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Wednesday, August 13, 2008

I've Got Twelve Minutes to Make a List

So here ya go...

Five Books That Should Not Be Made Into a Movie:

1. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

2. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

3. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

4. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

5. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

7 comments:

Sven said...

wow, like most of those are being made into movies. Bummer, they're going to be horrible.

Can't wait to see 'em.

Nev said...

What's wrong with House of Leaves?

Stephanie said...

Nev, there's nothing wrong with it, but as a book one of the things that makes it so fascinating is the way that the text physically involves you, drawing you into the labyrinthine story, through the act of reading itself. I'd never say they can't do that on screen, I just don't know why they'd try.

Andi said...

Fabbbulous list! I probably would've chosen the same ones.

stu said...

A thought for the next time you feel like making lists: A list of things you could be making lists about in twelve minutes.

Anonymous said...

Nice list. Disagree with you about one of them (Life of Pi. I think it could be made into a film.)

For your next list, how about "people you need to call back?" Just a thought...

Anonymous said...

my first posting! totally disagree on the first three. I love all of those books, and I think they're incredibly difficult adaptations, but I believe they're possible. I think you just need to focus on the tone and idea of the books but let go of the details a bit when adapting them. For example, House of Leaves is very much about the physical text, but I believe there's a way to adapt that into a visual medium as well - it might mean changing the "research paper" into something else, but I believe its possible. The best adaptations from books to movies capture the essence of the books, not necessarily the details. With a visionary director/writer, I believe those first three could be amazing movie experiences. Ender's Game is just tricky because the passage of time is so important in that book, and getting that in two hours is hard. Blah blah blah, i'm done.