Nothing New Under the Sun

I have read and seen a couple of literary books and movies in the past few weeks. Unless one is familiar, however, with a substantial number of plots, the intertextuality could easily escape one's notice. The first is David Wroblewski's The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, and the second is the film The Way starring Martin Sheen. One is the retelling of Shakespeare's Hamlet, and the other is another version of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Again, we are reminded of Solomon's lament in the book of Ecclesiastes, there's "nothing new under the sun."

The Wrobelewski novel does offer some novelty in the retelling of the famous tale of Hamlet. In this case, the protagonist is a young boy who is mute, though he does have the gift of hearing. Ophelia is not a young woman who, at least as Hamlet perceives her, is disloyal but instead she is a pet dog. Horatio is not a peer but an old man who offers sage advice after the death of Polonius (a veterinarian in the novel). The ending, of course, is tragic as is the original piece.

The film features a group of pilgrims walking the road between El Camino and Santiago de Compostela in France and Spain. At the end of the walk, one finds the statue of St. James where spiritual peace is achieved. Like Chaucer's characters, they each need a physical or psychological healing which must take place, i. e. healing from physical abuse in a marriage, healing from grief over the loss of a son, healing from the abuses of the church, healing from obesity, and so on.

The book and the film were both well done, yet one yearns for originality still in art.