Here’s this week’s Booking Through Thursday question:
Books and films both tell stories, but what we want from a book can be different from what we want from a movie. Is this true for you? If so, what’s the difference between a book and a movie?
I definitely want different things from books and movies. I find movies to be better vehicles for stories that feature lots of action, such as car chases, shootouts, expansive battles, etc. Those things are just easier to process visually than verbally.
Books are better suited to character-driven stories where the narrator (either the omniscient narrator in the voice of the author, or the first-person “I” narrator) has lots of commentary about the inner workings of the character’s mind. I’m talking about the types of novels where the main character thinks a lot or comments (internally) about other characters or situations. These stories come off much better on the written page than in films where a voiceover or similar technique must be used.
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:59 am
Interestingly can only think of two recent mainstream films told mainly from a first person point of view Blair witch project and Cloverfield. Diving Bell and the Butterfly given how it was written was also first person point of view. The classic Hollywood attempt was Lady in the Lake which bombed