• GreyBeard@lemmy.one
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    4 days ago

    Yeah, get that West Side Story bullshit out of here. If you want to learn about Romeo and Juliet, you should read it in the original Shakespeare, preferably in his original hand writing.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      If you want to learn about Romeo and Juliet, you should read it in the original Shakespeare, preferably in his original hand writing.

      This but unironically?

      West Side Story was a real transformation of the work that added in places and subtracted in others.

      If you want to learn about R+J, you absolutely should read the original. Better yet, you should see a performance by a professional Shakespeare company.

      Don’t watch the Spielberg knock off. Don’t even settle for the Baz Luhrmann film. Watch the original if you can.

      Purely on it’s face, it is an incredible piece of artwork. You can enjoy it entirely in it’s original form.

    • perishthethought@lemm.ee
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      4 days ago

      Thaaaaat’s different, eh? Nobody should be opposed to someone writing new works from scratch, even if they are inspired by something else. People do that all the time and should keep doing that.

      I’m just opposed to letting software (controlled by people who don’t expose their intentions and pretend it’s all automated with the best intentions) re-write either Romeo & Juliet or West Side Story, for any purpose, including to assist people.

      • GreyBeard@lemmy.one
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        4 days ago

        West Side Story was made so that a new generation could understand Romeo and Juliet. It did well what this AI is probably going to do poorly. I agree that this is a dumb idea for a service, and I really doubt any of the current AIs will do it the original works any justice when it comes to wordplay, clever phrasing, or other subtle details expert authors put into their works. That doesn’t, however, mean that rewriting works to be more accessible isn’t a very valid thing to do. Hell, that’s what translation does.