DeLillo adaptations

[Allen Ruch]

To begin with a confession, I kind of hate DeLillo. I know he’s a great writer, and his sentences are perfect, yes, yes, I get it. I’ve read several of his books, but abandoned many more. The thing is: I HATE HIS DIALOGUE. It’s so ridiculously stylized and overly-pretentious for me, I just can’t get into it. Which is weird, I mean I love Shakespeare and Quentin Tarantino; but there’s something about DeLillo’s characters that make me *hate* them, and that makes me hate the books, which makes me hate DeLillo’s writing. It’s like Wes Anderson movies: I just want to punch each and every character, then punch the director.

Having said that, there has been one solid DeLillo adaptation: David Cronenberg’s “Cosmopolis.” He adapts the dialogue pretty straight from the book—which makes me hate it (see above)—but the entire thing is pretty saturated with satire, and I think does a lot of justice to the source material. And Robert Pattinson is amazing, as usual.

I have very little hope that Noah Baumbach is going to make a good movie out of “White Noise,” but at least someone is trying.

Now, how about a prestige-TV series based on “The Recognitions,” written and directed by Mike White? That I’d fucking watch! Yeah man, I’d watch the fucking shit out of that.

—Quail

From: Pynchon-l <pynchon-l-bounces at waste.org> on behalf of Erik T. Burns <eburns at gmail.com>
Date: Tuesday, August 30, 2022 at 4:52 PM
To: rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Subject: Re: Pynchon at the Beach
I suppose it would be possible to take White Noise so seriously that one
entirely misses the point.

I hope that doesn't happen, though I had also hoped no one would ever make
movies out of his books. They feel like they might make good movies but I
don't think they will, really. Kind of like Stephen King, for that matter
(where, aside from a handful of exceptions including The Shining, Stand By
Me and Shawshank Redemption, the cinematic versions inerrantly blow.)

On Tue, Aug 30, 2022 at 9:06 PM rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> on an another note: the trailer for Baumbach's take on White Noise left me
> scratching my head--I get it's just a first look but it feels or suggests a
> Hollywood 80s Godzilla disaster movie. I'm not sure how DeLillo's satire
> translates to film and I consider WN satire. the trailer exudes such
> seriousness which I hope doesn't get all the attention. DD is at his best
> mixing the humorous with the profound--I'd be shocked and disappointed if
> the former wasn;t given its due. Don Cheedle as Murray Suskind gives me
> some hope
>
> rich