578: My fidelity.
You need as much ballast as possible to stop you from floating away; you need people around you, things going on, otherwise life is like some film where the money ran out, and there are no sets, or locations, or supporting actors, and it's just one bloke on his own staring into the camera with nothing to do and nobody to speak to, and who'd believe in this character then?
So, I've begun reading Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, with ardent enthusiasm really. As a result, I've developed a fancy for Hornby's writing style, and the fact that he ends nearly every chapter with some life-long insight that can bite the hell out of you.
Granted, I'm no thirty-something, but I can relate to the character of Rob Fleming (Rob Gordon in the film version, equally as brilliant). There's a certain cynicism, a tone of self-deprication, some past-due awkwardness that speaks to me. It's quite understandable to realize why this novel became an international bestseller.
It's fairly difficult to shut out the movie while reading the book, however, the images and ideas from the movie aren't really a bad thing to draw upon, especially as an American, since the book takes place in London and the movie takes place in Chicago. I know nothing about London. I know more about Chicago than the average Southern Californian.
Adaptations are tricky, I mean book to movie adaptations. You've really got to hope that whoever is handling the film version of a novel (or graphic novel or comic series even) is a real fan of the work.
John Cusack and the crew behind the film version of High Fidelity really loved the book, and stayed true to the spirit and ideas of the novel, only changing the locale of the story, therefore, it was a very good film adaptation.
Same with the Fight Club adaptation. I feel that the film version was a masterful adaptation of the original novel, accentuating all the things that couldn't be seen in the novel (example: the narrator's apartment becoming a 3-d version of an Ikea-esque catalogue, not only genius, but relates the message of the work in an incredible way).
Films can only go so far though. The most common complaint I've heard about book-to-film adaptations is that the film skips parts of a book. Books are brilliant for the fact that they can become as detailed as they'll ever need to be. Good films based on books don't skip vital portions of a story, but they always include the most important parts of a story.
My last little note may explain why I'm so constantly down:
(I believe this passage was in the film)
...What came first--the music or the misery? Did I listen to music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to music? Do all these records turn you into a melancholy person?
People worry about kids playing with guns, and teenagers watching violent videos; we are scared that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands--literally thousands--of songs about broken hearts and rejection and pain and misery and loss. The unhappiest people I know, romantically speaking, are the ones who like pop music the most; and I don't know whether pop music has caused this unhappiness, but I do know that they've been listening to the sad songs longer than they've been living the unhappy lives.
So, I've begun reading Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, with ardent enthusiasm really. As a result, I've developed a fancy for Hornby's writing style, and the fact that he ends nearly every chapter with some life-long insight that can bite the hell out of you.
Granted, I'm no thirty-something, but I can relate to the character of Rob Fleming (Rob Gordon in the film version, equally as brilliant). There's a certain cynicism, a tone of self-deprication, some past-due awkwardness that speaks to me. It's quite understandable to realize why this novel became an international bestseller.
It's fairly difficult to shut out the movie while reading the book, however, the images and ideas from the movie aren't really a bad thing to draw upon, especially as an American, since the book takes place in London and the movie takes place in Chicago. I know nothing about London. I know more about Chicago than the average Southern Californian.
Adaptations are tricky, I mean book to movie adaptations. You've really got to hope that whoever is handling the film version of a novel (or graphic novel or comic series even) is a real fan of the work.
John Cusack and the crew behind the film version of High Fidelity really loved the book, and stayed true to the spirit and ideas of the novel, only changing the locale of the story, therefore, it was a very good film adaptation.
Same with the Fight Club adaptation. I feel that the film version was a masterful adaptation of the original novel, accentuating all the things that couldn't be seen in the novel (example: the narrator's apartment becoming a 3-d version of an Ikea-esque catalogue, not only genius, but relates the message of the work in an incredible way).
Films can only go so far though. The most common complaint I've heard about book-to-film adaptations is that the film skips parts of a book. Books are brilliant for the fact that they can become as detailed as they'll ever need to be. Good films based on books don't skip vital portions of a story, but they always include the most important parts of a story.
My last little note may explain why I'm so constantly down:
(I believe this passage was in the film)
...What came first--the music or the misery? Did I listen to music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to music? Do all these records turn you into a melancholy person?
People worry about kids playing with guns, and teenagers watching violent videos; we are scared that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands--literally thousands--of songs about broken hearts and rejection and pain and misery and loss. The unhappiest people I know, romantically speaking, are the ones who like pop music the most; and I don't know whether pop music has caused this unhappiness, but I do know that they've been listening to the sad songs longer than they've been living the unhappy lives.