Books Ruin the Movies

For most of my thoughtful life, I have been of the opinion that this shirt is mostly correct. It seemed to me that every time a piece of literature was adapted to film, the medium proved sorely lacking. Naturally, the easiest person to blame is someone else, claiming that no creative expression can match up to the individual imagination.

That would be the way I have always looked at it: the Lord of the Rings movies were fantastic, and it was enjoyable to see the story visual depicted. But, the battle for Helm's Deep was not as epic as the one I read. Nor was Saruman as evil. Nor Minas Morgul and the Ringwraiths as terrible. But I don't think this comes from a shortage of creativity on the director's part. I think the books are the ones to blame.

A recent Curator article spoke to this--the author essentially saying that no one who dove headlong into the books will ever be able to fully enjoy a film adaption, because it will always be the second time he or she has seen it. This has been my experience--I have only recently been able to get caught up in the emotion of book-to-film adaptions that I have read, because I already knew what was coming. I didn't even frown when Dumbledore died, I was too busy critiquing the differences they had made in the plot that lead up to it.

The solution, obviously, is to stop reading books. Or, and this is just a thought, we could try really really really hard to treat the movies as their own story. Certainly, you won't be surprised when Mr. Male Supporting Role dies tragically, or when Ms. Protagonist admits to that love affair, but you can enjoy the d*mn movie--which you probably paid $10+ to go see--without musing about your superior creative direction for the film.

I should say, my two favorite movies--Star Trek and Pride and Prejudice--represent both sides of this issue. Granted, I have never read the Jane Austen classic, but I know the story so well that it never surprises me. Yet, each and every time I am pissed at Darcy's arrogance and surprised by Elizabeth's ironic pride. I cry every time I watch Star Trek, and fist pump multiple times in celebration of a certain explosion or stellar cinematography. So read the book, then forget about it. Go enjoy a movie.

Oh Potter, You Rotter

I have been prompted to write this because of the literal threat of a slow and painful death by a friend of mine. I was quite terrified. Almost as terrified as the time that basilisk attacked me at the urging of the memory of a dark lord who was contained in a diary.

Speaking of dark-lord-memory-induced-basilisk-attacks, I just finished the second book of the Harry Potter series: The Chamber of Secrets. You must understand: I am someone who all but swore to never read them, or in the very least decided to put every other book ever written in

front of Harry Potter on the "list of books to read." That's right, that includes Twilight and Joel Osteen's Become a Better You.

And yet, I took The Sorcerer's Stone with me to Summer Conference and then followed it up with The Chamber of Secrets, which I finished last night. I must say I have thoroughly enjoyed both of them. As a writer, I can appreciate the overall storyline, the epic and destiny-driven plot that does not overshadow the everyday experiences of Potter and his friends. The one bit of criticism I do have is that it is reminiscent of the TV show 24 in that there is a single major conflict each and every book. It may get repetitive. It hasn't yet, just the prospect of it is not great.

Other than that, I have highly enjoyed a thorough romp through Ms. Rowling's created world. I am not and have never been opposed to the concept of magic, wizards and witchcraft. At least, that was never my reason for not reading them...because it is fiction, after all. About 45% of the reason I never desired to read them was the fans. They tended to annoy me on a Twilight and Jonas Brothers level. Oh, yeah. The other 55% was that I had always disliked the prospect of witnessing the plight of an angsty teenager and his magical world. I wasn't wrong, per sé, but we'll just leave it at this: that which kept me away has drawn me in.

On Books

A Small Note on Books--

I have noticed that there are a great number of books in my ownership that I have yet to even attempt reading. Likewise, I continue to buy books that will almost immediately and inevitably begin to collect dust on my shelf, in the good company of the aforementioned unread books.

To help solve this most dubious of conundrums, I've made myself a promise that I won't buy a book (short of schoolbooks or some other required reading) unless I first finish a book. Hopefully this will help me to

A) Start reading some of the books I own.

B) Start buying books that I will actually read, as I will be limiting myself in my purchasing opportunities.

What are some of the books I have yet to read, you may ask? Or maybe not, but I'll tell you anyway:

• Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell
• Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
• Vintage Church by Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears
• Forgotten God by Francis Chan
• Why We Are Not Emergent by Kevin DeYoung & Ted Cluck
• Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling*

*While I have somewhat renounced my mockery of the Harry Potter series, I do find it repeatedly hilarious that people want me to take the series seriously, when the author's name is "jk."

What do you think of my method?

Related:

• What I've been reading in the past.
• What I thought about some of those books.

Fulfillment In Jesus Is A Myth

That's right, I said it. You will never be fulfilled by Jesus here on earth. If want to hear the explanation to this seemingly heretical statement, you are going to have to watch this video:



From what I understand, this is a major gist of Donald Miller's new book A Million Miles In A Thousand Years. I want to read it, bad. And I agree.

Jesus is the climax of my life, but not while I am here on earth. Not until glory. If he is the climax in this life, then what's with all this troublesome and ridiculous and difficult crap I have to deal with!?! That is no falling action. That's a crappy denouement. And God doesn't do crappy.

