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mgz24's picture

Film or novel?

 When we were posed the question about whether film was becoming the new novel, I never thought of books that have been made into film.  I think that these adaptations should almost be put into a separate genre.  Although I had never thought in these terms before, I agree with ewashburn in that film adaptations are the filmmaker's interpretation of the material.  And while I don't think that these film adaptations are or will become the new novel, I do think that our generation is moving towards film to replace novels.  I think an interesting parallel would be to look at "trashy beach" novels versus a "legitimate" novel.  People of previous generations would probably be horrified of some of the trashy novels that are out there, just as some of us are horrified of the thought that film could one day completely replace novels.  I'm still not completely sure that this will ever happen, but I do think that a lot of times it is much easier to watch a great movie than to read a great book, and for those of us who have short attention spans a movie may be easier to get through than needing the patience to read 200 pages.  I'm still not completely sure where I stand on these issues, but I do think that film is going to start taking a much more important place in the literary and scholarly world, but I also don't believe that the novel will ever completely be erased, because it does still provide some aspects that a film will never be able to provide.  

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