Books with Movies, Movies of Books

I saw the movie a week after finishing the book. They were both good. Cloud Atlas the book was layered in a very specific way and the musician was actually my favorite part. In the movie my favorite was the Sonmi story. I could tell that the movie was written to honor the book even where it was forced to change many things and leave other things out. You cannot say that about all movies from books. One does not need to read the book to get the movie but I think it helps with some confusion of moving between stories. Also it is a book worth reading particularly style-wise.

There are several books on the list that I've actually seen as movies but have not read and there are also movies I refuse to watch because I want to read the book first. All of the Jane Austen books except for Pride and Prejudice I saw a movie version first. I have also seen and not yet read A Room with a View and Howard's End. At the same time I will not watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, A Clockwork Orange, or Norwegian Wood until I have made my way through the covers of those books.

Personally I prefer to leave a bit of time between the books and the movies or I spend the whole movie trying to figure out what was taken out or changed. I actually also just finished Wicked by Gregory Maguire which is now a musical. Despite living in Chicago for six years I never saw the musical. Mostly because tickets are expensive and student giveaways always went too fast. I liked Wicked except for the ending of course and it made me wonder what was in the musical.

I actually have spent a lot of time lately re-reading old favorites. Some of which would make good movies and some of which would be impossible. When books are more internalized and less action/interaction based it makes for poor visuals. I think the reason that the movies of Dune by Frank Herbert was never captured well despite much action was because the magic of the story was in the minds of the characters not in their actions. Dune is a thinking book, actions matter because of the motivations and knowledge of each character.

Fall feels like one of those comforting times of year (if no disaster leans upon you) where you lean on those old favorites. For me the new year is for great Russian novels, the spring for contemporary fiction and non-fiction, summer for YA, and the holidays for dark personal novels.

At Sea

I fear I will have to leave science fiction until it is relevant again because it was weeks ago and I have forgotten what I meant to say.

I have just started reading Cloud Atlas. My sister found the movie previews interesting and researched it. Once she found out it was a book she decided to read it before the movie and SURPRISE, it is also on The List. After finishing it herself she handed it over to me, continuously asking how far I've gotten.

The first chapter is the journal of a man sailing in the south Pacific/New Zealand area in what seems to be the turn of the last century. I have to confess that I love books about being at sea and sailing. I like the idea of seeing water from one horizon to the next. Though I doubt I would be very seaworthy it is a secret dream of mine to live on a boat for at least six months.

Some of the books I've read that have increased my longing for the sea:

Sailing Alone around the World by Joshua Slocum
Troubling a Star by Madeleine L'Engle
The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (though not the ideal situation)
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
Odyssey by Homer

There is something about the unknowns of the ocean that make it majestic. For many of the books/characters it is a liminal place outside of normal society and a betwixt one stage of life and another. Some people find themselves at sea and others loose themselves.

I have a fascination with its vastness, with seeing nothing but the horizon. The great lakes can hold a similar feeling and it was often more calming to stare out across Lake Michigan than any other activity when living in the windy city. I think I have been spoiled by the vast Texas sky and can't help but look for that vastness in other places. Another reason I like travel by sea tales is the guidance of the stars. To be so far away from shore and see every possible star to the naked eye from one horizon to the opposite. That is something I wish to see.

It kind of amazes me that many minds do not wander so far and most books stay on level land. That is probably because of the liminality factor, though maybe I am just not looking in the right places.
I was quite jealous of a blogger I read, Joy the Baker, when she described a trip on a oyster dredging schooner in Maine. Its at least good to know that kind of thing exists.

Current Reading:
On List: Cloud Atlas by David Michell
Walden, or Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau

Off: The Origins of the Modern World by Robert B. Marks

On hold: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Manners and Mischief Edited by Laura Miller
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert