ajames

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Literature and Film

With film adaptations of novels on the rise and a consistent genre to bring in money, have authors begun to tailor their writing to aid a future screenwriter who is adapting their novel? That is, are authors sacrificing the art of language to create literary worlds in order to create a "safe" cinematic novel?

I'd agree this is happening to some authors. I'm sure new writers like myself are too worried about being accepted that they tailor their writing so it's easier to accept, in this case for screenplays. I'd say it almost goes farther than that as I commented on another article that writers are dumbing down their word play so the average reader won't lose interest. Readers and screenplay adapters alike don't want to spend a lot of time sitting there trying to figure out what it all really means, they just want to get to the end... Authors are pressured to be accessible to the less literary to maximize profit. – Slaidey 9 years ago
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I would agree that this does happen, but I do not know if it is entirely a bad thing. One example that comes to mind is the film/book My Sister's Keeper. The ending in the book changes when the plot is put to film drastically, where the opposite sister lives. I feel as if the author could have made this choice to offer her readers of the story an alternate ending, so that those who preferred the "other" sister that passed in the novel can have her live, too. – kathleensumpton 9 years ago
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I agree as well that literature's structure has changed after the arrival of film and not necessarily for the better. At least from the twentieth century onward, the majority of books are no longer full of lengthy prose and have instead become clipped or "dumbed down" for the sake of directness towards the reader. As was the case with Ernest Hemingway, writers who embody this style are more likely to be considered movie-friendly by directors and producers since their work resembles that of a screenplay and thus easier to market as a product; even at the expense of another writer's own creativity who might have preferred writing in that lengthiness if they weren't pressured to attract film prospects. – dsoumilas 9 years ago
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I do believe that is the case for present writers. they make sure to edit, rewrite or exclude from their novels, brilliant ideas. This is causing for a deterioration and standardization of novels, a.k.a "We already know how it ends". Plot twists are becoming more predictable by trying to become more unpredictable. All writers ought to remember, they are artists first. – Priskiller 9 years ago
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Yes some writers dumb down their work, but I wouldn't blame movies. I'd blame the desire to be rich and famous and "follow the heard" mentality. Some write but some just want to make money. And then there's the creative writing workshops and some of the "writers" that come out and say one should cut practically everything out of the story. Those fancy irrelevant details? Cut them out. Purple prose? Exterminate it. Keep it short and simple. And these are workshops for writers. Naturally I disagree. If that were the standard, Chaucer's books as well as the Beowulf manuscript should be burned because they're too playful with language. Clearly Dickens and Dostoyevsky are shlekht writers because they don't cut enough out of their prose. Too extravagant, too long and dull. And this attitude I've seen from fellow writers who come out of workshops. Not 100% of the time but still. I hear the underlining message. We must also remember however, we are not the Victorians whose vocabulary utilized way too many Latin-root words. One kan be artistick and still be kreativ. See what I mean. One kan still play with language. I'm doing it reight now, by changing die spelling of serten words. My main belief is it is the desire to be wealthy and the fact that we do not educate vocabulary well enough. But then again I'd rather use more stronge Germanic words, than Latin root words. I believ that secretly people want to be challenged. Not socially but linguistically. If a person complains about a book having to many big words, install on their phone Merriam Webster dictionary for them, so that way they kan't put a book down because it hath too many big and groB words. Blame not Film and Video games. They are merely other forms of telling brilliant stories. Our attentions are spread out all over the place. We have never in human history had so many fun things to doen. Books should be fun and exciting and that is a value that teachers and parents should instill in readers. – Starvix Draxon 9 years ago
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Is it a sacrifice or just a marketing decision? – T. Palomino 12 months ago
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Latest Comments

Jul 22, 2015 ajames It’s nice to know that this focuses on the writer himself rather than the mere act of writing the novel itself. Like the article points out, often the authors are somehow connected to the novels that they write. To see that this is far from the case and that writing is an art form just like anything else rather than just describing your feelings is something that film has yet to truly emphasize.	The End of The Tour: The Loneliness of the Long-Form Writer
Nov 17, 2014 ajames this is a great anaylsis!	Tangled: The Seven Standards of Disney
Nov 17, 2014 ajames this is a great psychoanalysis of Captain America, I feel that there is so much left out. You merely go through the symptoms and mention one scene and that’s it. I feel this would be a much stronger piece if perhaps you focused on one aspect and analyzed it through all his appearances?	Captain America: A Case Study in Depression