Comments on: One Good Thern Deserves Another

By: Adios, Colin Ward. | Pittsburgh Alpha to Omega

Adios, Colin Ward. | Pittsburgh Alpha to Omega — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:44:39 +0000

[...] Long (whose blog I finally checked out [it's rad], drawn thither by a post on the forthcoming Barsoom movie), I recalled attending, a year or so past, an agora at the Roboto Project (also, in its current [...]

By: Brandon

Brandon — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:27:20 +0000

The Afterlife of Samuel Johnson by Boswell’s ghost.

By: Roderick

Roderick — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:30:26 +0000

Which book?

By: littlehorn

littlehorn — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:14:46 +0000

If this can soothe your disappointment, your post got me interested in the book.

By: Roderick

Roderick — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:13:40 +0000

A funny passage from Return of Tarzan, where Jane has been captured by the Oparians:

Presently the day came, and a young woman whom Jane Porter had not seen before came with several others to her dungeon. Here some sort of ceremony was performed — that it was of a religious nature the girl was sure, and so she took new heart, and rejoiced that she had fallen among people upon whom the refining and softening influences of religion evidently had fallen. They would treat her humanely — of that she was now quite sure.

And so when they led her from her dungeon, through long, dark corridors, and up a flight of concrete steps to a brilliant courtyard, she went willingly, even gladly — for was she not among the servants of God? It might be, of course, that their interpretation of the supreme being differed from her own, but that they owned a god was sufficient evidence to her that they were kind and good.

But when she saw a stone altar in the center of the courtyard, and dark-brown stains upon it and the nearby concrete of the floor, she began to wonder and to doubt.

Elsewhere in the same book, the high priestess La tells Tarzan:

It is the duty of a high priestess to instruct, to interpret — according to the creed that others, wiser than herself, have laid down; but there is nothing in the creed which says that she must believe. The more one knows of one’s religion the less one believes — no one living knows more of mine than I.

(Oddly, however, when Burroughs returned to this milieu a few books later in Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar, La has inexplicably been transformed into a sincere religious zealot.)

By: 400 Lonely Things

400 Lonely Things — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:42:07 +0000

Umm… “furthering” rather.

By: 400 Lonely Things

400 Lonely Things — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:41:38 +0000

In the interest of furthing intelligent and heartfelt discussion of all things Barsoom, please stop by:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Barsoomian-Lullaby/303947652536

By: Craig Varian

Craig Varian — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:17:21 +0000

Discouraging, to say the least. Reading these books as a kid in the 70′s, I couldn’t wait for them to become a movie – and now that it’s happening I find myself almost wishing that it wouldn’t….

Another great example of Burroughs’ disdain for religion can be found in book six: The Mastermind of Mars’ “The Great Tur”, reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz…

By: Brandon

Brandon — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:08:57 +0000

I did not see the movie version of Gone with the Wind until after I had read the book. I found the movie disappointing, because it broke — no, it stomped on — one of the book’s major plot points: the inability of either Rhett or Scarlett to express their true feelings for each other. At one point in the movie Rhett tells Scarlett he loves her, which never once happened in the book, although it was obvious to readers that he felt that way. The whole point of the book is that neither of them can admit it out loud until Scarlett does so at the end — and by then Rhett tells her he no longer gives a damn.

When that happened in the movie I wanted to stop watching and throw the tape in the garbage. But it was a very small deviation in a four hour flick. It detracted from the movie, but the changes in The Remains of the Day helped the story in my view. I did not enjoy the book as much as the movie. As I recall I disagreed with all of the politics in both, but the book was worse. TROTD is my favourite Merchant-Ivory Ruth Prawer Jhabvala flick.

By: Gary Chartier

Gary Chartier — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:12:19 +0000

Frequently, that seems to be exactly right. But not always. Two of my favorite examples: (1) Harold Pinter’s script for The Last Tycoon uses the material from Fitzgerald’s unfinished novel very effectively, incorporating what Fitzgerald actually wrote while avoiding the over-the-top melodramatic ending Fitzgerald envisioned. The film is much better than the book Fitzgerald had in mind. (2) The film version of Remains of the Day tracks the book version very closely, but subtly shifts the focus of the story from politics (still very much in view) to the relationship between the characters played by Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. The film isn’t better than the book, but it’s not worse either.

In general, I despise directors’ willingness to ignore their source material, but I guess there are always exceptions.