Dug Down Deep

This is a short promo video for Joshua Harris' (of I Kissed Dating Goodbye fame) new book Dug Down Deep. I am very interested in what he is talking about it in this book. I'm pretty sure I'm going to pick it up. Sounds similar to stuff I am learning about.

What I'm Reading

Mere Christanity by C.S. Lewis.

[for the record, I used this picture because that is the same cover as the copy I have. It's ancient]

It's one of the classics, so I've been told. This will be the first bit by Lewis that I have read outside of the Chronicles of Narnia.

How can I have not read this book by now, seeing as I am an ardent lover of theology and Christian thought? I dunno, your guess is as good as mine.

So far, I am a big fan of what he's saying, and the way he's saying it. I could give you several quotes, and I'm not that far in. I am very much amazed at Lewis ability to articulate in a clear and (maybe not) concise matter the amazing truths we find in the world around us.

I'm a big fan of the style he is writing in this book: building and growing a philosophy from very fundamental, observable roots. It reminds of why I enjoy many of Paul's letters.

"First, of all He left us conscience, the sense of right and wrong: and all through history there have been people trying (some of them very hard) to obey it. None of them ever quite succeeded.

Secondly, he sent the human race what I call good dreams: I mean those queer stories scattered all through the heathen religions about a god who dies and comes to life again and, by his death, a, has somehow given new life to men.

[and then, one of the best explanations for why God "chose" the nation of Israel I've ever heard]

Thirdly, He selected one particular people and spent several centuries hammering into their heads the sort of God He was--that there was only one of Him and that He cared about right conduct. Those people were the Jews, and the Old Testament gives an account of the hammering process."
--pg. 54

What I'm Reading

I finished Just Do Something the other day. It was most excellent. I will be posting a review sometime soon. In the mean time, I have moved on to The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller.


With the subtitle "Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith," Keller explains in his introduction that the book is not only for those coming to the Christian faith for the first time, or even those returning to the Christian faith.

From what I understand, he is writing to me (the "older brother") as much to a seeker (the "younger brother"). The speaker at summer conference this year told me personally it would be "the best book I read this year." So far, I haven't been blown away, but then again I am only in the first chapter. And I think it has potential.

This Man Gatsby

I am beginning to realize why The Great Gatsby is considered a classic:

"He smiled understandingly--much more that understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey. Precisely at that point it vanished--"

--Nick Carraway, pages 52-53

What I'm Reading

In the spirit of I need to get off my lazy butt and read more if I am going to keep up the pretense of being intellectual, educated and an English major, I am going to read more. And I am going to post what I am reading here.

The book I am currently reading (semi consistently) is Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung. The subtitle is "How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, etc." Pretty fabulous.

I had heard about the book from Josh Harris a few months ago, seeing as he wrote the foreward for it. Which is pretty amazing. You should check it out. So far the book is good stuff, and fairly predictable, but still good.

It's telling me what I need to hear: JUST DO SOMETHING. I'd encourage you to pick it up, though. It's pretty cheap. And worth it.

Of Resonating Literature

Sometimes literature just resonates with you. It takes your meager circumstances and elevates them or mirrors them in the higher plane of that which you are reading.

"When once he was within the cabin there was nothing to do but kiss. He avoided her mouth—the mouth reveals so much, but she wouldn't be content until she had pulled his face round a left the seal of her return on his lips. 'Oh my dear, here I am.'

'Here you are,' he said

...

Did my lies really start, he wondered, when I wrote that letter? Can I really love her more than Louise? Do I, in my heart of hearts, love either of them, or is it only that this automatic pity goes out to any human need—and makes it worse? Any victim demands allegiance.

...

'Missing Mass on Sunday's a mortal sin, just as much as adultery.'

'Adultery's more fun,' he said with attempted lightness.

...

...he felt his whole personality crumble with the disintegration of lies.

...

'Why do we go on like this—being unhappy?'

'It's a mistake to mix up the ideas of happiness and love,' Scobie said with desperate pedantry, as though, if he could turn the whole situation into a textbook case, as they had turned Pemberton, peace might return to both of them, a kind of resignation.

...

One ought not to lie to two people if it could be avoided—that way lay complete chaos, but he was tempted terribly to lie as he watched her face on the pillow. She seemed to him like one of those plants in nature films which you watch age under your eye.

...

'But I simply don't understand. If you believe in hell, why are you with me now?'

How often he though, lack of faith helps one to see more clearly than faith. He said, 'You are right, of course: it ought to prevent all this. But the villages on the slopes of Vesuvius go on...And then, against all the teaching of the Church, one has the conviction that love—any kind of love—does deserve a bit of mercy. One will pay, of course, pay terribly, but I don't believe on will pay for ever.

...

'I can regret the lies, the mess, the unhappiness, but if I were dying now I wouldn't know how to repent the love.'

...

'It's not much good confessing if I don't intend to try. . . .'

'Well then,' she said triumphantly, 'be hung for a sheep. You are in—what do you call it—mortal sin? now. What difference does it make?'

He thought: pious people, I suppose, would call this the devil speaking, but he knew that evil never spoke in these crude answerable terms: this was innocence."

From Book III, Part I, Chapter I of Graham Greene's novel The Heart of the Matter. Read. Buy.