Thursday, September 6, 2012

Booking It

I got into a bad habit last year of "borrowing" my partner's car to drive to work in, thus allowing myself to sleep in for an extra ten minutes and ultimately waste the monthly transit pass I had paid $110 for. This year, having this blog to work on sort of motivates me to take transit more regularly because it frees up my hands for 45 minutes every morning. Of course, without the blog, I could be reading one of the ten books on my Goodreads "To Read" shelf or fifteen books piled on my bedside table or the Kindle edition of Rick Riordan's The Red Pyramid or the Kobo edition of my friend Trisha's self-published YA novel Whispers In Autumn (which EVERYONE should buy and read before the sequel comes out later this month. Seriously, it's $3.84 on Kobo. Check it) or even a newspaper. From experience, though, chances are that if I wasn't writing this blog, I'd be catnapping in some uncomfortable sitting position, waking suddenly every two minutes to see if I'd missed my stop. Interesting how priorities are often context-based.

Today's shirt is from a website near and dear to my heart, run by a couple of the funniest and most clever cartoonists online today. Of course, they used to work in public libraries as well, which qualifies them for sainthood and assures them a place among the stars like all of us bibliophiles.

Gene Ambaum and Bill Barnes are the creative twosome who parent Unshelved.com, a daily comic strip that chronicles the quirks and quibbles of the fictional (?) Mallville public library where an intelligent and experienced staff of information specialists tap dances the line of very real public service, the theoretical world of public accountability, and the seemingly surreal logic of the public themselves with aplomb, alacrity and awe-inspiring snark (Mon thru Thurs with Fridays reserved for a single-cell, graphically-rendered review of actual books and classic strips posted on the weekends).

As I am obviously the willing and joyful target of all forms of merchandising, the shop at Unshelved.com is one of my favourite places to while away my break time and some of my paycheque. Beside this one, I own one other shirt and have purchased and gifted the Bibliovore shirt, two of the LIBRARY raid jackets, and one discontinued bookbag to others.

I was fortunate enough to meet Gene in person at Comic-Con in 2010 and even benefited from one of his colleagues having an extra ticket to Wil Wheaton's w00tstock SDCC 2010 (don't know how well that link will work since it's a FB photo album. Let me know if it's SNAFU) where I got to share air with folks like Mythbusters Adam Savage, Jamie Hyneman, and Grant Imahara; musicians Marion Call, Paul and Storm, and Molly Lewis; Science God Phil Plait; and Cylon heavy hitter and fellow Canuck Aaron Douglas. Savage's rendition of "I Will Survive" in the voice of Gollum while accompanied by a Wookiee on guitar was beyond memorable.

As for the t-shirt's sentiment, I'll conditionally agree that most books are better than their movie adaptations. Ultimately, it's a different medium thus a different narrative. For example, so many books are told in first person but movies are rarely shot that way, even if there is a first person voice-over utilized. It seems artificial to present an entire movie from a single individual's perspective whereas immersing oneself in a character while reading a book is totally natural. And I believe that the real let-down for lit-fans is that the movie manifestation of the characters/worlds they have come to love will never capture the magic of being mentally and emotionally invested the way a good book insists on. Sometimes, as in The English Patient, both the book and the movie can be incredible works of art but in totally different ways. Sometimes the only thing that ties the original literature and the adaptation together is a common title and the names of the characters and places - the musical theatre version of Wicked comes to mind here (seriously). And there are (rare) times where the film surpasses the source material. My go-to example of this is the 2005 cinematic adaptation of C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe which, while deviating in problematic places from the book in terms of character, was vastly more entertaining than the original 172 (or thereabouts) pages of Christian metaphor. Sadly, the "sexifying" of the subsequent Prince Caspian was supremely painful and I'm still haunted by the Georgia O'Keefe overtones of Aslan's sending home of the Telmarines - so wrong.

Partly wondering if anyone is reading regularly, partly to start a little discussion here: 

Question/s of the Day: What film (or television) adaptation of literary origin is, in your opinion, the best/worst of the lot? Any that I must see/avoid? Any releases coming up that are viewed with great anticipation/trepidation?

12 comments:

  1. Michael Crichton's Sphere was the worst film adaptation every. The story is resolved mainly based on the thoughts of the people involved and it is horribly handled in the film. (At least that is how I remember it, it was over 10yrs ago that I saw it).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didn't see that one and will definitely avoid it. I haven't actually read a lot of Crichton either although when I live the idle life, I plan to. Thanks, Brian!

