Science Fiction
I Am Legend: The Story vs. The Film
Friday, January 18th, 2008Yesterday, I finished reading Richard Matheson’s original story, I Am Legend. I saw the movie last month, and liked it a lot. It didn’t take me long to buy the book it was based on — I was very much interested in comparing the two.
I bought the book at the airport last month and since read it in small portions during my commute home from work. In short, Richard Matheson’s original story and the latest film adaptation of it are very different in ways that just work to each version’s benefit.
In reading the book, I found that it was easier to feel the main character’s isolation than in the movie. The movie, for starters, was a lot shorter, and the main action took place over a shorter period of time. His isolation in the movie is softened by his companionship with his dog… Though his talking to mannequins was effective in demonstrating his desperation for contact. In the book, he does not have a dog (though one turns up late in the story) and rather than talking to mannequins, Neville resorts to heavy drinking.
The book goes into a lot detail about Robert Neville’s search for a cure to the plague, and you get a sense for his enormous amount of free time and his dedication as he struggles to not only deal with his virtual solitude, but with the horrors of the plague that took his family away, and ultimately let him to not only bury his wife, but kill her violently again when she returned from death.
In the book, he is not military doctor (as he is in the film) so his quest for a cure involves starting from the basics of medicine. As he builds up his knowledge from reading books on medicine and biology his understanding of the plague (and how to possibly cure it) increases.
In the book, the humans who weren’t killed by the plague (with the exception of Neville) became vampire-like zombies, who displayed similar weaknesses as vampires from popular legends (aversions to sunlight, crosses, and garlic) which may have been appropriate when the story was first published, but seemed a bit dated and uninspired to me. The genesis of the zombies in the movie (a mutated cure for cancer) was more appropriate for the present, and the vampire elements (except for the aversion to light) were not used.
Another thing that separates the movie from the book is that the movie had to have action that would bee effective for the medium given the opportunities that exist with special effects.
It’s hard to say too much about the differences and similarities between the book and the movie without giving away too much. In the end, I can say that I enjoyed them both, but I can’t say which I liked better. I liked the action and visuals of the movie, and the detail of the book. They both have their own strengths and weaknesses. Each were done at a particular time where certain themes or styles were appropriate.
Unlike my previous book/film comparison, there is no clear winner here. If you’re going to see the movie, read the book first. Both are worth enjoying.
PKD Update II
Wednesday, October 17th, 2007I’ve now finished the first volume of Philip K. Dick’s collected short stories.
In my last update, I gave a list of my favorite stories from which I’d read up to that point. It’s hard for me to say which of the short stories I’d like to add to that list, because, literally, they were all good. If I have to pick some, I would say I really enjoyed The Infinites, The Variable Man, The Indefatigable Frog, The Crystal Crypt, Meddler, and of course Paycheck (which I’d read before and loved). I also should mention The Great C, Colony, and Prize Ship for also being good stories that kept me hooked until the end.
I’ve never been really into science fiction before, but PKD’s short stories have been an absolute pleasure to read. I like how they keep you entranced to the end, wondering what’s going to happen, or trying to guess just where PKD is going to take a particular theme — and usually being wrong, but not disappointed.
So, one volume down, four more to go. I am debating whether or not I should space things out a bit and read a PKD novel in between the volumes of short stories.
PKD Update I
Thursday, September 27th, 2007I am making my way through the first volume of Philip K. Dick’s collected short stories… I’m nearly halfway through. I’ve read at least one a day during the week… sometimes as much as three a day, depending on how long the stories are. I read them on the train heading to work… the morning commute is ideal for reading short stories.
While I’ve enjoyed all the stories I’ve read so far, a few that stick out as my favorites are The Gun, The Skull, The Defenders, and Piper In The Woods.
Discovering Philip K. Dick’s Science Fiction
Tuesday, September 18th, 2007A recent sale on audiobooks at Apple’s iTunes store resulted in my purchasing Minority Report and Other Stories by Philip K. Dick. The audiobook contains a number of short stories, two of which I had seen the movie adaptations for: Minority Report and We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, (which Total Recall was based on.)
I have to say, I loved the stories. All of them. Aside from the aforementioned stories, Paycheck was perhaps my personal favorite. It’s the story of a mechanic who wakes up with two years of his memory gone as part of the conditions of a job he took, and learns he decided to forgo his salary in exchange for a bag of seemingly worthless objects that he had left for himself before his memory was erased. Second Variety was another great story worth mentioning.
Anyways, after finishing the audiobook, and being totally taken by Philip K. Dick’s extraordinary talent for science fiction, I decide to buy five volumes of his collected short stories. It will take some time to get through these volumes, and I’m excited to get started.
Planet of The Apes
Thursday, June 28th, 2007I have to admit that I was ignorant of the fact that the classic movie Planet of the Apes was in fact based on a novel. I love the original movie Planet of the Apes, and was intrigued to learn that the original novel by Pierre Boulle was very different. In the movie, they have limited technology and live in primitive structures. The book, I was informed, put the apes in a technologically advanced society.
I found a new mass market paperback of the original novel on Amazon and started reading it last night. I found this original novel so fascinating that I had to force myself to stop after going more than halfway through it, and I will probably finish it tonight.
UPDATE, 6/29/07 : Finished. Definitely did not disappoint. The first question that should be answered is how it compares to the movie. Certainly most people would agree that novels are superior to their theatrical interpretations, but considering how different the two are, it’s not even fair to make such a comparison between the novel and the movie.
I can say that Tim Burton’s reimagination of the Planet of The Apes is nothing like the novel either… however, without giving much away, there is definitely reference(s) to it.
I think, given the mediocre response Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes received, he should have instead gone for a loyal adaptation of the novel.