Let’s start off today’s list of linked content with another Alan Moore item. You know we have a lot of use for Alan Moore here at Homo Sum.
This is a three-part podcast interview with Moore over at the Resonance FM weekly show “I’m ready for my close up“.
I always enjoy hearing Moore talk–he’s got a great voice, once you learn to parse his accent, and he always manages a good blend of self-deprecation and deep insight.
In particular, I enjoyed his discussion of the whole question of adaptations of things from one medium to another. A lot of what he says lines up nicely with my own thoughts on the subject, but perhaps articulated with a little more clarity (and a lot more passion).
I suspect that author Jeff VanderMeer would agree with Moore about adaptations. He says:
more novels should be unfilmable. Because this speaks to what about the form cannot be replicated in other art forms.
(Let us pause for a moment to reflect on the fact that VanderMeer is making a film of his latest novel.)
This is part of a post where he points us to the Unflimable Novels list over at Screenhead.
Here’s a bit from one of their write-ups:
Catcher in the Rye
This is partly here because while reclusive author JD Salinger (pictured top) lives and breathes, this seminal novel will never go near the silver screen. In fact, each new print of Catcher in the Rye contains a hidden device that causes TVs and DVD players to explode when placed too close. But even when Salinger’s reign over his work fades, I still deem this book very difficult to adapt. It’s charm is in the adolescent thoughts of main character Holden Caufield, who acts with delightful bitterness, while secretly spotting the “phonies” all around him. It’s an incredibly difficult task to capture this in cinema without resorting to the laziness of including a voice-over.
I note that with the exception of the Marquez, I’ve read every book on their list. Apparently I like unfilmable novels. (Note also that both Joyce and Beckett are on there.)
This, of course, has me thinking about which of the novels in my collection would qualify as “unfilmable”. There’s a big post coming along later about that.
Sticking for a moment with Vandermeer, I should also point out his list of Overlooked Books from last year at Locus.
This list is particularly interesting to me as I’ve only read two of the twelve he lists, and I’m always looking for new recommendations. The first two, in particular, sound like things I should be trying to find:
#1 – The Unblemished by Conrad Williams (Earthling Publications, $45, limited edition hardcover, 367 pages)
This horrific, intense, and frightening tour de force evokes comparisons to the early prose style of Clive Barker and demonstrates a control of language comparable to M. John Harrison, among others. Williams’ honesty in his writing carries through to his portrayals of the often doomed characters. With its unwavering gaze, The Unblemished demonstrates that horror can be visceral and literary. Transgressive, unrelenting, but also oddly gentle and humane at times. You won’t be able to look away — or put it down.
#2 – The Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o (Pantheon, $30, hardcover, 766 pages)
This absurdist, capering circus of magic realism and exaggeration found on many year’s best lists for mainstream fiction has not received much attention in genre circles. It should. Set in an imaginary African country, The Wizard of the Crow features a dictator intent on building the highest tower in the world — one that reaches beyond Earth’s atmosphere — and a cabinet of ministers who outdo each other in surgical modifications. For example, the Minister of State, responsible for spying on citizens, has his ears enlarged. The opening sequence, with its summary of proposed theories for why the dictator has fallen ill, is classic. I’ve rarely read a novel so entertaining and yet so essential.
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