Tiff

And so another semester ends…I should be graduating, but alas, one more to go! Anyway, I’ve been working on an idea for new posts, and since it is now summer, I have much more recreational reading time (as opposed to time spent reading assigned material) in which to start. My idea is this: comparing books/plays/short stories to the movies made of them. Two of my favorite things in the world. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty excited about it. I have a limited amount of books on the shelf at my apartment – mostly stuff I’ve already read – so when I looked up from my computer today, I chose the first novel that was not Robinson Crusoe (no offense, Defoe). Therefore, my subject will be one of the first modern French novels, Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary (1857). I think I read this about two years ago, so its been a while. Checking out imdb.com, it seems that there have been many movies and/or television series made of this novel. I’ll probably be able to find the 1991 version easiest.

What I’ll be assessing is the quality of both book and film alone and how they work (or don’t work) together. Let’s put it this way: just because a novel might be considered a masterpiece does not mean its corresponding film also fits the bill, and probably vice versa. I won’t be a total stickler about content. I understand that every single event cannot be contained in a film of reasonable length. What I can’t promise is that I’ll be generous about extra scenes, additions or changes to the plot. So if you would like to read with me, I’m going to be working from the Oxford World’s Classics version translated by Margaret Mauldon, 2004. It’s 300 pages, give or take, in three parts. I’ll check up in about a week, and have at least Part I read. Happy reading!

I started watching a lot of tv this semester. A lot of criticism has come along with it: “How do you have enough time to watch all of that stuff?” Meaning, “Don’t you have other things to be doing like homework or finding a job?” (Dad) Or, “You could be crushing it on your blog or on Twitter instead of wasting your time watching tv.” (You know who you are) So although these people will probably never be satisfied with my conduct (due to their very high expectations for me, of course), I decided to write about why I watch television anyway.

It’s simple, really: 1) Whatever, I do what I want. 2) I love stories.

I mean, this is what I do on a daily basis, just in a different medium. I live for plot development and character growth. It’s not much different from watching a movie or (dare I say?) reading a book – I’m still advocating for all three, here. Plus, there is a fair amount of tv out there with a lot of merit. It seems to me that great actors, plot lines and direction are becoming more prevalent in what could be a genre just like short fiction. Television is just as capable of sparking intelligent, speculative conversation and thinking.

And if it doesn’t have merit, it probably has heart. For example, shows like CSI: Miami or Bones tend to get a bit cheesy and follow the same pattern every week, but I’ll be damned if I don’t love every one of those quirky characters. People might think me ridiculous for sobbing when Kate had to leave Aaron behind (“They’re fictional characters!”), but these people are really real to me. By the way, if you would like to further explore the issue of created entities being “alive,” you should read Luigi Pirandello’s play Six Characters in Search of an Author.

There is also the value of entertainment. Even the best of us settle for watching the worst reality television – Rock of Love I, II and Bus, for example. But it’s funny! It’s hilarious, and it always serves the age-old purpose of escape. Theodor Adorno might disagree with me, but sometimes we just need to veg out.