Books to Blockbusters: Why It’s a Downer

Let’s take a quick break from the weekly look into so many enjoyable book plots and think, instead, of what exactly we picture as readers when we dive into the rich pools of plot. If you asked a million people, they would all be different. Would any of them be wrong? Of course not! That’s the wonderful skill that all readers hold; they all have the ability to picture a scene so unique from anyone else’s, and maybe just in detail, but it’s still their own. So one can understand the crime that movie adaptations commit when they decide to take matters into their own hands and create a cemented image that forces all readers that become watchers to reference when they choose to read that book in the future. No more detailed and specific blueprint of the book’s map; instead, only the bland setting to a B-movie.

It’s not only that dystopian (or any, but I’m trying to stay within my bounds) book-to-movie adaptations change the setting and let the rest go, they do so much more than that. They create lifeless and see-through holograms of the ideas you once had and practically steal the rights to your creative use of a novel’s imagery for the rest of your life because it will be all you can think of each time you read the book from that point on.

Even further than this, some of these movies rely on cheap star power in instances such as the movie adaptation in The Giver in which the generic rebranding of the movie’s plot on the silver screen relied on the appearance of Taylor Swift being a star for all of only a few minutes in order to reel in potential seats in a movie theater. It’s a shameless ploy that attempts to make readers like you and I out to be idiots interested in shelling out a few bucks to sit through something destroys something that we once loved.

Band together with me to escape the capitalist sellouts who choose to spend their careers ripping apart the plots of our favorite stories and together we can at least make box office sales a few dollars less.

It’s Gettin’ Hot in Here — Let’s Stop Burning These Books, Then

Let’s take a moment to ponder the place that books have within our society; their impact is infinite. From wanting to understand just how to do your own taxes to having a desire to travel throughout as many worlds and timelines as you could possibly imagine, it’s books that allow you to do just exactly these things. But what if you didn’t have books at your disposal to provide you with the deep and rich adventures across all genres? What if your only source of entertainment was shallow and bland television in a world where you’re actually meant to keep up with the Kardashians? This is the world within Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451; a world where books have been outlawed and are destroyed if they are discovered, leaving its inhabitants with nothing to keep them satisfied except for the superficial television programs that rival the TLC network.

In this story, published in 1953, the narrative follows Guy Montag, a fireman in this post-literate society, but only by name. Firemen in this Bradbury’s world are not the same as the ones in ours – in fact, they are polar opposites. While the firemen that you and I are familiar with are in charge of putting out fires and doing general good deeds around the community, the Guy Montags of Fahrenheit 451 are in charge of destruction with fire. The destruction of books, that is, as the government in this dystopia are fearful of the knowledge that can be collected from them; exactly why the citizens of this land are given mind-numbing television instead.

Unfortunately for Montag, he is stuck in the middle of this world simply doing his job, until he meets a girl by the name of Clarisse McClellan, a strange girl that Montag runs into that teases him with the wonderful “evils” within their society. The main dynamic within this book is that Montag finds himself in the middle of two women: Clarisse and his wife. These two women represent the two different groups within their society; while Clarisse is interesting and dangerous, Mildred (Montag’s wife) is rarely seen doing anything but lazing around and watching television. It’s a dynamic that is easy to see and easy to interpret, but is all too interesting at the same time.

The book itself is very short in terms of what you normally find in this genre, which makes it an easy one to simply pick up and find yourself having read through it all in one sitting. It’s just that entertaining of a story. It’s fitting that this story begins with one of the greatest opening lines in the history of books, “It was a pleasure to burn,” because this work by Rad Bradbury sure is a pleasure to read.

Well Behaved Huxley’s Seldom Make Banned Book Lists

In the same vain as the famous quote “well behaved women seldom make history,” Huxley’s novels are anything but well behaved, as they have constantly found themselves placed on banned book lists all over the country. Within Huxley’s archive, however, there is one book that is usually talked about more than most others and that is one of the definitive novels in the dystopian genre: Brave New World.

Initially bashed for poor plot and narrative, Alduous Huxley’s Brave New World has come a long way since its initial publication in 1932. What was once considered a rather shallow commentary on technology’s growing grip on society has evolved into a very real (to a degree) interpretation of what our society has become, which is how it constantly finds itself becoming more and more relevant in the world’s literary circle. Not to sound repetitive from my post about Orwell’s 1984, but unfortunately most of my feelings for the two coincide, as they have always been the two novels that immediately come to my mind when I hear anything involving the dystopian novel, as they have been drilled into my head as THE dystopian novels since my high school career – which is fine with me.

Centering around two differing protagonists, one an outcast in this drug-induced “brave new world” and the other a savage brought in from the old world to seek out his father, the story is able to provide two very different points of view from two different outcasts. Usually when a novel or story is given more than one narrative, it is a different format than others, as the perspective constantly switches between them, yet in Huxley’s novel, one of these protagonists isn’t even introduced until the end of the first act. John the savage is not brought into the novel until the first protagonist, Bernard, encounters him while on a romantic getaway with the female lead, Lenina, and brings him and his mother, Linda, back to their new London with them to search for John’s father.

