Re: Criteria time
Bethany M. Edstrom (Bethany.M.Edstrom@Dartmouth.EDU)
Thu, 08 Jan 1998 14:49:52 -0500 (EST)
--- You wrote:
he wrote the
same poem a thousand times.
--- end of quoted material ---
who doesn't?
writers work from their obsessions, and it takes more than one
poem/novel/whatever to work those obsessions out.
I agree with points made from both sides on the Ginsberg issue. My stance is
that his importance outweighs his overall merit as a poet (now I sound like I'm
talking off that ridiculous bar graph in 'Dead Poets Society'--forgive me).
I saw 'Good Will Hunting,' enjoyed it, then went home, thought about it, and
decided it was a terrible movie (that was before any of the hooplah about it on
this list). I agree with many of Dave's points and will add that I think the
movie was very selfserving: a showcase for screenwriter/star Matt Damon, his
co-writer/star friend Ben Affleck (is that his name?) and his girlfriend/costar
Minnie Driver. He manages to make all the other characters look like idiots.
And he is no Holden.
But on to the issue of films vs. fiction. It is almost a cliche that good books
adapted for the screen almost always make bad movies, or at least they fail to
measure up to the quality of the book. There are exceptions to this rule, of
course. But I will hold that the reverse is also true, that bad books often
make good movies. Just look at the John Grisham phenomenon. I don't read books
for the same reasons I see movies, and I don't watch movies for the same reason
I read books. The two forms can be compared to a degree, but I always find the
differences between the forms to be more striking than the similarities.
I took a creative writing class with a guy who had written and sold one
screenplay and was working on his second. He was an active participant in the
class and never hesitated to tell the rest of the class what was wrong with
their stories and novel chapters, based on the criteria used to judge
screenplays: action, dialogue, scene blocking, etc. These elements certainly
come into play in fiction but only through their interplay with so many other
things: internal monologue, description, point of view issues, etc. I think the
main thing I learned in that class is that good film and good fiction are
completely different forms of expression. I have been hesitant to compare the
two ever since.
Bethany "I haven't seen the movie you guys are all quoting so I can't come up
with a witty response" Edstrom