Five Things Meme the End!
Feb. 7th, 2013 12:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerLast five things meme post! Except that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cordialcount asked if she could ask me five questions about Lily & Nina from Black Swan, and I take any and all excuses to talk about Lily and Nina all the time, so I will be answering those.
(Actually, that should be a meme! Ask me five questions about a character (or characters) you know I like! Repost to your journals. A chance for infinite squee!)
But! I shall finish up the Five Things meme first.carmarthen asked for the top five books I would like to see adaptation into faithful, high production-values miniseries. I have been repeatedly reminding myself that miniseries doesn’t have to equal costume drama, although that’s what I first think of: Anne of Green Gables, the recent Sense & Sensibility and Romola Garai’s luminous Emma...
Mansfield Park, though. It gets no love, because everyone in the world but me hates Fanny Price, and therefore she is always portrayed as infinitely spunkier and more tomboyish than the actual Miss Price, because it’s not like being continually belittled, bossed around, and neglected by pretty much everyone at Mansfield Park except Edmund would have had some kind of deleterious effect on Fanny’s self-esteem.
1. Mansfield Park, obviously. The choice of actress is completely central here: we need someone who can portray shy, retired, a little fragile - but with a quiet sense of humor, a certain dreaminess, and at need a backbone of steel. Everyone in the world tries to make her marry Henry, but does she cave? Not a bit!
I’m kind of thinking Natalie Portman? She did a great job portraying Nina’s mix of fragility and grit, and this would be a less hallucinatory version thereof.
AND THEN EVERYONE WILL REALIZE FANNY IS AWESOME.
2. Ella Enchanted. I realize there is already a movie that is supposedly an adaptation of this book, but a) I like to pretend it doesn’t exist, because b) it is so unlike the actual book that I hesitate to even call it an adaptation, and c) why Anne Hathaway why you are so talented and so much better than this, why did you act in it! Did they tell you Cary Elwes was in it, and you just couldn’t resist acting opposite him? I could understand that. He was pretty amazing in The Princess Bride.
A faithful miniseries would go a long way to wiping the memory of this horror off the earth. Also, it would allow time to lovingly delineate Levine’s world, rather as Jackson does Middle Earth: admittedly her world isn’t as richly textured, but there’s definitely enough fun stuff there for a miniseries, plus a lot of scope for imaginative set and costume design.
3. Sherwood Smith’s Crown Duel! I think this book would translate beautifully to the screen: it’s wonderfully cinematic, especially Part One, with the revolution and Mel getting dragged off to the capital and escaping and fleeing cross-country and stealing a horse in a stupid impulsive hilarious totally Mel move.
All the best heroines steal horses. NEW PLAN FOR MY NOVEL: there will be horse thievery that goes terribly, terribly wrong.
I think this would be awesome. Not only is the story perfect, but the characters are so lovable and fun, and complicated in a way that would translate beautifully to the screen: they act on their contradictions rather than just thinking them. Mel is so lovely, trying so hard to do what is right (and sometimes messing up spectacularly), and of course Shevraeth (I am still kind of sad Shevraeth is not his real name. Vidanric is kind of a let-down) and Bran and Nee and...
Plus there’s enough worldbuilding in the book to spur amazing feats of set and costume design.
4. Megan Whelan Turner’s Queen’s Thief books, although I’m not sure how you’d work the first book in there - it sets up the others so you can’t just leave it out, but it’s very different in some ways and might drive away readers who would love the crunchy politics and complicated personal relationships and loyalty porn in the later books.
Maybe you could condense The Thief into one or two episodes? IDK, I just feel like there needs to be some build-up before The Queen of Attolia, because if you just jump right in with the chopping off of hands, viewers are going to be all “OMGWTFBBQ.”
But still, awesome miniseries potential. The beautiful fantasy Greek scenery! The many, many swearing of fealty scenes!
5. I keep wanting to write Code Name Verity, but I have no idea how you would translate the experience of that book into a visual medium: I don’t know how many episodes of “Julie in the Gestapo prison” viewers could take. But a lot of it would be flashbacks of Julie and Maddie’s time in England, I guess?
