This may sound a bit out of character but I love vampire stories. Not the gory, slasher movie type stories but the dark, gothic, romantic philosophical type vampire stories.
It started in high school when I read Bram Stoker's Dracula. I had always loved the old Hollywood, Bela Lugosi/Christopher Lee movies but decided I wanted to really see where it came from. It was quite shocking to read the book and realize that there was very little similarity to Christopher Lee's glamourous portrayal.
When I was 16 I read Interview with The Vampire for the first time. I became completely enraptured with Louis and Lestat and Anne Rice's portrayal of these "children of the night", invoking commentary on sexual, philosophical, moral and historical issues. I am an avid fan of the early books of Rice's Vampire Chronicals and have read The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned numerous times. Interview is still my favourite. In fact, I had forgotten how much I loved the book until my recent flight to Hong Kong when I watched the movie again (of which I was never a big fan. Brad Pitt is gorgeous but not strong and Tom Cruise will never be Lestat in my eyes.)
On the recommendation of Ethan, the 14 year old son of our friends Pat and Annette, I decided to read Twilight, Stephenie Meyer's foray into vampire lit. Ethan has very good taste in books so I had very little doubt that I would enjoy it. I just could never have predicted how much! The premise, teenage girl falls in love with teenage boy only to find out that he is a vampire and then hangs out with his vampire family, sounds a bit camp, I know. I'll tell you though, I was completely hooked and ploughed through the four books in the series in a matter of weeks.
Meyer is a good writer. She has a very visual and easy to read style that keeps you engaged throughout all of the books. She captures the angst of the teenage girl (I'm not pretty enough, I'm not smart enough, I'm not good enough, How could he possibly like/love/be attracted to me) and does a marvelous job depicting the fantastical element of vampires existing in every day life. There is definitely some Anne Rice influence but the Twilight series is also very original and Meyer puts her own stamp on vampire lore. I've been recommending these books to just about all of my friends who are interested in something light and fun and completely addictive.
She put a hold on another book in the series and I confess I am disappointed. However, I am so excited about the Twilight movie coming out this weekend and I plan to stand in line with the teenage girls and hopefully enjoy the story on screen as much as I did in print.
Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn
Stephenie Meyer
Little, Brown & Company
The reading habits of a road warrior business traveler
Showing posts with label VampireLit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label VampireLit. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
When is the Movie Ever Better?
I find the whole book versus the movie debate a little tiresome sometimes. When is the movie ever better than the book. I would say never. I do think though there are times when a movie is at least AS good as the book. Of course, the cases of movie so much worse than the book are infinite in my opinion.
Why this topic now. Last night, we watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in celebration of Sam finishing the book and I am now reading Wicked, the novel the stage musical is based on. Even though I make every effort to not see movies based on books unless I get a chance to read them, I actually saw the stage musical Wicked last year (another notable exception to my rule is the Godfather trilogy). That being said, I still haven't seen the Lord of the Rings because I had to read the books (which I did last summer and much to my surprise I absolutely LOVED them). However, knowing who played the characters made it much easier to get through some of the more complex parts of the trilogy because I had a visual. Nor have I seen Mystic River because I haven't read the book and although I would like to see the movie, I know the book will completely depress me. Similarly I read Cider House Rules after John Irving won the Oscar for the screenplay. It peaked my curiosity and reignited my interest in his books. So this book versus movie thing can be a bit challenging.
Another example is Bridges of Madison County. I loved this short novel. It pushed all of my romantic buttons. I wasn't thrilled to hear of the project to make it into a movie although I had thought about who should play the leads. In my mind it was Robert Redford and Mary Steenburgen. Don't ask me why - those are just the faces I associated with the characters. I came around to Clint Eastwood but Meryl Streep didn't do it for me. I though the film was just okay.