      Delete
  2. Actually, Crichton's Andromeda Strain was a fabulous book... So was Jurassic Park. He does occasionally swing and hit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know he's a great writer. I'm pretty sure Brian was saying that the movie version of Sphere was a terrible adaptation of a good book. I remember liking the first Jurassic Park movie (in fact, through a trick of circumstance, I think I ended up seeing it at least 4 times the summer it came out) although I saw it (the first time) with people who had read the book and they had issues with it.
      There was an Andromeda Strain movie adaptation too, wasn't there? An older one? I think it was shown in one of my high school classes. The baby and the old man survive, right?

      Delete
    2. There was an older one that wasn't too bad, but they re-did it and it was awful. And yes, Jurassic Park was a great movie, but I did the old read-the-book-after-watching-the-movie thing and I felt cheated that they missed some really fantastic parts.

      And Michael Crichton is a bit like Stephen King. For every great book, there are a bunch of "What? Really? No." to go with it.

      Delete
    3. Ah. Yeah, I think it was the older one I saw but it may have only been half of the movie and I think I was at the back of the classroom and couldn't hear all that well. Not optimum circumstance for viewing. Didn't realize that they had remade it. Thanks for the warning.

      Did you know Crichton and King have a highest grossing total sales of adaptations trailing only the BIBLE?

      Delete
  3. Bah, missed that last paragraph (I blame peaches...) but there hasn't been any adaptations that didn't disappoint somewhat, and that includes Lord of the Rings. The movies were amazing, but they missed so much of the books that I felt a little let down. I had to totally remove myself from my memories of reading them a thousand times and then I was able to enjoy the movies.

    The worst, and I mean WORST adaptation of a book was Anne Rice's Exit to Eden. Couldn't say enough bad things about it. Granted the book was trite to start with, but the movie was horrific.

    And don't bother watching the film version of Andromeda Strain. Just don't.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've always argued that Fellowship of the Ring was the truest adaptation of the three Lord of the Rings books, despite the absence of Bombadil and the odd take on the Ents. Two Towers made me LITERALLY yell at the screen (re:Faramir specifically) and I watched Return of the King mainly to get it over with. Pretty much stopped associating the movies with the books by then.

      I'll sheepishly admit that I laughed a lot at Exit to Eden (might even have watched it twice) but I'd never read the book so that's my defense. I'm pretty sure that the minute they cast Rosie O'Donnell, they'd decided to take the opening weekend box office money and run.

      Like I said, I think Andromeda Strain was shown in a class in high school. Pretty sure it was a filler class. Definitely didn't make much of an impression in any case.

      Delete
  4. Starship Troopers. The book is amazing. (We have two copies. I don't think there's a third, but it wouldn't surprise me.)

    The movie, however, is a terrible soap opera/Hollywood interpretation, retaining really only the names of the main characters, a few notable sex/violence scenes, and a whisper of the story line.

    In that particular case, the book is much, much better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll have to admit I don't think I knew there WAS a book. I *think* I saw the movie. Neil Patrick Harris as the super genius at the end, right? Hmm... Considering how I tend to comment on movie suggestions, I should probably consider some giant POSSIBLE SPOILER banners...

      Delete
  5. I'm a big fan of Lee Child's "Jack Reacher" series of books. Reacher is a stoic, ex-MP who is 6'5", weighing between 210 and 250 lbs. The upcoming movie based on these books, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790724/, is starring Tom Cruise, all 5'7" and 170 lbs of him.
    Give me a break. If you've read these books, Tom Cruise is the last person in the world you would cast in this role!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hehe, Laird, I heard the exact same sentiment from a patron at the library whom I saw returning a Reacher novel. I mentioned that I'd seen a trailer for the upcoming movie and let him know that Cruise had been cast. His exact words, I believe, were,"When you have as much money and power as him, you can be many things - a samurai, a pilot, a race car driver - but YOU CANNOT BE SIX FOOT FIVE."

      Reminds me of discussing the movie Daredevil with my brother (my resident Marvel comics expert) years ago. Regarding the casting of King Pin (R.I.P. Michael Clarke Duncan), I asked "In the comics, wasn't he..." Arthur interjected with,"... WHITE? Yes."

      Delete