The foetid taint of Hollywood
Why does Hollywood have to taint everything good?
I mean, if they’re going to screw up Radio Free Albemuth, and apparently VALIS as well, (both of which I am fairly sure are unfilmable without dramatically transforming the work, and not for the better), what is safe?
(Maybe I’m being cynical, although Dick’s history in Hollywood supports me. And “very close in spirit to the original” scares me more than it reassures me.)
I’m almost afraid to make a list of books that are special to me that I think are safe from the predations of the Option Monster, just for fear that I’d be somehow “jinxing” those works.
Christ, imagine what would happen if the “we need more epic multi-book fantasy series to make us billions a la Lord of the Rings and His Dark Materials” line of thinking lead to Wolfe’s New Sun books. Or Crowley’s Aegypt books?
Tags: adaptations,Books,movies,PKD
Ben
November 1st, 2007 at 12:26 am
The worst that would happen is that there would be bad movie versions of those books. Which would, themselves, still exist.
November 1st, 2007 at 12:39 am
Would that that were true.
There is also a question of public perception.
If I tell someone I like X, and they think of the horrible movie version of X, then I have failed to communicate, and probably created a really false impression of my level of critical faculty. Even if I explain that “the book was better”, the negative bias is already set. This is particularly important for works in genre or media that already deal with some level of stigma or stereotyping. I’m really tired of being annoyed by that.
I’m tired of having to say the book was better. I’m tired of having to say “You think that had a lot of layers? That whole movie was based on a 26-page short story, not a novel, and the story had several more layers.” I’m tired of saying “I don’t even know why they paid, since the movie has almost nothing to do with the source material.”
And most of all, I’m tired of losing my markers for cool people. Right now if I hear someone who says something like “God is a pink laser” or “We’re still living in the Black Iron Prison” or “George W. Bush might as well just change his name to Ferris F. Freemont” or whatever, I know something about that person. After the movie comes out, I don’t. Two years ago if I saw someone with a Guy Fawkes mask as a costume, or an avatar, or whatever, I knew something about them. Now I don’t.
Mostly though, I am a cranky old man who hates the necessary result of the differing economics of books and movies.
November 1st, 2007 at 4:54 pm
I used to feel like that. Then I learned to accept that I am largely powerless to change any of this, and that, if I choose to rant, it makes me feel better only in the short term and does not affect Hollywood’s thinking or decision-making process one jot. They will continue to adapt books to film because: a) it’s cheap; b) it’s corporate synergy; and/or c) people in Hollywood read books, too. And those movies, by and large, will continue to suck because: a) they’re cheap; b) corporate synergy sucks; and/or c) the people with the purse strings probably have not read the books. Or simply because adaptation is really hard, even when those doing it have the best of intentions, doubly hard when there are so many cooks involved in the broth.
Which is not to say that Hollywood adaptations are not more often bad than good — and often predictably bad — or that bad adaptations should not be discouraged. Just that life’s too short to keep getting irritated over it.
I just think hoping that Hollywood will stop making bad movies is a losing battle, is all.
November 3rd, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Aw, you’re just cranky because they’re stealing your subculture and making hay with it. What’s the point of feeling good about feeling different when Hollywood is a giant Regression-to-the-Mean-Machine?
Don’t worry, it’ll pass. You’re still special.
November 3rd, 2007 at 3:05 pm
God, I just realized how terrible that comment could sound. I’m sorry.
By special please read “amazing and unique.” Even if they mash your cultural identifiers into porridge.
November 3rd, 2007 at 8:13 pm
I don’t mind money being made of my various subcultures. Although I like it to be discreet.
I just hate the dilution of the subcultures (and associated identifiers) in order to use them to make money from everyone else.
But then I’m in just feeling dubhach agus duairc generally.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:33 am
[...] list. Other favourites that leap to mind (besides Wolfe and Crowley, the ones already mentioned in past grumping) include Valis, Mindplayers, and The Collector Collector5–but I hear at least one of those is [...]