Christopher Harris's Blog, page 2
January 14, 2021
White Noise Movie
One of the books I re-read in The Big Q of '20 was one of my faves: White Noise by Don DeLillo. That was partly because I love it, and partly because the thing I'm writing now has a conceit that's not far from the central one in WN, and I wanted to be sure to steal as little as possible, or at least steal in a way that would cause me the least grief in the form of people throwing rotten vegetables at me.
Now! Noah Baumbach, who's a pretty terrific director, is about to start filming an adaptation of White Noise, staring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig, who are also terrific. Wow! That news should be sending me to the moon.
I am, instead, tethered to the planet by dread. White Noise is absolutely wonderful in novel form, and I recommend you read it. It's funny and philosophical and dour and befuddled. It doesn't have much plot! I'm now told by the various entertainment rags who report these things and then move on to whatever Harry Styles is doing that the novel has "long been considered unfilmable," which is funny to me, because there's every chance that 99.9% of Americans have never heard of the book or DeLillo, and thus have never considered its filmability one way or another. However: I kind of agree!
Long ago, when I was in grad school and had to teach for my supper, I taught a writing class on adaptations. We would read short stories and books and then in class watch the film adaptations. I don't still have the computer on which that syllabus was created. I remember we did "Memento" (which came from a short story by the director's brother), "Daisy Miller" (which is a dreadful movie), "The French Lieutenant's Woman" (which is terrific), I think "Catch-22" and probably some other stuff. The central thesis of the course was the more literal the adaptation, the worse the picture. Catch-22 is a pretty bad movie made from one of the greatest things ever written and it tries so hard to stage the same jokes the same way and they don't work. Meanwhile, FLW is terrific because it takes liberties.
Anyway, all this is by way of saying: if the Baumbach-led White Noise is a transcription of the novel in the way, for example, David Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis" was (I don't particularly think Cosmopolis is a good book, but oy, it's a bad film), I'll be watching through my fingers. Nothing much happens! It has a chance to be all twitch and quirk, look at these precocious child characters, look at this jabbering co-worker, look at the silliness of our TV-obsessed culture. I like Baumbach! I won't prejudge! I just hope he doesn't make a Wes Anderson movie out of it.
Now! Noah Baumbach, who's a pretty terrific director, is about to start filming an adaptation of White Noise, staring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig, who are also terrific. Wow! That news should be sending me to the moon.
I am, instead, tethered to the planet by dread. White Noise is absolutely wonderful in novel form, and I recommend you read it. It's funny and philosophical and dour and befuddled. It doesn't have much plot! I'm now told by the various entertainment rags who report these things and then move on to whatever Harry Styles is doing that the novel has "long been considered unfilmable," which is funny to me, because there's every chance that 99.9% of Americans have never heard of the book or DeLillo, and thus have never considered its filmability one way or another. However: I kind of agree!
Long ago, when I was in grad school and had to teach for my supper, I taught a writing class on adaptations. We would read short stories and books and then in class watch the film adaptations. I don't still have the computer on which that syllabus was created. I remember we did "Memento" (which came from a short story by the director's brother), "Daisy Miller" (which is a dreadful movie), "The French Lieutenant's Woman" (which is terrific), I think "Catch-22" and probably some other stuff. The central thesis of the course was the more literal the adaptation, the worse the picture. Catch-22 is a pretty bad movie made from one of the greatest things ever written and it tries so hard to stage the same jokes the same way and they don't work. Meanwhile, FLW is terrific because it takes liberties.
Anyway, all this is by way of saying: if the Baumbach-led White Noise is a transcription of the novel in the way, for example, David Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis" was (I don't particularly think Cosmopolis is a good book, but oy, it's a bad film), I'll be watching through my fingers. Nothing much happens! It has a chance to be all twitch and quirk, look at these precocious child characters, look at this jabbering co-worker, look at the silliness of our TV-obsessed culture. I like Baumbach! I won't prejudge! I just hope he doesn't make a Wes Anderson movie out of it.
January 12, 2021
Back On Goodreads...
...with very little recollection of how it works. But I can see I never blogged! Now I'm gonna try!
I obviously skipped a whole lot of books in my own reading in the past ((checks notes)) five years. For 2021, I thought I'd try to do a better job of keeping track of the stuff I read. First up for me is "Mrs. Dalloway," which I've never read...I was inspired by Defector's Book Of The Month Club (if you're not a subscriber to the ex-Deadspin people, a.k.a. the *real* Deadspin people...I am, and I can recommend it). I read "To The Lighthouse" a couple times in my 20s...it's really good, too.
Seems as though I have a bunch of "friends" on this platform and not that many "followers," so I honestly don't know who can see this, because I'm dumb. But now I'm hitting Publish!
I obviously skipped a whole lot of books in my own reading in the past ((checks notes)) five years. For 2021, I thought I'd try to do a better job of keeping track of the stuff I read. First up for me is "Mrs. Dalloway," which I've never read...I was inspired by Defector's Book Of The Month Club (if you're not a subscriber to the ex-Deadspin people, a.k.a. the *real* Deadspin people...I am, and I can recommend it). I read "To The Lighthouse" a couple times in my 20s...it's really good, too.
Seems as though I have a bunch of "friends" on this platform and not that many "followers," so I honestly don't know who can see this, because I'm dumb. But now I'm hitting Publish!
