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I am, ill-advisedly, going to try to answer the question posed, "why not?". This isn't a comment, as such, on the quality of the reimagining itself, which I haven't read--although the selections the (admiring) article pulls out are jejune and sad, at least out of context.
(1/) https://twitter.com/asymptotejrnl/status/1298009688269873152
(1/) https://twitter.com/asymptotejrnl/status/1298009688269873152
And first, I'll also disclaim. I have plenty of books whose only justification is: I enjoyed it; it comforted me on a lonely winter night, or filled the indolence of a summer day. And if feminist, social media Beowulf does that for you, go for it.
(2/)
(2/)
This thought is deeply unoriginal, but I believe one of the basic purposes of literature is twofold: firstly drawing us out of ourselves, into an alien context & way of being, and that the Greatness of a story is, in part, how well it packages those alien assumptions
(3/)
(3/)
The distance can be small--a person of another social class in your country & time, say--or great. And to go into the mind & context of a long-dust Spear-Dane is very far. No one alive today, of any race or country, is as far from me as those guys who are literally my ancestors
But I said this purpose was twofold. If we wish to exercise sympathy and go out to meet these strangers, we have to temporarily detatch parts of ourselves. Writing a feminist Beowulf is bringing Beowulf to you; to go to Beowulf you have to detach yourself from feminism
(6/)
(6/)
And from other assumptions--you're at least aware of being a feminist. You, 21st Century Person, take for granted assumptions about violence and force, glory and treasure, at an even deeper level.
(7/)
(7/)
None of this invalidates the things you believe. I, for instance, much prefer to live in a world without a premodern Dane's assumptions about violence and might. But put it aside. You're a traveller here, not a missionary.
(8/)
(8/)
But then a strange thing happens, and we're finally getting to my "twofold". You strip yourself away--feminism is maya, equality is maya, the non-aggression principle is maya, you let all these things fall away to go and meet a stranger, very different from you.
(9/)
(9/)
You recognize things. Have you known Hector, who loved his family but walked out the door? Foolish, angry Lear, who forgot he loved. Hecuba, begging for news of her daughter. Useless, beautiful Genji. How strange are these strangers?
(10/)
(10/)
So you come back. You're a feminist, you believe in voting and civil liberties, equality before God, efficient markets and freedom of gender expression. I'm not here to argue with any of that, but I think it's good, profoundly good to step out of yourself
(11/)
(11/)
And come back again, haunted by ghosts, and a little more aware of your kinship with the living. Some things are maya, but some things endure.
(12/)
(12/)
If you insist on bringing Beowulf to you, instead of going out to meet Beowulf, can you meet your neighbor? He's black, he's gay, he voted for Trump--probably not all three--she's Swedish. These things aren't meaningless, some may be of dire importance.
(13/)
(13/)
I believe that it's worth investing the imaginative and empathetic energy to connect with human beings different from yourself. But even if you're actually right about everything, to do that you have to be willing to go out to them, not drag them to you. And that's why not.
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