The Book is Better

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I've been on a Harry Potter movie marathon this week, something to keep my mind occupied while I'm re-gearing between books. I have the first five, and I spread them over three days. It's an excellent way to pass some time.

Last night, when I finished THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, I wanted to go back and fact check a couple of items against the book. I hate that so many of the scenes are altered, making Harry look weak - especially when he has the prophesy and Lucius Malfoy confronts him. In the movie he hands it over. If I remember correctly, in the book, that is far from accurate.

I was planning a late night anyway because I was expecting a call from the West coast, so instead of flipping to the appropriate spot in the book, I started at the beginning.

Whoa!

These books lend themselves well to the visual medium, no doubt about it. But the difference was overwhelming. It was like going from watching a black and white silent movie to reading in luscious Technicolor. The imagery J.K. Rowling evokes just can't quite make it to the screen. They come close - I did a step by step match-up of the beginning of the book and the movie, and the movie captures the essence of what the book describes. But reading it, glorying in the details, was a far more satisfactory experience for me. There's just so many minute details that the movie encompasses into one broad stroke, which is an art unto itself.

As a writer, I can only imagine how difficult it is to adapt a popular novel to the screen. Every reader has a completely individualized experience when reading a book. Characters form in your mind, and each person's description is a little bit different. I had this problem when we were choosing a reader for the Taylor Jackson audio books - I know EXACTLY what Taylor sounds like, deep, husky, slightly southern, slow and decorous. But what I hear in my head may be completely different than what every other reader hears in theirs.

The same goes for a film adaptation, and that's where a really visionary director can make all the difference. I had major issues with the first Twilight film, I felt like it skimmed over too many of the importance parts. But NEW MOON was just the opposite, I thought they did a great job of mining the little details that make Meyer's stories so unique.

So there you have it. Some movie adaptations are a hit, and some are a miss. Regardless, when someone tells me the book is better, I do listen.

What's your favorite adaptation? Least favorite?

Twyla Tharp, Genius

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"The call to a creative life is not supposed to be torture. Yes, it is hard work and you have to make sacrifices. Yes, it is a noble calling; you're volunteering in an army of sorts alongside a phalanx of artists who have preceded you, many of whom are your mentors and guides, upon whose work you build, without whom you have no fixed point of reference. They form a tradition that you have implicitly sworn to protect, even while you aim to refashion it, and sometimes even shatter it.

But it's also supposed to be fun."

~Twyla Tharp, THE CREATIVE HABIT

Le Tombeau d'Edgar Poe

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Last night, the Nashville Symphony did a performance dedicated to Edgar Allan Poe featuring Stravinsky's SYMPHONY OF PSALMS and Rachmaninoff's THE BELLS. As you can imagine, we bought tickets early. How can you not love the idea of music inspired by Poe's writing?

In between the two Russian masters was a piece by composer Dominick Argento called Le Tombeau d'Edgar Poe. It was quite brilliant, playing off of my favorite Poe poem, Annabel Lee. Listening to this unique interpretation, I was struck by a realization. So much of our social networking is dedicated to saying something. Something important, eloquent, worthy. I've blogged for years with this purpose in mind: to edify, educate and elucidate my purpose.

What I rarely do is share my inspirations. They hit me daily, in large ways and small. It can be something as simple as the smile of a stranger, or as complex as a movie script. Poems, fragments of conversations, links I find interesting - my zeitgeist - has been largely missing.

So this space will now have some less elucidating, education and edifying pieces. No less worthy, I think, but perhaps more an exploration of my own personal zeitgeist without extensive essays to "explain" my thoughts.

Let me start with Le Tombeau, then. The Tomb of Edgar Poe, inspired by the brilliant Annabel Lee. How apropos.

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

~Edgar Allan Poe

Review of the Quo Vadis Habana Notebook

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Oh boy, do I ever know what I’m going to be passing out to everyone this year.

The wonderful Karen Doherty from Exaclair, Inc., the exclusive U.S. distributor of Clairefontaine, Exacompta, Rhodia, Quo Vadis, and a bunch of other really fine paper products, sent me a Quo Vadis Habana notebook to test run.

As you all know, I am a paper freak. I covet nice paper, and pristine notebooks to capture my thoughts. Earlier this year I bought myself a Moleskine and started keeping all my thought in one place in an attempt to work in a more streamlined, GTD life style. I like the Moleskine, but the paper is yellowish, and I can see the notes from the previous page, which means I end up starting a new page every time I have a thought. 

My friend and fellow author Jeff Abbott turned me on to Clairefontaine notebooks and their lovely, clean white paper. I’ve become a bit of a convert, and this revelation has sparked an extensive search for the perfect notebook.

Clairefontaine makes the nicest paper in the world – heavy, very white and no bleed regardless of the pens I use. There’s nothing better than the heavy, steady feel when turning the pages. So you can imagine how excited I was to get the Habana, loaded with it's yummy Clairefontaine 90g paper.

The Quo Vadis Habana notebook is a great size too, 6” x 9”, bigger than my Moleskine by just the right amount. (Sadly, my Levenger pen keeper is too small to fit around the edge, so I’ll have to order a new one.) The notebook opens and lies almost flat, and has a solid backing that isn’t too stiff. The pen slips along the page, allowing notes and thoughts to flow unhindered. And the extra inch of space means I rarely have to stop and flip a page in the middle of a thought. For folks like me who hate to waste paper but don’t like to have multiple thoughts on the same page, this is perfect.

All in all, I have to give this notebook 5 stars. And I’m going to be passing them out as Christmas presents to all my friends and family who love the feel of an elegant notebook, and I’m going to the store to take a gander at their highly-rated planners.

Check out the excellent Quo Vadis blog here for lots of great info, reviews, and random musings.