lo, there came a fiery chariot

[phineasjones]

ahhhh. morning. bordering on afternoon now, but i still like it.

came to many conclusions after yesterday's activities:
- starbuckle rocks my world. yes, folks, she edited out the commercials.
- mtv thinks that its viewers are complete fucking idiots... may not be far off
- jack black is repulsively humorous
- elijah and orlando are pretty
- josh hartnett is a big, dumb jock
- i must be old... bc of my reaction to mtv awards... especially what passed for musical entertainment. i enjoyed kelly - the way i would enjoy a good friend of mine singing karaoke. white stripe or whatever were cute but talentless. and i have nothing to say at this point about eminem. talent, music. maybe... outside a small portion of the populace, these things don't matter.
- judy should live in my house and read slash. she's so curious... i've almost got her...
- marriage is stupid.
- my dad knows everything.

today is all about projects...
- icons! i have been in a creative slump on this... scottxwl needs 'em and i definitely need new ones.
- prepare and mail a little something for starbuckle
- find my laptop and get to those deleted scenes on the hp dvd. (thanks, scottxwl)
- do some unpacking in the still disastrous study
- take judy to the chiropractor. yup. again.

um, starbuckle? i think you should tell scottxwl about the wonders of reading hp. is stubborn like you, i think, though for different reasons. maybe you can lure him in. *g*

Comments

My Harry Potter stance

[scottxwl.livejournal.com]

So many moons ago, about a year before the movie, I thought to myself "I wonder what all this Harry Potter brouhaha is all about?" So I went to the bookstore, picked up the first book, read the first page and thought "Ah. I get it." It looked like it would be a really fun book to read.

And believe you me, I WANT to read the books.

BUT, while I love books to death (see my degree in English Literature), movies are my PASSION. Movies sing to my soul (said the atheist.) And I thoroughly believe through my own experiences that reading a book can ruin a movie, but seeing a movie doesn't ruin a book. Books pretty much cannot be ruined. There's just too much to them that a movie cannot express. If I hear that a movie is being planned for a book I want to read, I avoid readig the book until after I have seen the movie.

And thus, I want to see the Harry Potter movies. I eventually want to read the books.

Can anybody think of a book that was ruined by the movie? (Movie first, book second)

Re: My Harry Potter stance

[starbuckle.livejournal.com]

interesting and well-spoken, though, of course, i disagree. :) not about the movie-first-book-second-can't-ruin-the-book theory, that holds water, but i'll always like books better than movies.

i will add that i read differently if i've seen the movie first, and occasionally i find myself doubting the author and saying "that's not how that happened!" which is pretty funny considering the order of creation. personally i think it would be tragic for one to have seen LOTR before reading it. tolkien's vision, while wonderfully adapted by PJ, could never really, truly, completely fit in a film, plus there is something wonderful about being able to see things for yourself before seeing what someone else saw in the same piece of literature. ach, just my tuppence.

phin, why didn't you tell me scott had such an airtight alibi? i've crusaded for nothing! :)

Re: My Harry Potter stance

[scottxwl.livejournal.com]

Yes, the one big drawback to my plan is that when you read a book for which you have seen the film, you see that book through the filmmakers' eyes. However, this is something I have found easy to put up with because of the Great Experience of seeing a film. Speaking of which, gonna see Mulholland Drive tonight for my much anticipated second time. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who hasn't seen it, especially if you are interested in independent, creative movies.

Re: My Harry Potter stance

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

jeez, i'm finding myself all over the map on this. first i'll say, i still think you're cheating yourself on this one, scott. bc, i don't know about all cases, but in this case, the books are such a great experience on their own that it seems sad to wait for the movie and then have your concepts of it all shaped by someone else's take on it. but there's no real arguing to do bc you've stated that it's your particular thing to want to see the movie first.

and what does is say about a movie if it can be ruined by reading the story that inspired it?

and, it's not. the hp movie was fun. just nowhere as good as the book.

i think the principle here is that something really good won't be ruined by something else. so, since people frequently make movies out of books that are good, the books stand up - even when the movies stink. people don't tend to write books based on movies, so that's not really a helpful thought. sometimes the movie is better than the book (e.m. forster's maurice comes to mind) but...

ok, totally lost track of my thoughts. i actually saw fotr before reading it... and it worked really well for me that way. loved them both. but yes, my experience of the books from that point on were much indebted to peter jackson and his take on it all.

so... like i said, no real arguing to do. since you've basically said, "this is how i like it." ok. but i still think you're missing out. and it stinks having to be all careful about spoilers.

and, having already seen the movie, have you now read the first book?

Re: My Harry Potter stance

[scottxwl.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about spoilers. I'll cope with them. No need for you to "suffer" because of my stubbornness.

And, uh, no I haven't gotten around to reading the first one yet. I've been... busy! Yeah, busy! But any day now I'll get around to it. (And Good Omens--the other book folks are clamoring for me to read.)

Re: My Harry Potter stance

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

lol.

"suffer" i will not. but i will also try not to spoil things. cuz that's just not nice.

ha. can't believe you haven't read it. crazy boy.