iatakpa

Contributing writer for The Artifice.

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    Latest Topics

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    literature
    bestselling novels
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    Do bestselling novels stifle author creativity?

    Something I've been thinking about lately is how competitive getting published is. Novelists who want to write a "less accessible" kind of story may find themselves struggling with finding an audience, or even an interested agent. Meanwhile, the list of national bestsellers is filled with novels that, generally, play it safe. For instance, The Girl on the Train is regarded in its promotional material as another Gone Girl. Would the former have been written the way it was or even be written at all if the latter didn't precede it? Are the heavily publicized novels becoming too homogeneous? And how is this reflected across genres?

    • I think that wanting to be a bestselling author can stifle you. The more you have to consider your audience and your books acceptance the more you are going to deviate from your true story. Then again, maybe if you are a really good author maybe you can still find a way to push boundaries and yet be accepted? And the will these copy cat safe best sellers even stand the test of time? I'm probably getting too far off topic now... – Tatijana 9 years ago
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    • While this point of view may be naive, I do think that good stories will get written and distributed to readers who are interested, with the right marketing of course. However, I do think in some genres, such as mystery, it can be easy to want to closely imitate the tropes or signature twists of particular authors. I would make sure to do a lot of research about marketing and sales when writing that topic so that any expressed opinions are well informed. – mmg1995 9 years ago
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    • We shouldn't forget that published literature is an industry. I think that when an author's book is promoted as similar to another's, it's a way to ride off of a success that's already been attained. If they are genuinely similar, couldn't it be a case of people trying to take formulaic approaches to novels in order to make bank? The need to make a living affecting the quality of the product? On the other hand, what about writers (who are usually avid readers) being inspired by popular novels? It follows that something that becomes popular is more likely to influence people. – DapperHologram 9 years ago
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    • This is a very interesting topic! But I think like most mediums, most things cannot stand "on their own" and instead have to be reflections of something earlier. It's unfortunate but I think there can be some useful scholarship concerning it. – aykaykay3 9 years ago
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    Latest Comments

    Nov 6, 2015
    iatakpa

    Ultimately, you’re dealing with two different mediums that require entirely different tool sets to achieve their objectives (telling a story). It’s easy to gripe about how a long section of a novel was reduced to montage or how certain plot elements were cut, but oftentimes it’s that pragmatic editing that reveals to us what is a flawed novel, overblown with plot. That’s not to say this is the case with every adaptation, but in the interest of transferring the main narrative of a work of fiction onto film, concessions are inevitable. With every adaptation, it requires a viewer who understands narrative structure in both film and literature and who understands the “why” aspect regarding changes from one to another (and whether those changes are legitimate in the interest of a film on the terms of a film).

    		 How 'By the Book' Should Literary Adaptations Be?
    Nov 6, 2015
    iatakpa

    I wonder, though, if we could isolate any examples where the music works against the film. Every film’s score adds another dimension to the work as a whole, but it’s only the well-scored films that remain in our memory after the end credits roll and that truly give greater impact to the image. Is it possible that the dichotomy between picture and sound can be great enough that there isn’t an enhancements, but a detraction from the overall experience?

    		 The Big Score: Music in Film (2015)
    Nov 6, 2015
    iatakpa

    One proof for the continuing indelibly of the novel is its conversation with other forms of media, particularly film. There’s a perception that the novel, print media in particular, is dying yet we see countless adaptations of these novels into highly popular films and TV shows every year. Especially with teen fiction. The novels from which other media are created achieve acclaim by their merits as literature before adaptations; and these adaptations drive increased book sales. Harry Potter, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and Game of Thrones all belong to this category. While it often seems that literature is being lost amidst the plethora of emergent new media, the relationship between all entertainment art forms guaranteed that none of them “dies” as it were.

    		 Is the Novel Dead?