I was actually looking forward to Interview with a Vampire as a movie - that is until they cast Tom Cruise as Lestat. I was livid as was every other Anne Rice fan and the author was none too pleased herself. For me, Rutger Hauer was a living breathing Lestat. The challenge was by the time Hollywood got around to making the movie, Hauer was too old. The casting in that movie missed a number of marks. Again it was just okay but man did they nail Claudia with the casting of a young Kirsten Dunst.
I could go on and on. One thing is for sure, you just cannot capture the depth of the narrative and all of the small things in a novel that contribute to the plot, when you take it to movie. The pure fact of time available on screen limits the creative ability. The Harry Potter movies are quite good but we have spent most of the time trying to quell Sam's indignation at the exclusion of certain parts of the book.
I expect I'll finish Wicked this week and I'll give you my thoughts on it then. Suffice it to say that the stage play was fun and entertaining and even though I am only half way through the novel, I can say with confidence that the stage version doesn't even come close to doing it justice.
Any pics and/or pans of screen adaptations of favourite novels?
Why this topic now. Last night, we watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in celebration of Sam finishing the book and I am now reading Wicked, the novel the stage musical is based on. Even though I make every effort to not see movies based on books unless I get a chance to read them, I actually saw the stage musical Wicked last year (another notable exception to my rule is the Godfather trilogy). That being said, I still haven't seen the Lord of the Rings because I had to read the books (which I did last summer and much to my surprise I absolutely LOVED them). However, knowing who played the characters made it much easier to get through some of the more complex parts of the trilogy because I had a visual. Nor have I seen Mystic River because I haven't read the book and although I would like to see the movie, I know the book will completely depress me. Similarly I read Cider House Rules after John Irving won the Oscar for the screenplay. It peaked my curiosity and reignited my interest in his books. So this book versus movie thing can be a bit challenging.
Another example is Bridges of Madison County. I loved this short novel. It pushed all of my romantic buttons. I wasn't thrilled to hear of the project to make it into a movie although I had thought about who should play the leads. In my mind it was Robert Redford and Mary Steenburgen. Don't ask me why - those are just the faces I associated with the characters. I came around to Clint Eastwood but Meryl Streep didn't do it for me. I though the film was just okay.
I was actually looking forward to Interview with a Vampire as a movie - that is until they cast Tom Cruise as Lestat. I was livid as was every other Anne Rice fan and the author was none too pleased herself. For me, Rutger Hauer was a living breathing Lestat. The challenge was by the time Hollywood got around to making the movie, Hauer was too old. The casting in that movie missed a number of marks. Again it was just okay but man did they nail Claudia with the casting of a young Kirsten Dunst.
I could go on and on. One thing is for sure, you just cannot capture the depth of the narrative and all of the small things in a novel that contribute to the plot, when you take it to movie. The pure fact of time available on screen limits the creative ability. The Harry Potter movies are quite good but we have spent most of the time trying to quell Sam's indignation at the exclusion of certain parts of the book.
I expect I'll finish Wicked this week and I'll give you my thoughts on it then. Suffice it to say that the stage play was fun and entertaining and even though I am only half way through the novel, I can say with confidence that the stage version doesn't even come close to doing it justice.
Any pics and/or pans of screen adaptations of favourite novels?
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Going out on top
I just finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I am not a bandwagon type of person but I seriously LOVED IT!! This book was definitely different from the others. The formula is slightly altered and it is definitely the darkest and most violent of all the books (although one could argue that Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blooded Prince foreshadowed this pretty strongly). My son Sam is just over half-way through the Prisoner of Azkaban and he is loving it.
One of the things that I am exceedingly grateful for with the last book is that Sam is now very motivated to get through the series. He is a little daunted by the size of the remaining books but he is SO curious as to what happens in Deathly Hallows that I think he will overcome that. He has been peppering me with questions all week. When I finished it last night, I have to admit, I was a bit weepy - not because of the content of the book but because I knew that there weren't any more coming...at least not any time soon.
