It's also true for great theater (and I good movies, too) I have seen 3 productions of "the Glass Menagerie" and each time it is a different play-- First time round-- i thought "Tom" a rotten, no good heel-- last time, as in creditably courageous. I never saw Julia Harris as "Laura"-- but last time I saw her playing the mother-- Laura was played by Calista Lockheart.
All the production where "very good"-- and each time I saw the different things in the play-- I can't say i have notice as much of a change when i re-read a book-- but I don't often re-read fiction-- i often re read non fiction-- and find passage i didn't understand the first time round have grown clearer.. somehow just sitting on my book shelf for a few years improved the writing-- funny how that happens!
and the first time i saw the Ozzie film "Walkabout"-- (circa 1972) -- i was stunned– for many years it was one of my favorite movies.. I re- watched it-- and while it is still stunning-- It wasn't as good as i remembered it. Maybe because the Australian landscape-- which was so visually startling-- has become something recognizable.. and isn't as alien as it was the first time round..(in ‘72 I had very few "mental" images of Ozzie land– I hadn't read "the Thorn birds" or seen "a Town Like Alice" , "Ned Kelly" , "Picnic at Hanging Rock" or even "Crocodile Dundee"– Australia was "terra incognita".)