I don’t know how possible it would be to be faithful to the letter, to the peculiar structure of the book. But I think - I think if a miniseries could capture the spirit of the book, the sense of claustrophobia of being at war, and being afraid (it’s significant that one of Maddie & Julie’s longest conversations is a list of things they fear) - of being, even before Julie’s capture by the Gestapo, in some spiritual sense trapped - then it would be a wonderful and a harrowing series.
And finally,cordialcount: Five favorite children-- whether they be fictional, real, or metaphorical? I am not sure what a metaphorical child is, but nonetheless I shall persevere.
1. Phoebe from the movie Phoebe in Wonderland, because I identify with her a little ridiculously, because she perfectly encapsulates this strange bifurcation of experience that I felt at the same age: on the one hand being very imaginative and blissfully disconnected with the world, and on the other inexplicably sad. (Although unlike Phoebe I was never diagnosed with anything.)
She perfectly combines the more magical, imaginative aspects of childhood with the sense of being small and frightened in a world that is huge and confusing and hard. What I like about this movie is that in a sense it takes Phoebe seriously: it never looks down on her or views her problems through a sentimental veil because she’s a child and therefore her pain doesn’t count.
2. Sara Crewe from A Little Princess. I found Sara so inspiring when I first read this book: she’s so kind and thoughtful (her friendships with Lottie and Ermengarde and Becky all in a way revolve around her taking care of them), and so imaginative and smart, telling stories and reading books, and also so tough. Miss Minchin does everything she can to break Sara down, and Sara takes it all and keeps going.
3. Laura Ingalls from the Little House books. I loved all the pioneer detail in these books, and I love Laura’s growing omni-competence at...pretty much everything, really. She taught school at the age of fifteen! How badass is that? Okay, she’s not really a child by that point, but you watch her grow up to get there, refining her childish impulsiveness into true grit.
4. Matilda! The eponymous heroine from Matilda, tiny super genius child who can move things with her mind. God, I loved Matilda! Early in the book, there’s a list of all the classic books that Matilda reads at the library before she goes to school. I still feel a vague yearning to read all the books on Matilda’s list.
5. Barbara Newhall Follett, a little girl who wrote her first novel when she was eight to ten in the 1920s. I find child writers fascinating, and Barbara Newhall Follett especially so - because her life mimicked her art. Her first book concluded with her heroine disappearing into thin air; and years later, Barbara disappeared as well.
cordialcount asked if she could ask me five questions about Lily & Nina from Black Swan, and I take any and all excuses to talk about Lily and Nina all the time, so I will be answering those. (Actually, that should be a meme! Ask me five questions about a character (or characters) you know I like! Repost to your journals. A chance for infinite squee!)
But! I shall finish up the Five Things meme first.
carmarthen asked for the top five books I would like to see adaptation into faithful, high production-values miniseries. I have been repeatedly reminding myself that miniseries doesn’t have to equal costume drama, although that’s what I first think of: Anne of Green Gables, the recent Sense & Sensibility and Romola Garai’s luminous Emma...Mansfield Park, though. It gets no love, because everyone in the world but me hates Fanny Price, and therefore she is always portrayed as infinitely spunkier and more tomboyish than the actual Miss Price, because it’s not like being continually belittled, bossed around, and neglected by pretty much everyone at Mansfield Park except Edmund would have had some kind of deleterious effect on Fanny’s self-esteem.
1. Mansfield Park, obviously. The choice of actress is completely central here: we need someone who can portray shy, retired, a little fragile - but with a quiet sense of humor, a certain dreaminess, and at need a backbone of steel. Everyone in the world tries to make her marry Henry, but does she cave? Not a bit!
I’m kind of thinking Natalie Portman? She did a great job portraying Nina’s mix of fragility and grit, and this would be a less hallucinatory version thereof.
AND THEN EVERYONE WILL REALIZE FANNY IS AWESOME.