In many cases, individuals who choose to tackle this novel find themselves disappointed with a somewhat predictable story and a difficult degree of reading, and though the story is a little easy to see coming, Huxley’s style of writing simply adds to the complex narrative, as a whole. It is very possible you find yourself having to read sections – or even pages – over again to get the full appeal, but who doesn’t like the challenge of a book like that? True, when reading a novel that isn’t easy to comprehend for school, it can be easily frustrating, but when you give a novel like Brave New World the chance it deserves, in a setting when you are not rushed by various time constrictions, it is a fun story powered by a complex narrative and an author that knows their way around the English language.

Lois Wow-ry

Transport with me, if you will, to the seemingly distant year of 2014. The world is a bright place, full of light, full of hope, and free of the terrible film adaptation that was The Giver that took a terrifically terrifying story like Lois Lowry’s tale of a small community with an awful secret and turned into something as forgettable as Phillip Noyce’s film. Believe me, there was nothing Noyce about it. Luckily, the terrible turnout of the movie only made me appreciate the original print that much more.

Based around an eleven going-on-twelve year old named Jonas, The Giver is centered in a seemingly ideal town without war or pain where children are assigned jobs that pertain to their skills in a gathering known as the Ceremony of Twelve, which happens to be coming up for Jonas at the beginning of the book. After the Ceremony has completed, Jonas receives the prestigious position of the Receiver of Memory, where he apprentices someone who is referred to as the Giver who passes on memories of war, hunger, love, family, pain, and happiness. With these experiences, Jonas grows to resent his emotionless community and begins to unearth secrets and the truth about where he has lived his whole life.

In my opinion, the scariest dystopian tales are the ones that seem completely normal from the outside, only to later be revealed just how twisted they happen to be from within. Much like the seemingly quaint town in Hot Fuzz, for any Simon Pegg fans out there, for reference. Communities like this in novels or movies, cause you to question your existence within your own society. It’s a strange thing, but when a book’s ability to convey a twisted narrative covered by a layer of normality causes me to question whether or not the person who just delivered my pizza is a simple delivery person or a person to spy on me for the Overlord, I enjoy it. A story like this that uses a lack of emotion within a community, all stored within a twelve-year-old protagonist, is a unique idea made all the more impressive with it actually being a book filled to the brim with mood and emotion. With a main character being twelve, it should surprise nobody that this book is a young adult work of fiction, written to be read by pre-teens going through an emotional point in life that feel as though they don’t fit in with anybody. The book’s use of emotions to sympathize with someone is just why this age group enjoys it so much; not only is it a brilliant narrative, but it is also a book that kids of this age can empathize with when nobody else in the world has the ability to empathize with them.

Yes, it is a book written for a younger audience, but Lois Lowry’s dystopian tale is one of the first instances of this genre being presented in terms of reading levels and it still holds up for readers of a more mature audience, making it a timeless tale of isolation in a rather plentiful community. It is a unique quality for a tale of a twisted society to be one of the more relatable stories for many age groups, one that makes Lowry’s work that much more distinct and loveable.

Nineteen Eighty F-Orwell, George

          

  In the vast amounts of books that exist within the world of literature, there lies even more genres of literature and within each genre there is always one book that comes to mind when a genre’s name is even muttered. To the genre of the dystopian society, that book (to me, at least) is George Orwell’s 1984. The relatively morbid “what-if” scenario is considered to be one of the most influential novels of all time, so why not kick start a book blog with it?

A frightening revelation at the time of its publication in 1949, it has not only gotten better with age, but it has also recently had a revival in relativity with our own society after the NSA leak in the recent years. However, without a proper introduction of the novel (on the off chance that you happen to be on a book blog without any prior knowledge of the book), you may be sitting there, wondering why life being like a book is a bad thing. Allow me to inform you how: In the grand scheme of things, I believe I’m safe in assuming that if you are on an electronic device visiting this blog then you, within your own right, are free. Now imagine that all of your own rights that give you your freedom are taken away; your privacy, your sexuality, your inhibitions, and your aspirations. They’re all gone, you’re now the same as everyone else, and if you resist being another cog in the machine, you’re brainwashed until you overcome whatever makes you stand out in society. Sound bad enough yet? Without giving too much away to those that are unlucky enough to have never gotten the chance to read this tale, that’s just scratching the surface.

George Orwell’s story revolves around Winston Smith, a historical “rectifier” in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth who, we learn right from the beginning, has a sense of missing something in society and just generally feeling different than the people around him, which as I’ve stated before is not a good thing. From there on, he meets a woman named Julia with a shared interest of searching for more meaning in a seemingly meaningless society and their evasion of the totalitarian government that lurks over them as they embark on adventures against the beliefs of their own society. Interested? You should be. Not only is this story an exciting social commentary on governments of the past, but it is also a story that will never lose its place in literature due to its ability to constantly stay relevant to the world and its goings on.

As if it wasn’t already obvious to everybody, this book has a special place on my shelf. Its gripping narrative, ability to set memorable scenes in bleak environments, introduction of sympathetic characters in an unrelatable world, and several other unique characteristics are all mixed together in a manner that binds together a spectacular narration and an unforgettable read that I wish upon anyone who desires something new to try out or even someone who just happens to need a reminder that it’s the time of year to reread one of George Orwell’s most popular books, just as I plan to do for a long while to come.

Any books that you particularly enjoyed in the dystiopian genre?

Suggestions on books for me to blog about next?

Comment below and let me know!

Later, skaters

Tyler