My thoughts on turning books into movies can be found at fellow fantasy writer Andy Remic's blog, where I've written a post called "Your Book Would Make a Good Movie! (And Why I Know It Wouldn't). While I would be happy to cash any checks Hollywood would care to write me, I tend to have a dim view of the rubberstamp tendency to turn any successful book into a film.
In other news, I'm keenly aware that I haven't produced a blog post here for over two weeks. Eek! I've been staying up late at night working on my kindle edition of Bitterwood, designing covers, troubleshooting fonts, and writing supporting copy. And, at last, it's live! Woo! Anyway, I should soon return to the regularly scheduled programming of offering assinine opinions on subjects that no-one has asked me about. I've got an idea for a further article in my "ten reasons to believe in God" series. Technically, it will the the eleventh reason, but it's a good one, maybe the best one yet, the ultimate truth of why atheism will never truly surpass theism as a way of life. So, keep checking back. This next post is going to be so good, they'll want to make a movie out of it.
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2 comments:
You know, I liked your guest post and I generally agree with respect to cross-media adaptations wherever they may rise. But I do think that you do movies a disservice in feeling like they cannot convey, in a deep or visceral way, the interior movement of their characters (or inflict that effect on their consumers). Maybe my strong disagreement with you here is just an indication that I am wired differently from you, and our strong relationships to either media is just a side effect of our prejudice.
But in a more technical and objective way, I also disagree that movies are more of a visual medium. Comics are nicely situated in the overlap between words and pictures (and I'm surprised to find you responding to the pictures more, at least while illustrating your point in the post); but movies hew much closer to our experience of the world--primarily seen and heard--while also articulated by artistic premeditation. I think movies are popular because they are naturally accessible in this way, and when done well, can sneak their impact somewhat under the radar. And the visuals.
Mr. Cavin,
I don't mean to put down movies. I think they can be a superior vehicle for many kinds of story, simply because we humans communicate through far more than words. An actors facial expressions can convey information that mere words can't reach.
In some ways, all art is defined by it's limits. Since novels don't provide the pictures, the writer must learn tricks for conveying emotions that would be instantly conveyed if the audience could simply see the characters face.
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