Amerika

Netflix released an update to the classic Anne of Green Gables franchise. As with all modern retellings, this one is heavy on crypto-ideology and light on literary merit. Lauren Hanson at The Federalist gives this slab of mentally sluggard propaganda the dismissal it deserves:

What is it about endearing childhood classics that makes today’s writers, directors, and producers so eager to butcher them in the name of realism and modernity? Producer Moira Walley-Beckett (who also produced the acclaimed series “Breaking Bad”) has said that she wanted to “push the boundaries” by creating a more dark and “realistic” adaptation. She certainly succeeded at changing the tone and atmosphere. But in so doing, she completely lost Anne.

What is it, indeed, that attracts evil to good, as if it were pathologically driven to attempt to smash it? Let us look at the agenda within this new version of a classic:

In contrast, Walley-Beckett’s Anne walks around with a giant chip on her shoulder, ready to crumble at the slightest provocation. There’s nary a trace in this Anne of the indomitable spirit readers have come to admire so much.

Long-time fans will also find it incomprehensible that Walley-Beckett would transform sweet, simple Avonlea and its kind (if occasionally uptight) citizens into such cold bullies and spineless cowards.

The story of Anne of Green Gables has changed from an encouraging tale about a plucky orphan who makes a place for herself in an unfamiliar world and wins over normal people because they see in her something of the good parts of themselves, and has become a typical victimhood tale in which art serves as political protest against the inequality of life.

In other words, Leftists took a classic story and turned it into Leftist propaganda. The new Anne is a retelling of the lies behind the French Revolution or the election of Barack Obama: people are unequal only because other people keep them down, and the only learning that all of history can give us is that we have to fight (while wearing pink pussy hats) against this inequality.

This is exactly the problem with adaptations: they are someone else’s vision of a completed work by more competent authors telling timeless stories. The same problem exists with symphony conductors for whom their interpretation of a classic piece of music is more important than the composer’s. Can a conductor really improve upon Beethoven’s vision?

The same could be asked about this horrible adaptation of Anne of Green Gables. L.M. Montgomery’s vision of Anne, Avonlea and Avonlea’s inhabitants is complete, in and of itself. It doesn’t require our so-called enlightened modern interpretation to better understand it. We’ve lost the author’s actual intent when we project ourselves onto Anne. Anne doesn’t need our improvement; she’s perfect and complete just as Montgomery wrote her, and she stands the test of time.

Anyone with a soul hates Anne With An E but all the proles adore it. Proles just can’t keep their dirty mitts off of the good and must destroy it, create it in their own hideous image. In the meantime, the rest of us tire, seeing the classics of our culture vandalized for the pretense of proles. May the war begin soon.

Tags: adaptations, anne of green gables, anne with an e, l.m. montgomery, lauren hanson, movies