2. Ella Enchanted. I realize there is already a movie that is supposedly an adaptation of this book, but a) I like to pretend it doesn’t exist, because b) it is so unlike the actual book that I hesitate to even call it an adaptation, and c) why Anne Hathaway why you are so talented and so much better than this, why did you act in it! Did they tell you Cary Elwes was in it, and you just couldn’t resist acting opposite him? I could understand that. He was pretty amazing in The Princess Bride.
A faithful miniseries would go a long way to wiping the memory of this horror off the earth. Also, it would allow time to lovingly delineate Levine’s world, rather as Jackson does Middle Earth: admittedly her world isn’t as richly textured, but there’s definitely enough fun stuff there for a miniseries, plus a lot of scope for imaginative set and costume design.
3. Sherwood Smith’s Crown Duel! I think this book would translate beautifully to the screen: it’s wonderfully cinematic, especially Part One, with the revolution and Mel getting dragged off to the capital and escaping and fleeing cross-country and stealing a horse in a stupid impulsive hilarious totally Mel move.
All the best heroines steal horses. NEW PLAN FOR MY NOVEL: there will be horse thievery that goes terribly, terribly wrong.
I think this would be awesome. Not only is the story perfect, but the characters are so lovable and fun, and complicated in a way that would translate beautifully to the screen: they act on their contradictions rather than just thinking them. Mel is so lovely, trying so hard to do what is right (and sometimes messing up spectacularly), and of course Shevraeth (I am still kind of sad Shevraeth is not his real name. Vidanric is kind of a let-down) and Bran and Nee and...
Plus there’s enough worldbuilding in the book to spur amazing feats of set and costume design.
4. Megan Whelan Turner’s Queen’s Thief books, although I’m not sure how you’d work the first book in there - it sets up the others so you can’t just leave it out, but it’s very different in some ways and might drive away readers who would love the crunchy politics and complicated personal relationships and loyalty porn in the later books.
Maybe you could condense The Thief into one or two episodes? IDK, I just feel like there needs to be some build-up before The Queen of Attolia, because if you just jump right in with the chopping off of hands, viewers are going to be all “OMGWTFBBQ.”
But still, awesome miniseries potential. The beautiful fantasy Greek scenery! The many, many swearing of fealty scenes!
5. I keep wanting to write Code Name Verity, but I have no idea how you would translate the experience of that book into a visual medium: I don’t know how many episodes of “Julie in the Gestapo prison” viewers could take. But a lot of it would be flashbacks of Julie and Maddie’s time in England, I guess?
I don’t know how possible it would be to be faithful to the letter, to the peculiar structure of the book. But I think - I think if a miniseries could capture the spirit of the book, the sense of claustrophobia of being at war, and being afraid (it’s significant that one of Maddie & Julie’s longest conversations is a list of things they fear) - of being, even before Julie’s capture by the Gestapo, in some spiritual sense trapped - then it would be a wonderful and a harrowing series.
And finally,
cordialcount: Five favorite children-- whether they be fictional, real, or metaphorical? I am not sure what a metaphorical child is, but nonetheless I shall persevere.1. Phoebe from the movie Phoebe in Wonderland, because I identify with her a little ridiculously, because she perfectly encapsulates this strange bifurcation of experience that I felt at the same age: on the one hand being very imaginative and blissfully disconnected with the world, and on the other inexplicably sad. (Although unlike Phoebe I was never diagnosed with anything.)
She perfectly combines the more magical, imaginative aspects of childhood with the sense of being small and frightened in a world that is huge and confusing and hard. What I like about this movie is that in a sense it takes Phoebe seriously: it never looks down on her or views her problems through a sentimental veil because she’s a child and therefore her pain doesn’t count.
2. Sara Crewe from A Little Princess. I found Sara so inspiring when I first read this book: she’s so kind and thoughtful (her friendships with Lottie and Ermengarde and Becky all in a way revolve around her taking care of them), and so imaginative and smart, telling stories and reading books, and also so tough. Miss Minchin does everything she can to break Sara down, and Sara takes it all and keeps going.
