follow the trend mentioned earlier. Between 1925 and 1999, The Great Gatsby (1949),
and the Opera The Great Gatsby (1999) were released, two adaptations within 75 years. That
concentration of adaptations per year is microscopic when compared to the number of
adaptations released between the years 2000 and 2014: The Great Gatsby (2000), G (2002), Gatz
(2006), and The Ballet The Great Gatsby (2010). The trend for adaptations of Fitzgerald’s The
Great Gatsby is parallel with Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, thus further supporting the
view on the current state of American Literature that adaptations are becoming more frequent the
as one approaches present day, but what about the case for spinoffs?
In 1941, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby published the Captain America series of comics
partly for propogandic purposes. Published during the Golden Age of Comic Books, the series
focused on Steve Rogers, a weak man who is injected with a serum that turns him into a super
soldier to fight in World War II. Comics are known to have a lot of spinoffs, such as the
formation of The Avengers in 1961 by Stan Lee, but the trend demonstrated with the previous
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two examples continues: Tales of Suspense (1964-1968), Captain America Vol. 2 (1996-1997),
Captain America Vol. 3 (1998-2002), Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty (1998-1999),
Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles (1976), U.S. Agent (1993), and Iron Man/Captain
America (1999). Seven spinoffs in 58 years is minuscule when compared to the 23 spinoffs in the
last 15 years, including Captain America and the Falcon (2011), Captain America: What Price
Glory? (2003), and Steve Rogers: Super Soldier (2010). This clearly continues the trend that as a
set time span approaches the present, the concentration of spinoffs and adaptations increases
drastically. However, does the trend apply to the concentration of sequels?
An early example of a sequel in American Literature would be Humorist Mark Twain’s
1885 novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which was a sequel to The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer. As one advances towards present day, the trend returns, with The Clansman being
published in 1905 by Thomas F. Dixon Jr. as a sequel to The Leopard’s Spots. The next
significant American sequel would be to Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, entitled
Scarlett, which came out in 1991, 55 years after the original. After extensive research, it was
shown to be difficult to find a lot of sequels in American Literature prior to the 1970s, however,
after the 1970s sequels slowly started to become prevalent, with The Godfather Part II (1974),
The Ringworld Engineers (1979), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) , Indiana Jones and the
Raiders of the Lost Arc (1981), Speaker for the Dead (1986), Back to the Future Part II (1989),
The Naked Gun 2 ½ (1991), Father of the Bride Part II (1995), and A Clash of Kings (1999).
Sequels now completely dominate both movies and books; in 2011 alone, about 27 film sequels*
were released, including Cars 2, The Hangover Part II, and Pirates of the Caribbean: On
Stranger Tides, and the website Goodreads provides a list of the top 100 book series*, a few of
which did not have their origin in post-2000, but continue or end their series into the 2010s,
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including Suzanne Collins’ Mockingjay (2010), George R.R. Martin’s A Dance with Dragons
(2011), and Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance (2011). Sequels are dominating contemporary
literature, often in the form of a series, and they follow the same trend that adaptations do;
sequels and adaptations are increasing in concentration as one nears the present.
Adaptations and sequels have been present for centuries in America’s history (such as the
1951 film adaptation of Stephen Crane’s 1895 naturalism novel The Red Badge of Courage), but
only now have they significantly diluted the stream of original content that consumers drink
from. Is this because authors and directors are losing their creative edge? Not necessarily. Books
are usually adapted into films because they already have a dedicated fan-base, and with a
dedicated fan-base comes a higher chance of a box-office success (Ateş). In addition, film
adaptations appeal to the audience because there is a combination of the “known with the
unknown…the appeal of adaptations lie in their mixture of repetition and difference, of
familiarity and novelty” (Marciniak 61). The known is plotline; the unknown is how well it will
translate to the silver screen. Sequels and spinoffs likewise already carry a fan-base and therefore
are safe investments for film studios. So, are all these sequels, adaptations, and spinoffs bad? Not
at all.
Literary critic Marjorie Perloff coined what she calls “unoriginal genius” to describe a
trend emerging in literature. Unoriginal genius is the new form of how people think of what a
genius is. According to Perloff, previously, the depiction of a genius was of a lonely, romantic
figure. This new notion of a genius is depicted as someone who has not only mastered some form
of information, but can also spread that information. From this, a genius is not someone who
wants to create more, but wants to master what’s already available. Focusing on sequels,
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adaptations, and spinoffs repurposes what content is already available, and gives the audience a
chance to explore and master such content (Goldsmith).
The concentration of original works of American Literature is lower than it has ever been
due to the safe investment of sequels, spinoffs, and adaptations, and people’s desire to see said
works. This lowered concentration is not a bad thing, as it gives audiences a chance to discover,
indulge, explore, and master what has already been done. Original content will never halt, which
is obviously good, but furthering an already established storyline with a sequel, taking an idea
and putting it into a different context with a spinoff, or bringing back something that’s already
been done with a adaptation reintroduces the content to the audience and allows them to further
explore that content. That exploration leads to a mastery of its content, and thus a genius in that
field.
*Not all sequels or series are American, but a majority of them are. Nonetheless, the point is still
proven.
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Works Cited
Ate?, Faruk. "In Defense of Sequels." Farukat.es. Faruk Ate?, 16 Nov. 2009. Web. 1 June 2014.
"Best Series." Goodreads. Goodreads, n.d. Web. 1 June 2014.
"Books That Shaped America." Library of Congress. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 June 2014.
Goldsmith, Kenneth. "It's Not Plagiarism. In the Digital Age, It's 'Repurposing..'" The Chronicle
of Higher Education. Chronicle of Higher Education, 11 Sept. 2011. Web. 1 June 2014.
"Has Hollywood Lost Its Way?" Short of the Week. Short of the Week, 5 Jan. 2012. Web. 1 June
2014.
Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas A. Bailey. The American Pageant: A History
of the Republic. 14th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001.
Kreuzberg, Daniel. "Movies with Sequels." IMDb. IMDb, 2 Nov. 2011. Web. 1 June 2014.
"Literary Periods & History Timeline." The Literature Network. Jalic, 2011. Web. 1 June 2014.
Lussier, Germain. "2011 Will Break the All Time Record for Movie Sequels." /Film. /Film, 16
Feb. 2011. Web. 1 June 2014.
Marciniak, Malgorzata. "The Pleasures of Adaptation." The Appeal of Literature-to-Film
Adaptations. 2007. 61-65. PDF file.
Perloff, Marjorie. Unoriginal Genius: Poetry by Other Means in the New Century. Chicago: U of
Chicago P, 2010. Print.