The adaptation for The Hottest State by Ethan Hawke was one of the times I felt the film version more so than the book. I liked the book a lot when I read it 25 years ago, but I didn’t have that kind of love loss for another handful of years. I finally watched the film not too long after my own big heartbreak in my early 20’s, and I thought, Yes Mark Webber, that is exactly what I feel. Exactly.
I reread Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel again recently. This is one of my favorite books and one of the few I reread. This was the first time I read it since I saw the miniseries. I adore this book, but I must admit, the miniseries amplifies the heart of the story. It expands into the spaces left untouched by the author. The author’s missed opportunity? I don’t know. Her muse maybe didn’t select her to write the full story, but came hard for the writers of the miniseries.
Almost every movie based on a John Irving book represents only a third of the book. Sometimes we take only parts when we make art from art and sometimes we expand.
My friend’s beautiful book Nightbitch was recently adapted into a film. I remember thinking when the adaptation was announced, Good luck translating all that onto the screen. How could they ever capture that feeling of rage? But I cried at the ending of the film. Although the ending takes a different form from the ending of the novel, which was my favorite part of the book, it was clearly still impactful in its own way. The feeling was there – isn't that what is really important? We seek a feeling from art. It doesn’t really matter how we get there, does it? Just that it happens.
I can’t rewatch The Hottest State because it triggers the death of a youthful innocence I can never go through again. I sob when I watch Kristin and Jeevan reunite in Station Eleven every time, though I know it is coming. I can howl with Nightbitch, in whatever form she takes. I can enjoy watching The Cider House Rules, knowing it is just a few chapters of Homer’s life.
Art is art is art and we make art from art. Art touches us, it reaches inside in different ways and the adaptation of art may fall apart or it can amplify in a new way what is already there.
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Marion Roach Smith
The Memoir Project
I help 12,000+ subscribers each week write and publish memoir. As a 4x published author with the biggest publishers in the world, and former NYTimes staffer, I know how to get your work out in the world. There are 120 books on my shelf from published writers who have worked with me. The Memoir Project meets the needs of memoir writers, offering classes in how to begin writing memoir, the art of the personal essay, book structure, writing op-eds for publication and how to write and publish book-length memoir. |
