From Page to Screen

Posted by Laura L. Johnson Jun 9, 2008

According to IMDB, here are a few of the movies slated to be released in the next 3 years:

• Stargirl
• Uglies
• A Great and Terrible Beauty
• Twilight

Certainly, this is good news for the genre, and the authors. Many people who have not even heard of these books will go out and see the movies. Perhaps they will then discover the story first flourished in book form and decide to rush to their local bookstore, or, better yet, local library, and pick up a copy, to discover for themselves the magic of these worlds.

But what about the stories. Does it really matter how the ideas and plot lines of these authors get out, as long as they are being heard? I would argue yes. The authors do not write the screenplays. While most are consulted in the process, it is still not their vision - not their precise building of a scene. And no, dropping poignant quotations from the book does not make the author's intended message more clear, it just makes it more trite, and less meaningless when not in context.

So what can we do about this? Not much, I'm afraid. In fact, even as you are reading this and may find yourself nodding in agreeance, you still, somewhere deep in side probably may be saying "I think i want to see that one, though!" I'll probably give in and go see them too - these stories have touched and changed my life. I can find. So even though i feel like I'm "giving in," I find solace in the fact that, at the end of the day, I'm still going to run to my local library the day they get a new adventure, and fall in love all over again with words - not CGI animation.