I have heard so many times “The book was better.” when talking about shows and movies that are based on books. Hell, I have said it before myself. I’m looking at you Vampire Diaries and Secret Circle. Not often, though, do I hear “The movie/show was better.” though I have experienced it more than once. Ahem. Interview With A Vampire. Sorry. Unfortunately, I won’t be covering comics or manga because I am not familiar with manga and comics confuse me.
I have been an avid reader since I was in second grade. As a kid, I got into a lot of trouble and when I was grounded, all fun stuff was taken away from me, as it should’ve been. However, I was still allowed to read, so I devoured books. I read and re-read my books countless times and my library grew. At this time with mostly Sweet Valley Twins books, though A Swiftly Tilting Planet and A Wrinkle In Time (the movie was horrible) were there too. I spent quite a bit of time at the library too. As I got older, I continued to read. Even after we got a computer I kept reading. That is not to say I shunned visual media, just that I loved reading.
In my opinion, the best books are the ones that are descriptive enough, without being all description, that it is like a movie as I read, I can see the action happening. I love becoming so immersed in what I am reading that I can’t hear anything around me. My husband isn’t a fan of it but he has his video games so I pay no mind. Another mark of a good book is the characters you want to know or avoid. You get to know these characters and they feel like you know them personally. I always wanted to tell Caroline off because of how she treated Elena, but I also wanted to tell Elena that she was being selfish. I was in love with Stephan but he and Elena looked perfect together. I can see the scene with Harry and the one-man-polka-band that is Butters riding a reanimated T-rex named Sue down the streets of Chicago. I can hear Bob ask Harry for more romance novels. I become part of the book and lose track of time as I race through the book because I just Gotta Know. Those are the best.
Visual media is the same except I use less of my imagination but sometimes that is the draw. I want a new world to walk into and relax as I take in the experience. The same still happens, I become immersed and I feel all the feelings that I was supposed to, at least with the best ones. In Warlock Armageddon, you feel the love between Kenny and Sam, the anguish of Grandpa when he kills Kenny, and the rage of Warlock when he loses, even as cheesy as the movie is. That is a great, I was going to say movie, but I will go with story. The effects were horrible.
Since I have been here at TGON, I have covered books, movies, and shows and quite a few have been books turned into some sort of visual media. I have covered The Dresden Files, The Vampire Diaries, Interview With A Vampire, American Gods, and more. I have found that my feelings about books versus visual media always fall into one of three categories: Book was better, I like them the same, and The movie/show was better. The first and last are the two they fall into most often.
One of the most cited reasons for liking the book better than the movie is that they took out too much. When I was in college and took a cinema course I asked about this. There are usually a couple of reasons. The first is practical. Can they achieve the visuals or concepts in the book? With modern effects technology that’s not as much of a deterrent as it once was. The second? Length. To get everything from the book into the movie, any movie made from a book would be ridiculously long and therefore costly. With that understanding, I became much more forgiving of them. A great example of the effects reason is The Dresden Files. Bob is a character who is, in the books a spirit of intellect. He does not have, nor has he ever had, a corporeal body and he lives in an empty human skull on Harry’s bookshelf. In the show, they needed someone visible so they changed Bob’s character just a little, giving him a tragic backstory, but he now had a body, or at least a representation of what used to be his body, while keeping his essence. I do understand the argument, though.
Personally, I don’t like it when they take a character and change how they look. I didn’t like it with Elena, Jeremey, Caroline, Tyler, or Bonnie in TVD and it was the only thing I didn’t like about The Dresden Files show. They changed Murphy. I don’t like seeing the character I am expecting looking nothing like they are described, especially if I like the character a lot and the writing is well established. I heard people gripe about that often with Alice and Bella from the Twilight Saga.
But sometimes, the movie or show is much better than the book. My sister-in-law and I struggled to get through both Interview With A Vampire and American Gods. The writing was dry and slow and there was too much description and weirdly not enough. The American Gods added to the story by having side stories. It’s not unique to the show but the show followed them through. They also added more of Laura to the story, she didn’t have as much to do with it as the show would lead you to believe. It sucks that they were unable to finish the story. The show followed the book, even with the added storylines. It made the whole thing richer.
Then there are the ones I like equally. The Dresden Files is my best example. I have been reading the series for years and am very attached to the characters. It’s one of my favorite series I have ever read. However, I like the Syfy channel show just as much. Yeah, there are differences but I can live with them. The essence of the two Harrys is the same. The essence of Murphy and Butters is the same. Unfortunately, the show didn’t even get a full season before it was canceled so there are only ten episodes. This means I didn’t get to see if they were going to include Michael, Molly, Marcone, or anyone else.
I don’t know if I will ever read the Sookie Stackhouse books, the Odd Thomas series, or Beautiful Creatures, because I loved the show and movies they were made into so much. On the other end of that, I don’t know that I would watch the Netflix show Shadow and Bone given that I have read the Shadow and Bone trilogy. I might pick the show apart. At this point, I figure I can’t miss what I don’t know. I do know there is talk about an ACOTAR movie or show. Will I watch it? Yes, just try keeping me away. Will I be judgemental? Also yes. I don’t know whether to be pumped or filled with dread. They better get the look and attitude right. Though I don’t see it happening with all the sex in the series, I would dread seeing Anita Blake on the screen. My husband wouldn’t be in the same house as me while I watched it just so he didn’t have to hear the potential complaining and irritation. He’ll go visit his dad. He has already told me this.
Ultimately, there is no victor in the debate between visual media and books for me. It is completely a case-by-case issue. I truly am a bookwyrm because I gorge on books. I had to quit reading for a bit so I could catch up with my books and KU reviews for my Kindle Unlimited series. What I read is bound to end up on screen, at least in part. Not to mention all the books I haven’t read like Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, or Romeo and Juliet, for older examples or Bridgerton, The Fault In Our Stars, or The Princess Diaries for more modern examples, that have already been made into movies are going to appeal to some and not others. Maybe watching the story on screen will inspire me to read the book. It has in the past. I didn’t know Twilight was a book until I watched the movie. I guess I will call it a draw and continue to try and enjoy both.
What about you? Where do you fall in this thinking process? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time, have fun storming the castle!