3. Laura Ingalls from the Little House books. I loved all the pioneer detail in these books, and I love Laura’s growing omni-competence at...pretty much everything, really. She taught school at the age of fifteen! How badass is that? Okay, she’s not really a child by that point, but you watch her grow up to get there, refining her childish impulsiveness into true grit.
4. Matilda! The eponymous heroine from Matilda, tiny super genius child who can move things with her mind. God, I loved Matilda! Early in the book, there’s a list of all the classic books that Matilda reads at the library before she goes to school. I still feel a vague yearning to read all the books on Matilda’s list.
5. Barbara Newhall Follett, a little girl who wrote her first novel when she was eight to ten in the 1920s. I find child writers fascinating, and Barbara Newhall Follett especially so - because her life mimicked her art. Her first book concluded with her heroine disappearing into thin air; and years later, Barbara disappeared as well.
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 05:55 am (UTC)AHAHAHA.
Megan Whelan Turner’s Queen’s Thief books
Oh god yes. And that's the kind of fantasy that could probably be done well as TV on a budget...
I'm not sure how one could translate CNV to screen either (I think it might be better suited as a movie?).
no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 05:56 pm (UTC)CNV might work as a movie! Probably a lot of the Julie & Maddie flashbacks would have to be pared down to focus more intensely on what happens in France, which is why I like the idea of a miniseries...but there is the issue that a miniseries might end up seeming flabby, if it couldn't preserve the sense of suspense the book had.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 07:10 am (UTC)I think Carey Mulligan would make a very good Mary Crawford. We already know she does well in Austen adaptions!
no subject
Date: 2013-02-08 01:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-08 04:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-10 01:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 07:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 05:52 pm (UTC)But it's terrible.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 11:50 am (UTC)Well, I'm not so sure how visual Mansfield Park is, but it has potential to be a visually rich adaptation - and without misrepresenting the nature of Fanny's quiet strength of character.
Also, I wonder if the Attolia books would work if the events of The Thief were told, interspersed with some "meanwhile, elsewhere in this country..." scenes of the politics of the various royal courts. An adaptation needn't be limited to Gen's POV the way the book is. Then there would be less of a shift in tone and style between The Thief, and those scenes needn't pre-empt or overwhelm Gen's story.
(While I'm babbling, I'm going admit here that I actually really like the film Ella Enchanted - perhaps because it is so different from the book that I view it as a story in its own right, rather than a failed adaptation. I'm aware that this places me in a minority of about two.)
no subject
Date: 2013-02-08 01:45 am (UTC)...this makes me sad this adaptation is not happening. It sounds like it would be amazing.
And I'm glad someone likes the movie Ella Enchanted: Anne Hathaway and Cary Elwes are both trying so hard to make it watchable, it's good that someone appreciates their efforts!
no subject
Date: 2013-02-10 01:45 pm (UTC)But I agree that the reveal wouldn't have the same impact, because keeping Gen's identity a secret wouldn't be Gen's choice. It'd be "this TV show is keeping secrets from the audience" rather than "this first person narrator has been lying (by omission) the whole time, the sneaky little bugger". It's one thing for Gen to lie to his companions - his quest kind of depends upon it - but it says something about his personality (and maybe sense of humour) when he 'lies' to his future readers. And an adaptation couldn't really capture that. Well, not without Gen vlogging. :P
I'm sad its not being adapted too! I think it would translate really well, because it already gives so many clues about what the characters think and feel by what they do and say, so an adaptation wouldn't miss so much (compared with some other stories) by not being in the characters' heads.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-11 01:54 am (UTC)Maybe a voiceover? But I'm not a big fan of voiceovers in general, and thinking about it, I don't think they would harmonize well with the Attolia style: the books are very spare, as you say, not spending a lot of time in characters' heads.
Sadly I think that particular aspect of Gen's tricksiness would have to be lost in an adaptation. But an adaptation could make up for it with gleeful faces when he's fooled someone but good.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 02:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 03:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-08 01:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-08 02:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-08 02:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-08 02:10 am (UTC)