Several decades ago, as a teenager, I had a little life-lesson that I think is relevant to the discussion, if not of Appendix J, then at least to the relationships among derivative works.
One Friday, the movie Anna and the King of Siam (1946, Irene Dunn and Rex Harrison) was shown on television. We had the source book at home, so I read it over the weekend, and became annoyed at the distortions in the film. The following Sunday, The King and I was shown on the same network (I knew and loved the music). I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was almost horrified, and angered, at the extent to which the musical took the movie, and only the movie, and distorted it further. I have the feeling nobody involved with the musical ever looked at the original book. I could never again see the play with the same eyes. The moral of this story, I guess, is that two works may be separated by multiple layers of derivativeness. Misha Schutt Catalog Librarian Burbank (Calif.) Public Library (818) 238 5570 msch...@ci.burbank.ca.us
