Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Twilight

I like to give my opinion, especially on things that don't particularly matter. I've noticed this topic has come up a lot lately, and the odds are you have an opinion on it to:

Now, before you try to tell me either 1) that Edward is the greatest thing ever 2) that Jacob is the greatest thing ever 3) that Twilight is the best book in the world or 4) that you hate it, let me throw something else out there:


While I have to admit that I'm curious to see how well Hollywood can transform Cedric Diggory into Edward Cullen, I must honestly say I don't love him. I don't hate him either, but I think Stephenie Meyer destroyed any chance he and I had the thirteenth time she described his smell. Seriously. But whether our beloved BYU English department polished Stephenie's writing into something worth reading isn't really something I want to talk about (though I will mention that at least half a dozen people have promised me that if I can just make it to the last quarter of the book, it gets "better." Take that for what it is).

I think the more important matter at hand here is the question of making a book into a movie. I have friends who have made hobbies out of making movies (and have attended film school, for that matter) and we've talked about it, and I think I've come to a sound opinion on the matter.

When a book becomes a movie, it ceases to be a book. If you go in to any movie theather expecting to see what you imagined, even if you're the author, you're not going to get it. Think about it: In a book, you can say something that the main character is thinking, but how on earth can you depict it as clearly on screen as the author did in the book?

There are, however, certain things movies can do that are impossible in books. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a motion picture speaks volumes. No descriptions — if any medium understands "show, don't tell," it's film.

So on Nov. 12 the world gets a new movie. Thousands of Twilight fans will hate it and thousands more will love it.

I think I'll stick to Harry Potter. I like Cedric better than Edward anyway.

4 comments:

shaneshaneshane said...

A very good point. Also, I'd say it's equally heinous to make a book out of a movie as well. They never seem to be very good.

Oh, and also video games. That's the worst ever (e.g. Doom). I hear they made a movie based on Max Payne recently with Mark E Mark. Whrrgggglllaauuggg! :S

Yeah I read like 1 page of the book (just randomly in the middle somewhere), and I couldn't handle it. I love vampires, but I guess I'm not her target reader demographic.

Jacob Divett said...

My editor here at NMSU said the problem with the Twilight series is that "Mormons don't know sh#t about vampires." Hilarious.

Jenn J. said...

Wait, you didn't actually READ a Twilight book did you?! If you did, I'm ashamed. I thought we were together on this...

Wildfire said...

Buck up, Bennetts!! I HAVE READ TWILIGHT. Yes, you read that right. I read a womans book, and am strangely addicted to it. Not in a 'wow, this is really a good book' sort of way, more of a 'please oh please oh please don't tell me this is how women really think!!! Stupid Bella!!' sort of way.