J-Plod
Since finishing David Mitchell's 'Cloud Atlas' (Which I was reading most of the time I was in Canada, but kind of stopped when I got back), I've been at something of a literary loose end. On Friday, needing something to read while I ate, so as to avoid looking like a loser (and because I like reading in restaurants and coffee shops), I had a look around Galloway & Porter, a pretty excellent second-hand book store. After considering the books on maths and physics, I remembered that I'd been talking to a girl on OKCupid about Douglas Coupland, and since I haven't read anything of his since 'Girlfriend in a Coma', I figured I'd give JPod a shot, being as it is a novel set in the games industry. I finished it two days later, on Sunday evening. It was kind of awesome.
On learning there was a TV series of it, of course, I had to download it and watch it. I watched the first episode earlier; considering how much I liked the book, I'll probably end up watching the whole series, but it was not very good. The dialogue is closer to Will & Grace than it is to Coupland's pithy writing, and it seems to take too many liberties with the source material. I guess it's unavoidable that things would be changed, but the changes seem to have been done in such a way as to miss the original point by as much as possible; A character has been axed (for no good reason, that I can tell), the characters that did make the cut seem to be enthusiastic about their work (The antithesis of how things are in the novel), and there's a definite undercurrent of moralising, whereas the book revelled in its amorality. Apparently, Coupland was involved with the series, at least in part. I wonder how much say he had in it.
On learning there was a TV series of it, of course, I had to download it and watch it. I watched the first episode earlier; considering how much I liked the book, I'll probably end up watching the whole series, but it was not very good. The dialogue is closer to Will & Grace than it is to Coupland's pithy writing, and it seems to take too many liberties with the source material. I guess it's unavoidable that things would be changed, but the changes seem to have been done in such a way as to miss the original point by as much as possible; A character has been axed (for no good reason, that I can tell), the characters that did make the cut seem to be enthusiastic about their work (The antithesis of how things are in the novel), and there's a definite undercurrent of moralising, whereas the book revelled in its amorality. Apparently, Coupland was involved with the series, at least in part. I wonder how much say he had in it.