Let's face it. Much as we all hate to admit it, TV/Film is the dominant creative force in our lives. As Cerridwen said yesterday, much of it (especially the stuff my fiancé likes) is absolute mindless drivel. 'Chewing-gum for the brain' as my dad used to say.
It's the devil we all must dance with and it's the sign of a successful author when their work gets translated to screen. But THAT my friends is the real evil. That is the insidious little devil, tempting every bored GCSE English Lit student and tired-from-endless-essay-marking-bring-me-a-glass-of-red-wine-and-please-god-make-it-STOP English Lit teacher: THE ADAPTATION.
(Duh-duh-DUUUUUUUUUR!)
As much as TV/Hollywood adaptations enrich the lives of many, bringing stories to the book-less and sweet, sweeeeet piles of cash to the authors, they hold a clear and present danger: they are pirates of reality, hi-jacking the dominant perception of the book's narrative and the public's idea of the characters.
The best example I can give is (sorry again Ashley) Lord of the Rings. As I've already said, this series means a lot to me and I've read it many, many (many) times. I thought Peter Jackson's interpretation was pretty good on the whole. Yes, the first time I watched it in the cinema, I kept leaning over to my family and hissing, 'That doesn't happen in the books!' until they told me it was a film and either watch it or shut-up. But, in the main, the spirit was kept and Sir Ian McKellen played Gandalf close to perfect...
Close... but no cigar (well alright, it was good enough to get a cigar, but no Communist dictatorship in the Gulf of Mexico; I'm drawing a line)
Recently, as I do from time to time, I started reading my beloved LOTR books again. It was then that I noticed that every line of dialog I came across that was used by Peter Jackson, I now read exactly how it was said in the film. That bad, bad DVD box-set had wormed its way into my brain so much that I couldn't separate my reading experience from my watching; I was reading with square-eyes.
One scene sums this up for me the most: The Balrog.
Here's the scene from the film, which I'm assuming we're all familiar with:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLclk16PtE4
Now, I won't recreate the text from the book here, but when I first read it, Gandalf was understated, calm. He didn't need to shout, he was assured and passive, speaking 'You shall not pass', not shouting. Yet now when I read it he's all 'YOU SHALL NOT PASS!' (DUH DUH DUUUUUUUUH!!!!)
I prefer the calm Gandalf. Yet my brain won't let him speak. That, my friends, is the real danger of TV and Film: the sights and sounds wedge themselves in our memories and refuse to come out. They graffiti themselves over the paper page in glorious 3D technicolour until our own imaginations can't see past them.
Soon (I hope) there will be a film of Steven Hall's 'The Raw Shark Texts' (I'm really looking forward to it) - you should go out now, buy the book and read it before the screen obscures the page. (And no, I'm not going to stop mentioning this book until you have done so)
Thanks for READING