April | 2013 | Guy Portman's Blog

Movie Adaptations of Books

Apr 25 2013

This week’s blog post is about books that inspired great films and others that perhaps should have remained in print form only. Of course this is a highly subjective matter and these are merely suggestions on my part.

Books that made great films

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

Book Synopsis: Every Sunday during the early hours men congregate to fight one-on-one in basements and car lots. These disenfranchised young men were brought up with absent fathers and fed on a diet of mass media that led them to believe they would be superstars.

The Film: Released in 1999, the film starred Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter. Fight Club was nothing if not controversial and the the critics loved and hated it in equal measure.

Summary: There is no doubt that Chuck Palahniuk’s dark, menacing, brutal and nihilistic creation was not to all readers liking. However there are few films that have kept so closely to the book that inspired them. The screen writer’s job must have consisted of little more than some cutting and pasting.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Book Synopsis: As we all know the story the book is about an island off Costa Rica, where a billionaire philanthropist and a small team of scientists have created a wildlife park of cloned dinosaurs, which end up running amok. Did I mention it’s fiction.

The Film: Directed by Steven Spielberg, Jurassic Park was a landmark with regards the use of computer generated imagery. It was also the highest grossing film in history at the time.

Summary: Crichton’s imaginative and suspense filled tale was perfect for adaptation and so it proved with Spielberg wielding the genius and the financial backing to make it a reality. The sequel The Lost World was a great success too, but then lamentably came Jurassic Park 3 and 4, both abject straight to DVD B movie atrocities.

The Shining by Stephen King

Book Synopsis: The ill-tempered Jack, his wife Wendy and young son Danny move to an isolated resort, the Overlook Hotel, where Jack has taken a job as a winter caretaker. But paranormal activities that involve telepathy and possession result in disaster.

The Film: Directed by the iconic Stanley Kubrick, the film was not initially well received having been criticised by many as deviating from the book. However over time the slow moving film has been widely accepted as a masterpiece.

Summary: The image of the crazed Jack Nicholson peering through the partially open door is one of the most memorable film shots of all time. However author Stephen King remains unhappy with Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining to this day. What can I say other than to praise it, after all criticising Kubrick would be an act of hubris.

Books that perhaps should have stayed in print form

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Book Synopsis: As we all know the book follows the quest of Bilbo Baggins, beginning in the Shire and culminating in The Battle of Five Armies. Ultimately it can be viewed as a book about the development of the protagonist’s character.

The Film: Directed by Peter Jackson the film is the prequel to The Lord of The Rings trilogy. A number of characters reprise their roles from the earlier films.

Summary: Many have deemed it questionable why after three great films we really need this fourth instalment, a case of milking the cow to death perhaps. The book moves at a slower pace than The Lord of The Rings trilogy and lends itself less easily to film than the first three. And then there’s the issue of reprising the roles of Hollywood stars Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett and Elijah Wood, even though their characters do not even appear in The Hobbit. Did I mention it’s 169 minutes long.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S.Thompson

Book Synopsis: The book, which is partially autobiographical in nature, follows protagonist Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr.Gonzo to Las Vegas, where they discuss the 1960s counterculture, whilst indulging in a dizzying array of drugs.

The Film: Directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Hollywood heartthrob Johnny Depp, the film was a disaster at the box office. However over time it has become something of a cult classic.

Summary: Hunter S.Thompson voiced concerns about a movie adaptation of the book. After all Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is not a plot based story and there is no doubt that personal hallucinatory experiences do not lend themselves easily to film. There is also the fact that many viewers struggled to empathise with a character who insisted on taking large quantities of drugs at every opportunity. Personally I enjoyed it but the book is much better.

The Informers by Brett Easton Ellis

Book Synopsis: The Informers are a collection of short stories set during the decadent 1980s. The author attempts to link these stories together with the same continuity. In typical Ellis fashion the characters are mostly vapid, shallow and obsessed with image and consumption. The book can be viewed as a commentary about the decline of society.

The Film: The 2008 film saw a star studded cast acting out the mostly soulless characters from the book. There was Winona Ryder, Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke, Billy Bob Thornton and the list goes on.

Summary: Short stories involving numerous mostly vapid characters was never going to be easy to film and so it proved. The film was lambasted by the critics and viewers alike as being tedious, tepid and a disgrace to cinema. But this was not Brett Easton Ellis’s fault okay. I stress again he was innocent and can take no responsibility for how the film came out.

Twitter Authors (Part 2)

Apr 19 2013

In last week’s Blog Post I evaluated how effective it is in a congested market place for authors to be sending out blanket promotional book Tweets, especially if those Tweets are only being read, if at all, by other authors. Today’s post, a continuation on this theme, will take the form of making generalisations about the actual composition of these Tweets and commenting on their effectiveness.

