Literature or Movies ? That is the question
I find myself at dead ends often. After hours of staring at a blank page I realize my muse sojourns, suspended in the air, floating above me, like a cloud of rain that although imbued obstinately refuses to let lose those most anticipated drops of water.
Because
my page is empty now, missing any words or metaphors that usually make it
sparkle, I started thinking of what is real artistic talent.
I
think of it on one hand as inspiration and originality and on the other hand
the mastery of simple, certain techniques of expression.
And
this brings me to my next epiphany. I should have seen this long time
ago, I am sure most people did, alas, it just dawned on me recently how
literature seems to be going through a phase.
Why?
Well,
because the reader being used to his own thoughts and dreams - which are
stories-along with memories, are all stories- gravitates to the movies faster
than to the book store. The movie, which ultimately is nothing but a
story also, feeds the need to have a visual setting for anybody’s inner
thoughts or dreams. Trendy novels like "Harry Potter,”
"DaVinci's Code" or - Tolkien's books are all movies. Tolkien,
Rowling, and Dan Brown have that "something" making it easy to convert
files directly into celluloid fantasy satisfying millions of otherwise very
good readers. In a movie, the message is delivered without the
"ballast" of the text, provided the director and scenarist are very
good.
So,
ultimately, it seems literature and film are two arts interchangeable
nowadays. The movie is a syncretic form of art, summarizing the
production of several types of arts and I appreciate it as much as anyone with
a Liberal Arts background could and should. But, literature in its old
classic form, the one I fed off in my youth, completely engulfed in the books
from my parents' library, seems to be a relic and that in itself breaks
my heart.
What I write today is the result of eerie nights spent
reading Chekhov, and Pushkin, and Balzac, Hugo or Flaubert.
Almost everything written today is in a celluloid format and I cannot decide if it is a good thing or not.
We used to go to the movies at least once a week, but have fallen out of the habit because commercial film makers do not cater to my tastes. We saw too many crappy movies in a row...the pain cost me nine bucks a shot. Who needs it? That said, I was talking about Eyes Wide Shut with a friend yesterday. After a few viewings, I feel like I understand what Kubrick was saying. Where is Kubrick? We need him now more than ever.
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It’s so interesting that you mentioned Eyes Wide Shut. We watched it some weeks ago and realized for the umpteenth time the genius within Kubrick. He was one of the only movie makers that presented a movie to the viewer with the same cerebral gusto a writer writes a book.You are not fed the answer but left to ponder it and eventually argue the meaning behind the idea with others , opening the Pandora box of free thinking this way…
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