DeLillo adaptations

[Mark Thibodeau]

On Fri, Sep 9, 2022 at 9:50 AM Allen Ruch <quail at shipwrecklibrary.com>
wrote:
 (snip)

> And Jerky, I hear you: “The Dead Zone” is great. I would only rank “The
> Shining” above it (and maaaaybe “Misery”), but Cronenberg did a bang-up
> job. After Lynch, Cronenberg is my favorite living director. I also think
> it’s interesting—Cronenberg hated King’s script for “Dead Zone,” so he had
> it rewritten, then rewrote parts of it himself. And it’s pretty well-known
> that King hated Kubrick’s “The Shining.” I think it’s funny that the two
> best adaptations, each by a cinematic genius, both were forced to partially
> ignore the author. And if you’ve ever seen King’s own cinematic adaptation
> of “The Shining,” hoo boy.
>
>
The main difference being that Cronenberg's Dead Zone is exquisitely
faithful to the novel (King's best, IMO, and the closest he has ever come,
or will ever come, to writing the Great American Novel), while Kubrick
takes great license with King's work (despite being fastidiously precise
when translating certain scenes, such as the Gold Room chat between Jack
and the bartender, which is taken word for word from the novel). I guess
issues arise when you try to determine what's fair and what's not when
comparing a film and its source material, be it novel or play or real life
event. I know I'm not teaching any of you learned dogs new tricks, but
movies are as different from, say, history books, as history books are from
the reality of the lived events themselves. No sense getting tied up in all
kinds of unresolvable phenomenological knots about it. Film and literature
have to work on their own terms, and it has been my experience that
the points of intersection between those two seperate arts are surprisingly
few and far between.

Jerky


> BTW, I hear **Brandon** Cronenberg’s next movie is J.G. Ballard’s
> “Super-Cannes.”
>
>
>
> —Quail
>
>
>
> *From: *Mark Thibodeau <jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com>
> *Date: *Thursday, September 8, 2022 at 3:23 PM
> *To: *rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
> *Cc: *Allen Ruch <quail at shipwrecklibrary.com>, P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org
> >
> *Subject: *Re: DeLillo adaptations
>
> You guys, man!
>
>
>
> First of all, we're only one novella away from one of Delillo's very best,
> IMO, that being ZERO K. A novel which, by the way, would make a tremendous
> film for the right director and cast.
>
>
>
> Secondly, how can anyone mention successful Stephen King adaptations and
> the films of David Cronenberg in the same email, and forget to mention
> perhaps the best cinematic translation of King's writing into cinema, The
> Dead Zone? For SHAME!
>
>
>
> Jerky
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 8, 2022 at 1:40 PM rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Interest take, Q (the good Q)
>
> I somewhat agree with your argument, especially with the post-Underworld
> novels. I don't hate it, but I can see how his dialogue may annoy others. I
> can't say Libra or many bits of Underworld have that quality, in fact, the
> historical reproductions of the Bronx in U and Oswald and his ilk in Libra
> are tour-de-forces imho. In fact, Libra is probably my favorite DeLillo.
> It's also interesting that you like Tarantino since I kinda feel about QT
> as how you feel about DeLillo. the man's work terribly annoys me and all
> his imitators, the Raymond Carver of the pictures. ugh
>
> Mike White. hmm. it's been hard for me to like since Chuck and Buck. I
> think he's gotten better however--and his female characters are top notch.
> the White Lotus is quite good. I didnt like the series with Laura Dern but
> the Jennifer Aniston as waitress in a dead town is good, too. White is in
> it, not sure he directed. I think he did. All that to say, he's not my cup
> of tea but he is talented.
>
> I had a strong DeLillo phase and I will read anything he writes (a sadly
> dwindling number for writers for me), but the best times are past. Maybe
> that's just what happens. folks get old, etc. I still will claim the best
> thing about Bleeding Edge was that you wouldnt have known it was written by
> some guy in his 70s. and if it is the last one we see from Mr P I guess
> that's not a bad way to end things (fingers still crossed of course)
>
> yr ob'd sv't
> rich
>
> On Thu, Sep 8, 2022 at 11:57 AM Allen Ruch <quail at shipwrecklibrary.com>
> wrote:
>
> > 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
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>
>