The following is a simple breakdown of some of the types of Tweets that authors use to promote their book/s, along with some commentary on how effective I perceive the given method to be.

Hyperactive Hash-tagging # – I discuss authors’ embrace of the # so often in my blog posts that it is evident that I am becoming somewhat obsessed by the subject. Authors often utilise this useful Twitter feature so that people searching under that #-tagged term will come across their book. In most instances one or two #’s are inserted, but there have been instances of up to nine recorded in a single Tweet.

Comment – The # symbol is an invaluable feature when used wisely, but surely I am not alone when I ask myself if there is any value in instances like #Book or #Fiction. Do potential readers really search under this term, see your book and then go ‘Yes please’ before pressing the buy button. Surely not. And then there’s the list, e.g. #paranormal #erotica #vampires #darkness #night #mystical etc etc. One might argue that a Tweet gives an author a short window of opportunity to showcase their writing and that a long list of # tagged items is hardly an imaginative or intriguing use of syntax.

Grandiose Claim – This is when authors Tweet statements like, ‘Award Winning’ and ‘BEST SELLER!’. In many instances the author embraces capitalisation and exclamation marks in these Tweets.

Comment: Why not. After all no-one else is going to sing your praises and in many instances these Tweets seem perfectly valid. Take the self-published Only The Innocent by Rachel Abbott for example. The book was selling several thousand copies a day for months on end. However there is nothing in this world if not by comparison and it is evident that the same applies in the Twitter sphere. For examples abound when the BEST SELLER! label on closer inspection transpires to be merely a best-seller in a very small category on Amazon. Does a book ranked number 4 out of a total of 5 books in the Transgendered Retro Vampire category really justify a best-seller claim?

Aggressive Pitches – e.g. BEST BOOK SINCE THE BIBLE – BUY NOW!!! (link) or less imaginatively – GET YOUR COPY NOW! or something of that nature. This method is also often combined with the ‘Grandiose Claim’ method (see above).

Comment: The best adverts on the television are well thought out, directed at the right audience and above all memorable. However even these adverts don’t always persuade us to buy the product. So what are the chances of an unknown author successfully selling books by demanding potential readers to buy with no pitch whatsoever. Not great one would imagine.

Dialogue – This is what Twitter was set up for after all, as a way to converse with our fellow humanity without even having to move from the comfort of our desk or to get out of our pyjamas.

Comment: Personally, with the exception of a couple of instances I have only sold books on Twitter through the ‘Dialogue’ method. As it is only when people get to know the author that they become interested enough to buy the author’s book/s. It seems apparent from liaising with other authors who have successfully used Social Media that this is generally how they have also sold books through this medium, unless of course they were already famous to begin with.

What happens when Adrian, an actuary, has his banal and predictable existence turned upside down by sinister forces that he can neither understand nor control? How will he react to a revelation that leaves his life in turmoil? Will he surrender or strive for redemption in an altered world, where rationality, scientific logic and algorithms no longer provide the answers?

‘An insightful and humorous tale of the unexpected’ – Reader

‘A sardonic delight. If Thackeray had lived in the 21st century, then he might have written Charles Middleworth.’ – Reader

Charles Middleworth is available through most regional Amazons on Kindle (£1.96/$3.17) and in paperback.

United Kingdom – www.amazon.co.uk

USA – www.amazon.com

Twitter Authors

Apr 12 2013

Today during an idle hour spent on Twitter, I noted that a higher percentage than ever of my Twitter feed consisted of book promotion Tweets. As an author myself this comes as no real surprise, as many authors follow me and vice versa. But the question must be asked, is it really effective in a congested market place to be sending out blanket promotional book Tweets, especially if those Tweets are only being read, if at all, by other authors. I have already devoted previous posts to how authors use Twitter, but today I’ll be making generalisations about the actual composition of the Tweets and commenting on their effectiveness.

Of course there are famous authors who have embraced Twitter, Brett Easton Ellis being a prominent example. These authors can Tweet about anything, even their choice of sandwich filling at lunch, as whatever they Tweet their Twitter disciples will lap up eagerly. Some of these followers may even find themselves wondering if the sandwich filling related Tweet is perhaps a comment about post-modernism or global warming. And then there are the rest of us authors, myself included, struggling for visibility in the book promotion saturated world that is Twitter.

The following is a simple breakdown of the types of Tweets that authors use to promote their book/s, along with some commentary on how effective I perceive the given method to be.

Repetitive Repetition – The practice of sending out book promotion Tweets 24/7, 7 days a week. In severe instances several hundred times per day. The rationale being that if you drive the message home and do it often enough, people will buy your books.

