Why are all of my favorite books also movies??
I don't know, maybe you do. It's a trend I've noticed recently whenever someone asks me what book I'm reading the usual response is "Oh, I loved that movie!" So what does this say about my taste in books? Or my taste in movies? Or the film industry as a whole? The last book I finished was Little Children by Tom Perrota (movie made in 2006.) I'm currently reading American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (movie made in 2000.) Trainspotting, Jesus' Son, Watchmen, Shutter Island, Choke, Blindness, High Fidelity, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, The Road... and this list is just coming from the top shelf of my book case right now. I've even written a previous blog on my favorite book-to-movie adaptations. So what's the deal??
I'd like to start by blaming the film industry. I've long been frustrated by the amount of terrible movies coming out, mostly because of their lack of original plot. Every movie these days seems to be a sequel, or part of a series, or based on some video game/cartoon from my childhood. They're even making movies based on newspaper comic strips (Marmaduke is being made into a movie, for Christ's sake.... the one where they just show a dog running around a house and then some cute story a person sent in about their pet.) So of course, books are no exception. Instead of choosing an original script with a strange or risky plot, they choose a book that was already a best seller and just re-make that.
And no book is sacred. I've heard rumors of a movie based on Kerouac's On the Road. I may be a snob about this, but I had a very close connection to that book when I was in high school. I read it, all my friends read it, and we would talk endlessly about all of the crazy Kerouac-inspired adventures we wanted in life. It makes me sad to think that maybe the next generation won't read that book, they'll just see the movie. The movie won't get inside of them the way the book got inside of my friends and me because it'll be a two hour experience of sitting and watching, not a thought-bending lifelong experience. Of all the books I've read that are movies as well, I've maybe seen half of the film versions, but I always treasure the reading experience more.
So maybe it's the fault of the movie makers. Or maybe it's me. Or maybe both. There has to be something behind my choice, some subconscious memory of a movie I saw or wanted to see but didn't. Maybe that's it, but I really don't know. This blog has turned into a long rant about my book/movie confusion, but I think I just needed to get it out somewhere. I don't have answers to any of this, at this point I'm really just rambling. But like I said, this is a blog of questions. Let me know if you have any possible answers.
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