Thursday, January 3, 2013

Mapping the Evolution of Stories

A few years ago Lapham's Quarterly mapped the evolution of four famous stories; Pygmalion, Faust, Oedipus and Leviathan. These stories all originated in the eastern Mediterranean region (modern day Turkey, Syria, and Libya), spread their way through Europe and eventually made it to the United States where they were all Hollywoodized, or otherwise Los Angelified. In each case the story has been modified but with the exception of Pygmalion, most have stayed fairly true to the format of the original.

This map is big and hard to see in much detail here (a click will take you to the original) so here is a detailed view showing the origin of each story.


2 comments:

Michael5000 said...

Is it being too picky, or too obvious, or both, to notice that their choices for what counts as the iteration of a story are both very thin on the ground and at the same time randomly eclectic? "The End"? Really?

"The killer woke before dawn.... and he PUT HIS BOOTS ON!!!"

Dug said...

"The End" is a bit of a stretch and maybe "Jaws" too. Almost as randomly eclectic as your team getting a one point safety.