Comment: There may be instances where this method has worked, but more often than not it appears to be akin to a dog chasing its own tail – just because it keeps doing it doesn’t mean it will ever catch it.

The Spin Dryer – An author sends out their book promotion Tweet/s along with Tweets promoting other authors’ books. This in turn leads to those authors RT’ing that author’s book promotion Tweet and so the cycle continues, with the book promotion Tweet getting exposure to a wider and wider audience, as it continues to be RT’d.

Comment: As one requires exposure to become well known, it is evident that this method is a logical way of putting your product in front of as many of Twitter’s 140m users as possible. However in the majority of cases these book promotion Tweets appear to be RT’d by other authors, whose Followers also consist largely of authors, not the target readership for the given book. Another case of the dog chasing its own tail perhaps.

The Sandwich – This is the method in which an author sandwiches their promotional Tweet/s between non-promotional Tweets (i.e. quotes/links etc) as if it were a slice of cheese or ham.

Comment: If new/non-famous authors are to be welcomed in the Twitter sphere they need to be accepted as communicative/interesting people and not merely narcissists, who discuss only their own work. Thus the sandwiching method is embraced by nearly all authors on Twitter though there are some exceptions.

The Snippet – This is a much practiced method in which authors utilise the 140 character limit to insert quotes from their books.

Comment: These can be memorable and in some instances amusing, but there are many examples where they are not. Here is a slightly altered one that I read last month – ‘… and he reached into the drawer, took out a red pen, took off the top and begun writing on the piece of paper on the desk.’ And one is left asking, Why?

I also use this method to promote my book, Charles Middleworth, a humorous tale of the unexpected. Here are two examples from Charles Middleworth:

‘Well if being related by internet marriage is family, I suppose we are.’

And

‘…her skills more akin to the baking of macaroons than solving the complexities of the universe.’

Click here to read part 2.

‘An insightful and humorous tale of the unexpected’ – Reader

‘A sardonic delight. If Thackeray had lived in the 21st century, then he might have written Charles Middleworth.’ – Reader

Charles Middleworth is available through most regional Amazons on Kindle (£1.96/$3.17) and in paperback.

United Kingdom – www.amazon.co.uk

USA – www.amazon.com

Death of the Browsing Shop

Apr 05 2013

Most writers, myself included, spend a great deal of their time in solitary confinement, either writing or finding an excuse not to write, reading being a particular favourite, in addition to surfing the internet, watching television or on occasion going outside to walk or to pay a visit to the shops. The other morning having spent many hours at my desk working on various writing assignments, I was eager to have a break and go outside.

Unfortunately London is about as warm and inviting as Siberia at the moment, so I decided to spend some time browsing in local shops. First up was Blockbuster, the film and game retail behemoth, where one can wander contentedly down the heated aisles, occasionally inspecting a DVD or game one might be interested in buying, before going home and purchasing the given item on the internet. Unfortunately the chain has gone bankrupt and the various stores have been hurriedly selling off their stock. Today it is evident that the sale is now over, as Blockbuster is boarded up and I find myself traipsing on, in the direction of the mall.

On arrival I head eagerly to one of my favourite haunts, HMV, forgetting of course that the film/music/game retailer has gone bankrupt and that this store has also closed since my last visit the week before. Loitering outside the empty shell that had been HMV, my gaze falls on Metro Bank directly opposite me and I find myself reminiscing on the time when it had been a two floor Borders book shop, where many idle hours had been wiled away, browsing contentedly amongst its various sections.

And then I’m heading further into the interior of the mall, turning my head in both directions as I search for browsing opportunities. In no time at all I’m at the far end of the mall in the supermarket, browsing cheddar cheeses and washing-up liquids.

Having grown weary of this irksome activity I begin my return trip through the mall before turning right into Starbucks, where I discover that even this omnipresent has not been unaffected by the changes all around. The cafe was revamped the week before, it is more severe than in its previous incarnation and now resembles a laboratory, with less seats and bright lighting that leaves one feeling naked and exposed, an environment that encourages one to purchase a coffee and vacate the premises immediately.

Having spent a total of four minutes in the mall, I find myself outside again, clasping a grande mocha in one hand, heading through the bitter cold towards the park, hoping that this too hasn’t been deemed surplus to requirements and replaced with flat moving escalators that whisk us past lines of vending machines.

‘An insightful and humorous tale of the unexpected’ – Reader

‘A sardonic delight. If Thackeray had lived in the 21st century, then he might have written Charles Middleworth.’ – Reader

Charles Middleworth is available through most regional Amazons on Kindle (£1.96/$3.17) and in paperback.

United Kingdom – www.amazon.co.uk

USA – www.amazon.com