I had a shower thought last night that it would be cool if Dune or some of those older classics had a modern ramake applied across the books to revamp them and update them with what we know now in terms of technology, our ability to imagine and make the style of writing more palatable to younger/new audiences.
I had a couple of friends try read the dune books and said they really struggled with the style of writing and English.
Is this a dumb thought lol
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Yeah I recall The Iliad is getting a new translation so as to be more resonant with nowadays’ culture. The sub was in a big cheer about it.
I don’t think either of the reasons you suggest as being worthy of “updating” a book are actually good reasons at all. Dune was not trying to predict future technology. Its language is a major part of its character. These aspects are true for all books.
Magician (Riftwar saga) was rewritten by Raymond E Feist some years after the series was completed. I’ve only read the original so don’t know how different it was.
Thomas Hardy edited some of his novels later on. Some versions I’ve read have footnotes with the original words. They are only subtle word or phrase changes.
What a bloody awful idea. Books are a timestamp of the time they were written. Your friends are clearly not cut out to read books. Dune is wonderfully written. What next? Making Oliver Twist a diverse woman who hates the patriarchy. Oh. Whoops ;)
The preface to ‘This Side of Paradise’ by F Scott Fitzgerald stated that he originally submitted his manuscript with typos and grammatical errors, as well as incorrect cultural references, all with the assumption that the editor would take care of all that… but apparently not, they left a lot of it in.
So over the years F. Scott submitted revisions for the book, and I think the version you can buy today is different than the one sold back in the 20s.