Dodging Dickens, Pushing Pratchett

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Oliver Twist is one of my favorite stories of all time.  I feel so lucky to have been given the opportunity to read such a highly acclaimed classic for my AP Literature class that I have put off for far too long.  To have an obsession with everything Oliver Twist and not to have read the original book felt blasphemous, so a decent amount of weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.  One of my favorite aspects of the story of Oliver Twist is my favorite character, Jack Dawkins (better known as "The Artful Dodger").  He's charming, he's clever, he cares for his really close friends and those who take care of him, and he is a boy with the mind and clothing of a man.  This is going to sound so incredibly stupid, but I'm pretty sure Dodger was the inventor of what we call "swag" today; he knew that it was all in the attitude.  One of the many reasons I immediately chose to read Oliver Twist for this summer assignment was because it's newer counterpart is a young adult fiction (my favorite genre ever ever ever) is focused entirely around The Artful Dodger.  I knew this almost instantly, considering the title of this recently-published book is titled Dodger.  Dodger was written by Sir Terry Pratchett, who was knighted in England for his "services to literature;" if that's not fancy, I don't know what is.  Even though the time gap between the original and the "remake" in this instance is much larger than almost every other paired option on the list of books to choose from for this assignment (aside from the Book of Genesis and East of Eden), I am very confident in my ability to study YAF and old English language and I was excited to challenge myself to connect such different styles of writing.  

The questions that I am encouraged to consider in the syllabus for this blog post are really fantastic questions that will get my interpretations across well, so I am going to position them below in an almost interview format.

"How does the retelling establish its own story line or stray from the original?"

It is clear to anyone who knows the story of Oliver Twist that Dodger takes root in the original Oliver Twist.  While some stories that are intentionally based off of past works (especially in the case of Shakespeare) whose roots can be somewhat concealed by significant shifts in setting or genders, Terry Pratchett is actually using the popularity and merit of Dickens' Oliver Twist to give his book greater historical context and perhaps garner more interest in a quasi-sequel to Oliver's original story.  The greatest difference is that this retelling focuses on The Artful Dodger almost exclusively, who was more of a supporting role in the original Oliver Twist.

"How does the retelling change your perception of the original?"

One of the coolest things about Dodger is that Charles Dickens (the author of Oliver Twist) is a character in Dodger.  His presence in this newer book made me imagine Dickens as a person more than I had when I was reading Oliver Twist.  When I read Dickens' history of him being thrown into the harsh conditions of the industrial movement and his family being sent to debtor's prison when Charles was only twelve years old, I imagined him growing up to be very bitter, perhaps drawing the energy to write a book like Oliver Twist from his spitefulness and strong opinions on social issues.  I don't know if anyone is sure what Dickens was really like, personality-wise, but Pratchett makes him out to be a very caring, very clever man that uses his success to help anyone he can.  I like this more cheerful and philanthropic image of Dickens better than an angry man grumbling away at a typewriter, which in turn influenced my sense of the overall attitude of Oliver Twist.

"Does the retelling have literary merit or is it purely entertainment?"

Considering the fact that Pratchett was knighted for his literary contributions to the world, I would say his works have already garnered a great deal of merit.  Even if it was written for young adults, I can see it inspiring younger people to explore 19th century literature (especially from England) by showing how lively that era actually was.  I don't see Dodger going down in history as a classic by any means, but it was well written for the most part and has a lot of potential to casual push the envelope for young readers and older readers who are experienced in classic literature.

"Which book did you appreciate more?"

It is so, so hard to retell a story as openly as Pratchett does and not give loads of credit to the original.  I am over the moon about the fact that there is an entire book dedicated to the brilliant boy known around London as "The Artful Dodger," and that Pratchett seems to know how to make a teenager feel like they're an important part of a big inside joke, but you can't beat Dickens.  Let's be real here, folks.  No matter how much you might love Dodger, you have to remind yourself that there would be no Dodger without Oliver Twist.  Of course, there would be no Oliver Twist without the influence of past events and stories, following Foster's idea that there is only one story.  But I think there's something to be said for books that are written from an intense passion for a topic that the rest of the world has been hesitant to touch, which Dickens executed so brilliantly.  While they may be more convoluted and outdated, Dickens' works are just a joy to read and I owe him so much for creating a story that I have latched onto since a young age and loved ceaselessly ever since.  You just can't beat him.

I am incredibly satisfied by my summer mission to tackle the old and the new versions of Dickens' great tale of Oliver Twist, and I really hope that I will have something valuable to contribute to class discussions surrounding the topic of classics versus retellings.  I look forward to comparing these wonderful stories I've read with the various books read by everyone else in the class.  It's sure to be a fun and enlightening year, so GET PUMMPPPEDDD.