Reading the book or seeing the movie first?

The Time Traveler’s Wife is coming out and I really want to see the movie. However, as an avid reader, I also want to read the book. My concern is which I should do first: see the movie or read the book. For me doing both is not a problem. The problem is while I prefer to have read the book before the movie; it makes me enjoy the movie less.

I love reading. To me, what makes a good story is when I see the movie play out in my head as I devour each word. I cast characters. I envision locations. I do everything that movie producers do, but in my head. Then, when I go to see the movie I always try to prepare myself. One, I know that the story, in plot and dialogue, will not be told exactly as in the book. Two, the characters will most definitely not look as I have envisioned them. Three, the scenes or moments that I think are critical will not be the same ones the writers and directors see as critical and therefore included in the film. And so on, and so on…

But even with all of my preparations the best reaction I have had to date is, “It wasn’t the fiasco I was expecting (Twilight, Stephenie Meyer).” The worst reaction I have had was, “That was such a horrible adaptation it makes me not want to read the writer again (Needful Things, Stephen King)." But there are some adaptations that differ from the books on which they are based but are still very good. The example for this is the Trueblood series on HBO based on the Southern Vampire series or Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris.

After watching the first season I proceeded to buy and read all of the books she has written. While my feelings about the books actually fluctuate (some I love and some I read just to get to the next one) so far, I do love the TV show better.

And maybe that’s the secret. Part of the problem of adapting a novel into a movie is that you have to force the story into something that’s told in roughly 110 minutes. Therefore many of the small subtleties are left out or butchered. Whereas with television, you have at least twelve to thirteen sixty-minute episodes over which to tell the story on HBO and other pay channels; on network TV you usually have a minimum of twenty episodes.

Well, I guess the verdict is when the adaptation is a movie, watch the movie first to minimize disappointment. If the adaptation is a television series, reading the book first is safe.

Sharolyn

Are there any real Geeks left anymore?

The movie Fanboys opened in theaters February 6th. Now, it didn’t break any box office records; and most people have probably not even heard of it. The reason I talk about it is because the movie was made. There have been lots of movies about geeks in the past, but this one is like a celebration of all that is geekdom.

I remember when being a geek was something you tried to hide from your friends and relatives. As one that spent most of high school in the outcast protection program I remember passing others that were living a double life like me in the halls and secretly signaling to one another about Star Trek, or Quantum Leap, Comics or Japanese Anime. Yes, it was a difficult existence, but at least you could trust your fellow geeks to be authentic.


Now that fanboys has become an actual word listed in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, what does it mean? Are geeks, nerds, and the other formerly socially unaccepted finding a sort of acceptance through their ostracism? I know that this makes life easier for the younger generation of geeks that follow me; and I definitely want them to thrive and continue. But, when you get an officially recognized name in Webster’s and a Movie, is that the beginning of the end.

Lynn