Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (redux)
Now reading the book, stopped exactly halfway through to read the ILX thread. Link me if you've got posts; I've seen the movie so spoilers are fine. XD
The movie script turns out to be a remix, essentially, in the fanfiction sense - a total rewrite (with Le Carre's input, apparently) of the same events, with the same characters, to make them work as a movie. As opposed to massive chunks of expository flashback seamlessly integrated with scenes of, uh, Smiley sitting about reading budget meeting minutes. Which is actually the aspect that rings (horribly) truest, as opposed to all the "two weeks later he was in Istanbul" spy exotica.
The other thing about this book is that it makes the BBC characterization of Mycroft Holmes seem a lot less fantastical. XD; MI6 runs some sort of on-campus recruitment office at Oxford, apparently, based on the ability to perform what TV Tropes calls "the Sherlock" (at any rate, everyone in the book can do it offhand, and it's clearly one of Prideaux's criteria. You see him skewing younger but Le Carre's thesis seems to be that "the Sherlock" is God's given gift to unhappy public schoolboys from broken homes, the rest is just nurture).
EDIT -- geebus I can't believe the book actually goes for the Seishun Gakuen tennis club university flashback. Like it wasn't sad enough in the movie! I can't tell if it's all meant to be overt or covert, by the way, since the contextual ruler is so farked. XD;
EDIT 2 -- OK I guess I should unpack that. It's because you get more Prideaux characterization early on in the book, due to the little kid's framing narration, and he came across like a morally upright person with no sense of humour XD so I was sitting there going, geez, this guy must've been like the Tezuka Kunimitsu of the Circus??? And then like 200 pages later, Haydon's embarrassing undergrad memorandum about how the morning after he picks up Prideaux for the first time Prideaux makes him time him for TWENTY LAPS AROUND THE FIELD. And I'm like "......"
EDIT 3 -- forgot to mention that Guillam's sexuality change in the movie is a genuine improvement on the book, because it makes the thematic point succinctly without belabouring Guillam's obsession with his Manic Pixie Dream Girl gf, which felt like [INSERT CHARACTERIZATION] and was just annoying/pointless after the first ten times he broods about her; as if Smiley obsessing over Ann wasn't enough of that. (Also, no one seems to have anything to say about Ann except that she's SUPER HAWT har har.) IIRC the costume designer of the movie talked about how according to her research, men in that milieu liked to make personal style statements, within the boundaries of their conservative middle/upper class dress code, and it seems like part of the generalization of the book is that they like artsy/hippie-ish/MPDG women as well...? Or maybe Le Carre needs to stop writing women, or learn to write them better, either way. XD Plus, the Haydon/Prideaux relationship is actually mirrored in minor ways through the book, and the movie loses that level of detail, so needs to bring it back via some other method.
(I wonder if Le Carre was having actual love life trouble while writing this? XD; Because the brooding seeps into EVERYTHING, to the point where Smiley lampshades it in his Karla story. Speaking of which, apparently Patrick Stewart plays Karla in the original BBC series but has no lines because, yanno. He just sits there. AMAZING.)
I have figured out how to add the footer on a crosspost! Go me! /rollsalot (Original post is here: http://petronia.dreamwidth.org/34864.html)
The movie script turns out to be a remix, essentially, in the fanfiction sense - a total rewrite (with Le Carre's input, apparently) of the same events, with the same characters, to make them work as a movie. As opposed to massive chunks of expository flashback seamlessly integrated with scenes of, uh, Smiley sitting about reading budget meeting minutes. Which is actually the aspect that rings (horribly) truest, as opposed to all the "two weeks later he was in Istanbul" spy exotica.
The other thing about this book is that it makes the BBC characterization of Mycroft Holmes seem a lot less fantastical. XD; MI6 runs some sort of on-campus recruitment office at Oxford, apparently, based on the ability to perform what TV Tropes calls "the Sherlock" (at any rate, everyone in the book can do it offhand, and it's clearly one of Prideaux's criteria. You see him skewing younger but Le Carre's thesis seems to be that "the Sherlock" is God's given gift to unhappy public schoolboys from broken homes, the rest is just nurture).
EDIT -- geebus I can't believe the book actually goes for the Seishun Gakuen tennis club university flashback. Like it wasn't sad enough in the movie! I can't tell if it's all meant to be overt or covert, by the way, since the contextual ruler is so farked. XD;
EDIT 2 -- OK I guess I should unpack that. It's because you get more Prideaux characterization early on in the book, due to the little kid's framing narration, and he came across like a morally upright person with no sense of humour XD so I was sitting there going, geez, this guy must've been like the Tezuka Kunimitsu of the Circus??? And then like 200 pages later, Haydon's embarrassing undergrad memorandum about how the morning after he picks up Prideaux for the first time Prideaux makes him time him for TWENTY LAPS AROUND THE FIELD. And I'm like "......"
EDIT 3 -- forgot to mention that Guillam's sexuality change in the movie is a genuine improvement on the book, because it makes the thematic point succinctly without belabouring Guillam's obsession with his Manic Pixie Dream Girl gf, which felt like [INSERT CHARACTERIZATION] and was just annoying/pointless after the first ten times he broods about her; as if Smiley obsessing over Ann wasn't enough of that. (Also, no one seems to have anything to say about Ann except that she's SUPER HAWT har har.) IIRC the costume designer of the movie talked about how according to her research, men in that milieu liked to make personal style statements, within the boundaries of their conservative middle/upper class dress code, and it seems like part of the generalization of the book is that they like artsy/hippie-ish/MPDG women as well...? Or maybe Le Carre needs to stop writing women, or learn to write them better, either way. XD Plus, the Haydon/Prideaux relationship is actually mirrored in minor ways through the book, and the movie loses that level of detail, so needs to bring it back via some other method.
(I wonder if Le Carre was having actual love life trouble while writing this? XD; Because the brooding seeps into EVERYTHING, to the point where Smiley lampshades it in his Karla story. Speaking of which, apparently Patrick Stewart plays Karla in the original BBC series but has no lines because, yanno. He just sits there. AMAZING.)
I have figured out how to add the footer on a crosspost! Go me! /rollsalot (Original post is here: http://petronia.dreamwidth.org/34864.html)