The Maker: a Remake

This will be a short post, alas, since I must go to work soon – classes will start next Monday here in São Paulo, so I will go to a teacher´s meeting this morning. (That doesn´t mean I can´t write another post later, but first things first.)

Two years ago, I began writing a short story about a person (gender not clear) who would start republishing books of other authors with his/her name. I called this person a “Remaker” – that would be also the title of the story, based on a story by Jorge Luis Borges, The Maker (El Hacedor). But, after a few pages, I simply reached a dead end, and couldn´t bring myself to pick it up again to finish it.

Then, less than two months ago, I read a very interesting post in Larry´s blog on another Borges´s story: Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote. Menard is a ficticious author who has published a revered academic work, but who also has an underground production that not everyone is aware of. In his story, an eulogy for the recently dead scholar, Borges points out the rewriting of parts of Miguel de Cervantes´s Don Quixote by Menard. The rewriting wasn´t "merely" an updated version, or an original work inspired by Cervantes. Not at all: what Menard did was to rewrite the Quixote word for word, as if he was Cervantes himself. Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote is a brilliant, witty criticism of sorts on the Modernist movement.

Is this post, Larry posed the following question: "What would a 21st century Menard look like, not merely copying Don Quijote but instead (re)creating it for the 21st century?" And he goes further:

"Would this 21st century Menard conclude that his Don Quijote would be a mostly indecipherable text whose audience would consist solely of those fellow anachronistic aficionados who would be most apt to rebel against the reigning "transparent prose" movement?

Something to consider. If I had any real combination of chutzpah and writing talent, I would attempt writing a story that would reflect this. But I do not, so I'm just leaving this thought trail for others to consider and to do with as they please."

Then I remembered my forgotten story, and finally discovered what I was doing wrong: I had chosen the wrong Borges´s story! I´ve been rewriting it since then, having accepted Larry´s challenge, and exchanging e-mails with him in order to clear up some questions. He even got me an English translation of Borges´s story (thanks again, Larry!), since I only had the Spanish original and the Brazilian Portuguese translation.

I must say that´s a hell of a challenge, and I hope I´m up to it. I´m almost finishing it (6000 words until today; probably it´ll end up with 8000 words approximately). It´s been fun, anyway.

I´m interested to know what you think about it. Have any of you ever tried to write an “update” to a classic story? If so, what were the major problems you faced upon writing it?