Film-makers are notorious for pouncing on #1 Bestseller book lists and turning the stories into Blockbuster films. We'd be here all day if we were to list every novel that has been interpreted by a film director and turned into a box office hit.
However, for the sake of this post, I'd like to concentrate on one novel I read over the summer holiday and what my experience had been reading while reading it and then watching the movie post-completion of book.
Let me begin by discussing the aesthetic look of my book and where I bought it. It'll provide you with more depth to my reasoning. UC has a book sale every September (it should be coming up soon, now that I mention it) and last year I was asked by my Professor to visit it for a class project. I was taking a course on bibliography at the time. Anyhow, so I make my way over to this book sale held in the upper west wing of UC college, to find in this old exam room tables with stacks upon stacks of 18th-19th century books. Some were so old they were being sold for hundreds of dollars. Among these attainable artefacts was a book which contained a collection of Oscar Wilde's best work. It was a collation of poems, short stories and the novel,
The Picture of Dorian Gray. Being an English major, I was already familiar with Oscar Wilde and had read many of his shorts for classes I had taken in university, however had never read
Dorian.
I was sitting in my room this summer fiending a classic novel. I walked over to my bookshelf and found this book, opened it, and was spectacularly surprised to find
Dorian Gray inside. Already, the experience of physically handling a 19th century book and excitedly discovering a piece of literature inside it, which I had not know to be there, was an experience of enough sensory provocation to make it one I can relive in my memory.
The pages were yellowed, the binding was loose and the prose? Astounding. Wilde writes with a sophisticated disturbance that rattles your imagination to its core. At times I found myself putting the book down before bed and distracting myself with Youtube videos so as to avoid any chance of oncoming nightmares. Wilde is a master. His characters are convoluted in their ambitions and views of the world. They contradict themselves, they are hypocrites, they are human. He reveals details about his characters through their dialogue and his discourse that hinge on your curiosity about the peculiarity of them.
Anyhow, this novel ended up being one of the most beautiful pieces of literature I have ever read, and it just might be one of my favourites. I fell in love with Dorian, as I'm sure Wilde would have expected of any female audience, and because of this, could not wait to watch director Oliver Parker's motion picture interpretation.
But plot aside, the point here is the multi-sensory act of reading.
One, you are touching the book as you hold it and flip the pages. The older the book, the more fragile the pages, the more enjoyable the 'flip'. Two, are looking at the words on the page. You are watching the pages turn and guessing the number of them left. Three, you are hearing whatever it is going around you and choosing to tune those sounds out. You are making the conscious decision to read in silence, read to some background music, read to the sound of leaves rustling. There is no soundtrack to this story, there is only the natural soundtrack of your comfortable environment. Four, you are smelling the pages of the book. "Old book smell" - a masterful combination of vanillin and lignin. Ahh, what a wonderful smell it is. Whether old or new, your sense of smell has definitely been aroused. Can you say the same while reading an old classic off your tablet? And five, taste. I suppose if your curiosity is provoked enough you may try to eat the pages of your book. I don't encourage this, but hey, why not try everything once?
Now, to offer the counter argument. But first, Ben Barnes. He is captivating on screen. The delicacy, and yet, masculinity of his defined features leave you wanting more of his face in front of yours. Just had to get that out there. That aside, the experience of watching a director's interpretation of this novel was not as...invigorating. Not in the least bit. You are not given the details a novel provides you. You are not aware what the side glances and whispered remarks mean. There are so many holes only literature can fill, at least that's how I feel.
And the participation of all senses. Sight and sound are exploited, absolutely. Sense is not, taste is obviously not and neither is touch. Now, don't get me wrong. I love watching movies. Huge fan of fabulously directed films. Love Wes Anderson. I firmly support the art of acting and film producing. The audience I'd like to target are those that claim they know a book by watching the filmatic adaptation. The ones we hear so often who state, "I didn't need to read the book because I watched the movie first."
You. You are who I'm talking to.
One must read the book. One must always read the book. The experience of reading a book cannot be matched. It is all-consuming. You and the book become one during the moments you are enthralled by it. You are given a likely idea about what the book is like after watching it's film, but you are denied so many nitty-gritty details that increase the percentage of a book's charm incredibly.
So please, read the book. Owe it to the book. If possible, read the book before watching its adaptation, I implore you.
In terms of the congruence of novel and film version of
Dorian Gray, I'd say there was about a 75% match-up. Homosexual relations were displayed in the film, which were insinuated but not explicated in the novel. Dorian's character altered immensely post-soul abandoning. Colin Firth was a great Harry Wotton, but the use of eyeliner under his eyes and the intensity of his stare creeped me out a whole lot more than the Harry Wotton in Wilde's novel.
Parker's interpretation was no Harry Potter and certainly no Lord of the Rings. His additions to the storyline did not add to the complexity of relations between characters, nor illuminated the inner moral struggle of Dorian's character. Could've been better. Was pretty disappointed. Thank goodness for Barne's jawline otherwise it might have been a total loss.
