Revolution of the Primary Text

In the digital age, it seems like we are getting multiple primary texts.  Not only do new mediums (including apps, eBooks, graphic novels, translations, video adaptations, parodies, visual arts, commentary) enhance the first text, but in some cases, they become the dominant text.  They are the lenses through which the greatest number of people experience the work.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is an excellent example of a work that has become one of multiple primary texts.  Few people read the original French version of the text first.  Their perception is colored by first being exposed to the Disney version, or the musical Notre Dame de Paris, or the English edition.  Furthermore, if you really think about it, the cathedral was around long before the novel.  Is the novel a secondary text to the architectural work that has become a primary text?


Another example to illustrate this point:  Gone With the Wind (to see a blog dedicated to all your GWTW fancies, click here).
When most people think of Gone With the Wind, they do not think of the original text.  They think of the 1939 movie with the charismatic Clark Gable and captivating Vivien Leigh as Rhett and Scarlett.

People are having discussions about Gone With the Wind, but not in reference to the book, in reference to the movie.  The movie is their first impression of the book, and it colors their perception of the book.  Sorry Margaret Mitchell, but in this case, the movie has dominated the text.  In a sense, it has become the primary text.  Few people read the book and watch the movie in that order.  It is the movie that persuades people to tackle the massive textual edition.

The digital age has revolutionized how we see and perceive primary texts.  There really is no single primary text.  You can't read in isolation.  Some way or another, you will find the book in a different format that may or may not come to compete with the original text as the "primary" source.