Is the screen the word?

A new James Bond film is always the source of great excitement around the world and next Monday (26th October) that excitement reaches fever pitch with the launch of the latest instalment. With over a billion dollars taken for 'Skyfall' the expectation is high, but also the chances of disappointment too. Will 'Spectre' be as good? Will it take as much money and other such inane questions. The point is that Daniel Craig is in it, it has a new Aston Martin, there will be girls, fights and ultimately James Bond will save the world. When Ian Fleming sat down at his typewriter in 1952 to create the ultimate spy can he ever have imagined things would go so far?

With all this hype, and I am a Bond fan, it got me wondering about other books turned into films and the impact that the film has on a book's readership. When Harry Potter reached the cinema he already had legions of fans. My son and stepson feel that the films have never reached the levels of the books and openly scorn many of the scenes. The fans of '50 Shades of Grey' (all right calm down, they do exist) universally felt that the film wasn't better than the book - definitely damned in all circles there then. However, other films have found fans of the film rather than the book. Many whom have seen the 'Lord of the Rings' series ('The Hobbit included) have preferred the films to the books. Tolkien's wordy style does seem rather old-fashioned when viewed 60 years or so since their publication, although I still love the books and the films. 

The most filmed of all literary characters, Sherlock Holmes, has undergone great reboots with both the Benedict Cumberbatch and Robert Downey Jr creations attracting new audiences, but again I wonder how many turn to the source material? Shakespeare never goes out of fashion, but here I do think that people study the texts, whether as an academic exercise or for their pleasure.

Whatever the case I think it is clear that a film can breath new life into a book and that, hopefully, will encourage a viewer to become more of a reader. After I had watched 'The Notebook' I had to read the book and found the film to be better. Many years ago when I saw 'Roots' on television I also had the desire to read the book. The tv series was much better than the book, although Alex Haley's text is also of top quality. Another series I feel that are better than the original books are the Bourne series; a series so good that it forced the producers of Bond to up their game. The Inspector Morse books don't match up to the majesty of John Thaw's interpretation either - infact I didn't like Morse much as a character on the page, but I love the TV version.

All of which leads me to the question asked by fans of books and film versions of characters. Which is better? Your own imagination, aided by the author, or what you see on the screen in a cinema or at home? Usually I have heard that the book will 'always' be better than the film (or TV version). I would dispute that, as my examples have shown, but a lot of time this is true. It is the level of character development that a book can provide that makes the book the winner in most cases. It is also true that without the book the film would never have been made, In the case of 'Lord of the Rings' the books were so rich in imagery that it took the film industry 50 years to catch up before they could be effectively tackled. The cartoon version was rubbish. 

Which brings me to the end of this little discussion, but I hope it encourages you want to add your voice as well, which you can do in the comments below. I'd love to know which books you think are better than the films or the other way round and also, which books have been filmed that should never have been touched at all? 

Yours literally

Andy Gibney

@andygibneystwitter

www.underthefable.com

Have something to say?  Please comment below, all feedback welcome.

When magic pours into your eyes

What is it about the magic of books? Those of us who love them find ourselves transported to imaginary lands, we get inside people’s heads and they get inside ours. We learn from them, we are fascinated by them, those of us who are true book geeks love the feel of certain books and others are so a part of us that they are like old friends.

Where does your book love come from? A couple of weeks ago I was talking about the Ladybird books story. Since then I’ve bought 7 of them from a local bookshop; they range in age from 1956 to 1973 and what is surprising is the quality of these books. Not just the quality of the secondhand copies that I bought, but the quality of the writing and the quality of the artwork. As I browsed through my new/old purchases something magical happened; memories were stirred. Memories so real and yet not thought of for many, many years. One of the books was on cowboys and I remembered a cowboy toy I had as a child, not a Woody from ‘Toy Story’, but an Action man like figure and what reminded me of this was one picture in the Ladybird book. It was a book that I had devoured as a child and now, more than 40 years later, I was transported back in time. It took me totally by surprise.

It has continued. I remembered reading ‘Lord of the Rings’ when I worked in warehouses in the early 1980’s; I remembered sitting on a train in London reading James Clavell’s ‘Shogun’; another memory was laughing out loud on a tube train to Bill Cosby’s book on fatherhood. Or reading ‘Watch My Back’ by Geoff Thompson and thinking I couldn’t keep reading this as I had to go back to work, then realising I was self-employed and now reading was part of ‘work’.

At the moment I’m reading ‘Careless Love’ the second part of Peter Guralnick’s masterpiece on the life of Elvis Presley and I’m reminded of Jerry Hopkins biography that I read as a child so much that the spine fell off. Books, books and more books. I thumb through my shelves and see the works of Ian Fleming, Malcom Gladwell, William Shakespeare and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I see my friend’s books: ‘Madam’ by Becky Adams, ‘The Botty Rules’ by Nigel Botterill, ‘The Battersea Park Road to Enlightenment’ by Isabel Losada and I am reminded that every one of these encouraged me to become a writer. To let my words flow from my head and onto a piece of paper that someone, somewhere would be just like me. Moved by the written word, to think “I can do this, I can write a book.” I might not be Stephen King or Dan Brown or Carlos Castenada, but my words might move someone, might affect someone, might make them laugh or make them cry.

Words are all we have and yet they are everything we need. Read more, write more, express yourself more and do it through the love of the written word.

Yours lovingly

Andy Gibney

@andygibneystwitter

www.underthefable.com

Have something to say?  Please comment below, all feedback welcome.