The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They're referenced every now and again. Where did this idea come from?
The Horsemen, whimsically named War, Famine, Pestilance, and Death, are based on the beings that are represented as being released at the opening of the seals on the Book of Life near the end of this Earth. This is, supposedly, written in the book of the Revelation of John at the end of our present day English Bibles. In chapter six of the Revelation, there are some horsemen mentioned. Death at least, is mentioned by name. There are three others, but the one riding the white horse bears no resemblance to any of the three remaining characters. There is a character on a red horse that could be War, and another on a black horse that seems to be Famine. Pestilance is nowhere to be found. So where'd all that even come from? Why would you alter the Bible just to tell a good story?
Fact of the matter is, when it comes to great story ideas, one need not really look much further than the Bible. I love that book for many many reasons, most of them related to it's being scripture. But honestly, if you can get past the language of the King James Version it's just a darn good read. If you don't believe me, I challenge you to go read the first 12-13 chapters of the book of Judges and tell me you aren't entertained.
Here's my question then; are Bible based stories getting old? Are we tired of them yet? Or would you watch a movie based on the story of Samson and Delilah? Do you think that bizarre interpretations of the stories are okay in the interest of making it more contemporary, or is this blatant disregard to the original story itself? And would you read a series of stories based on the Four Horsemen, or would you assume it was rubbish? It's an interesting question, I think.
The Horsemen, whimsically named War, Famine, Pestilance, and Death, are based on the beings that are represented as being released at the opening of the seals on the Book of Life near the end of this Earth. This is, supposedly, written in the book of the Revelation of John at the end of our present day English Bibles. In chapter six of the Revelation, there are some horsemen mentioned. Death at least, is mentioned by name. There are three others, but the one riding the white horse bears no resemblance to any of the three remaining characters. There is a character on a red horse that could be War, and another on a black horse that seems to be Famine. Pestilance is nowhere to be found. So where'd all that even come from? Why would you alter the Bible just to tell a good story?
Fact of the matter is, when it comes to great story ideas, one need not really look much further than the Bible. I love that book for many many reasons, most of them related to it's being scripture. But honestly, if you can get past the language of the King James Version it's just a darn good read. If you don't believe me, I challenge you to go read the first 12-13 chapters of the book of Judges and tell me you aren't entertained.
Here's my question then; are Bible based stories getting old? Are we tired of them yet? Or would you watch a movie based on the story of Samson and Delilah? Do you think that bizarre interpretations of the stories are okay in the interest of making it more contemporary, or is this blatant disregard to the original story itself? And would you read a series of stories based on the Four Horsemen, or would you assume it was rubbish? It's an interesting question, I think.
I just listened to the audiobook of The Memory of Earth by Card. It was a great story, but it was a whole lot less fun knowing what was going to happen before it did. (It's the one based on 1 Nephi.) Some parts made me laugh out loud even though they weren't meant to be funny just because it was so weird to hear it translated to sci-fi.
ReplyDeleteI think that while it may be okay to borrow a premise, you should at least come up with new plot details.