This actually led me to thinking about other prolific authors and the merits of getting out while you are still on top. I have mentioned in previous posts that I have a tendency to latch on to writers that I like and read everything they write. This goes back to high school when I discovered Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Hardy, etc. What really hit me this week is how disappointing it is when an author that you love loses his/her touch.
Take Anne Rice for example. She has been an extremely prolific author but is best known for her Vampire Chronicles series of books. The first two books Interview with a Vampire and The Vampire Lestat are outstanding in my opinion but the following books are diluted and boring. I thought she struck gold again when she started a series on a family of witches. The Witching Hour is fantastic and original. Lasher, the second book is okay but you can see this series starting to head south as well. I have been reading just about everything she has written over the years, despite my continuing disappointment, with the hopes that there will be some return to previous form. It hasn't panned out and I think it's time to quit this habit.
Although he doesn't write series another spotty writer for me is John Irving . It seems that he hits gold every two or three books with the ones in between being pretty mediocre. World According to Garp is probably one of the best modern fiction novels in American lit. Similarly, I thought that Cider House Rules and A Widow for One Year were absolutely wonderful. But A Prayer for Owen Meany, The Fourth Hand and Until I Find You were very average. I actually couldn't stand Owen Meany and struggled to finish it, but I know loads of people loved it (which is the beauty of literature really). It seems that he is due for a really good one now so I am willing to stick it out with him for a bit. Plus he lives in Toronto and has been featuring it in his books lately so he scores points with me there too.
In the end although I am now very sad that there are no more Harry Potters (supposedly), I am grateful that the series is not going to suffer from dilution in order to keep the franchise alive. If Rowlings is going to write again, her biggest challenge is going to be to prove that she can write something other than Potter with just as much skill. In the meantime, I'll have to sit tight and wait for the movie.
One of the things that I am exceedingly grateful for with the last book is that Sam is now very motivated to get through the series. He is a little daunted by the size of the remaining books but he is SO curious as to what happens in Deathly Hallows that I think he will overcome that. He has been peppering me with questions all week. When I finished it last night, I have to admit, I was a bit weepy - not because of the content of the book but because I knew that there weren't any more coming...at least not any time soon.
This actually led me to thinking about other prolific authors and the merits of getting out while you are still on top. I have mentioned in previous posts that I have a tendency to latch on to writers that I like and read everything they write. This goes back to high school when I discovered Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Hardy, etc. What really hit me this week is how disappointing it is when an author that you love loses his/her touch.
Take Anne Rice for example. She has been an extremely prolific author but is best known for her Vampire Chronicles series of books. The first two books Interview with a Vampire and The Vampire Lestat are outstanding in my opinion but the following books are diluted and boring. I thought she struck gold again when she started a series on a family of witches. The Witching Hour is fantastic and original. Lasher, the second book is okay but you can see this series starting to head south as well. I have been reading just about everything she has written over the years, despite my continuing disappointment, with the hopes that there will be some return to previous form. It hasn't panned out and I think it's time to quit this habit.
Although he doesn't write series another spotty writer for me is John Irving . It seems that he hits gold every two or three books with the ones in between being pretty mediocre. World According to Garp is probably one of the best modern fiction novels in American lit. Similarly, I thought that Cider House Rules and A Widow for One Year were absolutely wonderful. But A Prayer for Owen Meany, The Fourth Hand and Until I Find You were very average. I actually couldn't stand Owen Meany and struggled to finish it, but I know loads of people loved it (which is the beauty of literature really). It seems that he is due for a really good one now so I am willing to stick it out with him for a bit. Plus he lives in Toronto and has been featuring it in his books lately so he scores points with me there too.
In the end although I am now very sad that there are no more Harry Potters (supposedly), I am grateful that the series is not going to suffer from dilution in order to keep the franchise alive. If Rowlings is going to write again, her biggest challenge is going to be to prove that she can write something other than Potter with just as much skill. In the meantime, I'll have to sit tight and wait for the movie.
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