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CHAPTER XLIX 249 18. On the other hand it is better not to alter the author's plot in visualizing dramas and novels. Even a seemingly unimportant change may precipitate a succession of other changes that will com- pletely alter the play. It should be the aim of the adaptor to pre- serve in the highest possible degree whatever originality of thought the author may have shown. It is unfortunate that many adaptors are so lacking in imagination that they cannot perceive this originality and reduce all adaptations to the dead level of their own mediocrity. They cannot understand subtlety of motive. They lack the quality themselves; they cannot perceive it in the work of another. They make all scripts alike whether these are original or adaptations. 19. This holds with equal force in reconstruction. It is to be presumed that the outside script has been purchased to gain variety in the releases. If the reconstructor throws away the continuity which has been found faulty and works entirely with the synopsis, he produces a story in which the plot is slightly different but in which the style, the manner of developing the action, is precisely like the original work of the reconstructor. The continuity should be studied. The development may be poor, but if the story is at all worth while it is most certain that there are some good points in the action that should find their way to the screen. The reconstructor should aim to make the required changes with the least alteration of the original author's ideas that newness of treatment may also serve to give variety. 20. Adaptation and reconstruction are not simple merely because the idea is already furnished. To the contrary it is a most difficult work if the task is to ,be acceptably performed, for the idea must be built up without changing it, and this requires an adapta,bility of thought that permits the adaptor to view the work from the angle of the author and not from his original point of view. If the work of the adaptors is studied it will be found that the men who are most successful are those who are themselves authors of consequence, for these are most likely to have the mental capacity that permits them to respect the work of another. There are vandals who would, tint the flesh of marble statues and color the draperies to improve their appearance, reducing them to the artistic level of the nearly extinct cigar store Indian. There are adaptors who believe that the true science of the art is found in substituting their own for the author's ideas. They take a part of his plot, add some ideas of their own and develop the whole in a mechanical and rather stupid way. The true reconstructor is like the photographer who takes the underdeveloped plate and intensifies it. He adds nothing. He merely brings out more clearly what already was there. The true adaptor simply transfers the idea from the printed page to the screen. He does not change the drawing nor alter the coloring. His is purely the mechanical act of transferrence, but he does it with the loving, care of the artisan and not the mere laborer. (5.1:15^ (6.11:13) f8.LXVni:21) (11.XVIII :15) (13.XLIV: 6) (18.XLVIII:40) (19.11:12).