Aye, I agree, I don't think we should have to choose! Quite right! I just hope DC keeps the original in print via the Complete Alan Moore DC TPB, so we'll still have both. Don't want DC to go and pull a George Lucas on us.
And it's true, we are reading it from that perspective. I try to keep that in mind, to speculate what it'd feel like to someone reading it now for the first time. At the same time I'm trying not to be a snob and hold back my strong opinions, "No, you're not reading it right! You understand nothing! NOTHING!"
In the scans_daily post on this, someone just pointed out:
Even the ending loses some impact: In the original, the Joker is bathed in half-dark, half-circus light, as he considers Batman's offer of redemption, a visual indicator of his state of mind. Now? ... *yawn* *sigh*
He has a point. So yeah, let's just keep both versions, just like we can have both versions of DAWN OF THE DEAD. Both give very different but equally valid perspectives on this one work of art (which even the artist--or rather, author--has disavowed it; has Moore ever gone into detail explaining what he dislikes about the story, beyond the regrettable fridging of Babs?)
How about this for an idea: the original version is from the Joker's mindset, a Joker-centric world, whereas the new version is from an outsider's/narrator's detached mindset, seeing all these things as they are through our own lenses, rather than the Joker's carnival-colored ones? I'm not articulating it entirely well, but it's a new thought that just popped in my head.
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Date: 2008-03-29 11:17 pm (UTC)And it's true, we are reading it from that perspective. I try to keep that in mind, to speculate what it'd feel like to someone reading it now for the first time. At the same time I'm trying not to be a snob and hold back my strong opinions, "No, you're not reading it right! You understand nothing! NOTHING!"
In the scans_daily post on this, someone just pointed out:
Even the ending loses some impact: In the original, the Joker is bathed in half-dark, half-circus light, as he considers Batman's offer of redemption, a visual indicator of his state of mind. Now? ... *yawn* *sigh*
He has a point. So yeah, let's just keep both versions, just like we can have both versions of DAWN OF THE DEAD. Both give very different but equally valid perspectives on this one work of art (which even the artist--or rather, author--has disavowed it; has Moore ever gone into detail explaining what he dislikes about the story, beyond the regrettable fridging of Babs?)
How about this for an idea: the original version is from the Joker's mindset, a Joker-centric world, whereas the new version is from an outsider's/narrator's detached mindset, seeing all these things as they are through our own lenses, rather than the Joker's carnival-colored ones? I'm not articulating it entirely well, but it's a new thought that just popped in my head.