Did Baz Lurhmann’s Great Gatsby adaptation leave you feeling a little disappointed? Then consider Kate Kelsall’s short list of “utterly compelling cinematic adaptations” to be just what the doctor ordered.
“The Book Was Better.” Or Was It?
The Museum That Was Written Down
The fictional museum described by Orhan Pamuk in his novel The Museum of Innocence has been made into a real museum in Istanbul: “…the line between fiction and reality is both highlighted and blurred.” (via Book Bench)
●
●
“If Only O.J. Had Called Me”
Ever seen Henry Kissinger make eyes at a geisha? Richard Nixon ham it up at the Grand Ole Opry? Or Betty Ford (a one-time Martha Graham dancer) take a turn on the Cabinet Room table? Legendary photographer David Hume Kennerly has. His retrospective at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica just came down, but many of the best images are still up at the Frank Pictures Gallery website. Kennerly also took the somewhat notorious picture of O.J. Simpson and family with President Ford (the one O.J. was arrested for trying to steal), and for which his retrospective–“If Only O.J. Had Called Me”–was named.
●
●
Lazy Sunday
The Chronicles of Narnia ebooks are on sale on Amazon today only for $1.99 a piece.
●
●
The mind of a writer
Scientists confirmed recently that writers are more likely to struggle with mental illness (sometimes, as recently noted, due to syphilis). Since we’re so used to our alcoholic literary greats, and a smattering of suicidal ones (Plath, Woolf, Thompson, Wallace–and many more), this comes as no great surprise. On a happier note, a new study using fMRIs and MFA students has found that writers show different brain patterns than “normal people” just writing: in fact they resemble “expert” thinking patterns of all professionals doing what they’re best at–musicians, athletes, competitive Scrabble players. I don’t know if I’m happier to learn the fMRIs found no gaping black holes, or that MFAs do in fact teach you something.
●
●
2 comments:
Add Your Comment: Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
New DFW
An excerpt from David Foster Wallace‘s unfinished novel, The Pale King, appears this week in The New Yorker. It’s good.
●
●
Cockroaches in Skinny Jeans
Is that an iPod Nano? And a fixed gear bike? Uh-oh: you might have hipsters (via).
●
●
Tanenhaus—author, critic, masochist
Sam Tanenhaus, editor of the New York Times Book Review, talks to Noah Charney about his life, his work, and his taste in books. Answers are typical but insightful, with one incredibly colorful exception: Tanenhaus’s ideal workplace is bizarre. (Hint: The atmosphere falls somewhere between a nuclear fallout shelter and the kind of place you would keep a hostage and it’s nothing like where we write.)
●
●
Happy Birthday, Baldwin
Yesterday was James Baldwin’s birthday. Revisit “Stranger in the Village” or Justin Campbell’s essay on fatherhood and Baldwin in celebration of his life.
●
●
Unfortunately, no mention of Blade Runner.
It’s tempting to make comparisons between a novel and its movie adaptation, but print and film are two disparate media. Each can do what the other cannot. Each has to be taken on its own terms, with its strengths and limitations. More on that here, with examples from Kazuo Ishiguro’s ‘The Remains of the Day,’ Yann Martel’s ‘Life of Pi’ and others: http://www.praguerevue.com/#!stirring-words-moving-images-when-novels-become-movies/cug1
Speaking of ‘The Great Gatsby,’ here is Robert Towne, one of Hollywood’s most revered script writers (Chinatown, Shampoo etc) on why he steered clear of screen adaptations of Gatsby: https://twitter.com/ScottFeinberg/status/316836677664534528/photo/1