Re:Mix: Water for Elephants

Remix is defined by Dustin Edwards in “Framing Remix Rhetorically: Toward a Typology of Transformative Work” as, most simply put, being the altering of a text with a purpose.  Remix is seen in almost every form of expression: music, art, literature, film. A common example of this is books given film interpretations. I say “interpretations” because those film adaptations are often not entirely true to the text, they are remixed.

My favorite example of this is the novel and film of “Water for Elephants”. Water for Elephants is a relationship-romance novel by Sara Gruen about a veterinary student who drops out during his final exam upon being told his parents were killed in a car accident. Being left with his parents’ debt, he runs away and hops on a passing train which turns out to be the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. He becomes the vet for the circus and falls in love with their elephant and the star performer.

The film by Richard LaGravenese is changed in a number of ways- to the extent that the theme of the novel is lost. His film was remixed to cater to a different audience than the book did. This is a typology known as redistribution: “sharing and updating an already circulating text” (Edwards xxx). LaGravenese takes Gruen’s text and redistributes it to a new audience. Sara Gruen often incorporates animal relationships into her novels but the film loses that because it sells less in Hollywood. The film was modified to sell movie tickets. It focuses more on the romance between the two protagonists and less on how Rosie, the elephant, brought the couple together. LaGravenese plucked the plot from the novel that he thought would do well in Hollywood.

The beauty of the film is the inspiration that LaGravense found from Gruen’s novel. Influence and inspiration are a large part of the concept of remix. Influence and inspiration are what drive creativity. Had someone else been inspired differently, they may have scripted a film truer to the novel. Perhaps someone was inspired by the less accurate film adaptation of “Water for Elephants” to produce a true-to-book film. Remix is a never ending cycle of new content and is what creates human popular culture. Gruen and LaGravenese both made their contributions and have left the ball in someone else’s court.