Hello Gentle Reader
There will be no denying my own literary puritan stance, when it comes to literature segregation from film and televised serials; among other forms that try to breech the fortress. When some foreign person or form of art tries to enter the area in which I have sealed off, personally in my own mind, what is ‘literature,’ it certainly is not responded to with compassion and understanding. It is to be shot down immediately. Rejected and to be removed on site. No compromise. When a guest at Christmas a while back, had made the remark that rap and hip hop music was on the same literary level of poetry, my back was arched. In preparation for defense of the insular world of poetics and its own endangered and on the verge of extinction art, I shot down the thought of any vulgarity of music that glorifies violence, broken homes, drug abuse and alcohol abuse, gang affiliation, child abuse, and the sexual degradation of woman, by no means was something akin to poetics in any way shape or form; just like the comparison of a pop idol to Beethoven or Mozart or Chopin, would be considered appropriate as well. Bob Dylan is also on the Nobel Prize for Literature contender list, constantly – though his odds aren’t very good usually. Many besides myself also hiss at the concept of Bob Dylan wining Literature’s most prestigious prize, to be abhorrent. While others would proclaim a more progressive attitude in the blending and growth of Literature as an art form in which its idea of inclusion of other antigens is acceptable.
However that being said Home Box Office (HBO) is one of my favourite channels. “Game of Thrones,” is a show that was first watched, on a whim. My perception of a “Lord of the Rings,” flowery saga with Tolkien archetypes and knock offs, were soon thrown out the door. Such human characters, in their ambiguous moral stances, they tread the land of grey rather than being black and white. Though that little prick Joffrey certainly needs to be terminated. I grew to respect Sansa; admire Little Finger; become quite fond of Varys; feel pity for Cersei; all the characters were perfect in all their distinct personalities. Their own aims and goals were the same, and yet ambiguous in how it should be gone around in getting it. The storylines were personal, and there was a real human connection. There was no doubt in my own mind that this was a great television series. Based however on books. An adaptation certainly is not something literary in its own right. It is an adaptation, which takes what has already been written and said, and brings it to a wider audience. In doing so it allows for the literary value to also be adapted. It is no different than the countless films and television serials of Charles Dickens novels. Each one its own distinct visual style. However each one tells the same story that has become a famous classic. It is no different than when a Shakespeare play is taken on by a new director (theatre or film) and decides to revamp the work itself. Be it satirical or more contemporary. The story itself in the end remains the same regardless. The tragic love affair, between two young lovers from warring households and their fate is still the same, as were to be in its first performance.
Cinema and television today is in the need of a few teeth pulling. The whole “Lost,” phenomena was horrible. Terribly released, and without careful plot development, and the continuous force feeding of clues and riddles that amounted to nothing was just a real shake of the head in shame. However there have been some redeemable television serials and cinematic films as well. It could be said that it all started with the show “The Sopranos,” though dealing with organized crime, and rather morally dirty themes, showed a rather human side to the characters. With it, the television show had proved that careful planning of plot and story, along with realistic and believable characters that grew became something that kept people tuning into watch. It wasn’t the same old “Crime Scene Investigation,” with the same cardboard cut-out, characters who solved a new murder – and had very limited personal lives. They had very little character development as well as very little arching storyline that held such loose beads together. With “The Sopranos,” and those that have followed, all showed the capacity that television has to being more than just some boob tube.
The use of restrained dialogue. Carefully planned storylines. Emotional characters that engage with each other, in complex relationships. Why that has what novels and stories have done of a literary quality for such a long time. Why all of a sudden is television just starting to get the picture. Has society dumbed down that much? The reality shows that show a bunch of young frat boys partying and drinking, with their arm candy who have bigger attitudes than both their eighties stylized teased out hair and their implanted breasts. Then comes the other reality/game shows where people are placed on remote islands or countries and fight and play by the rules to survive or are placed in a house and locked in solitary confinement with each other. As if television could be some sociological/psychological experiment that says that this is what people will do for money; as well as the documentation of human behaviour in closed spaces.
Who could forget “Sex and The City,” (HBO you did me wrong there – but have redeemed yourself) which felt like watching a gay men’s fantasy of the high upend New York life. What is even scarier is that it had spawned two films!
However if one wants to look at the other end of the spectrum, “Girls,” another HBO television serial has also been compared to “Sex and the City,” in its feminine cast and its dealings with trials and tribulations of womanhood – though rather than middle age womanhood; it’ll deal with young womanhood. With “Girls,” however there’s more of an uncertainty in the air with these girls. They are quietly suffering with each other. The very first episode showed abortion and who could forget the main character Hannah’s motor mouth and constant worries about sexually transmitted diseases. Not to mention her degrading sex with a rather absent minded asshole of a boyfriend left me thinking about the vulnerabilities of youth. However its sorority friendship that keeps the girls held together certainly shows the test of time and the vulnerabilities with youth are not always dealt with alone. Though a bipolar period of uncertainties trials and tribulation; “Girls,” use a lot of comedy emotional impact and development of characters that make youth work it, and watching the show a new experience every time. Though I find Dunham’s characters, slightly arrogant in her youthful confidence but she is also greatly vulnerable. Yet she is quite a talker – continuously covering her bases when she talks. As if to contradict herself before anyone else does. Her sense of entitlement is also rather disturbing. Yet some Lena Dunham puts more rejuvenation in her character, allowing for an emotional kaleidoscope. She falls down a lot. But she picks herself up and moves on again and again.
Though television serials have made such progress with noted names such as “The Wire,” “Six Feet Under,” “Deadwood,” and “Boardwalk Empire,” the popularity of frat boys with fake and bake tans, drinking for the amusement of the camera is still in need of being shaken off. Action oriented films, where explosions fast paced minimal dialogue, car chasing scenes, and little relationship build, and no emotional invested characters – are all nothing more than block busters. They are nothing more than the equivalent to the low brow of the literary world. Best placed alongside the mediocre of the middle ground of the literary world. Never achieving the high and refined literary standards; this can be properly acquired if someone is willing to take the time and effort into it. It’s much like a fine wine. If one is patient and allows for it to ferment and age properly then the results would be worth it. However impatience and a desire to make money now, right now, will never achieve the proper success of a higher culture.
Too compare the poetry of Ko Un or Wisława Szymborska with the lyrical content of rappers is ludicrous. To call a television serial a new form of literature or to obtain the status of literature is certainly not going to happen in my opinion – at least it won’t be recognized by more sober and conservative seats where literature is one and one thing only. The written word, to which in its highest merit reflects and refracts the world into a larger spectrum of philosophies and experiences. This allows for a diverse world to explore. Full of introverted ponderings, extroverted and complex relationships, and a plane shifting like sand. From modernism to postmodernism; the experimental to the genre fiction. It is all explored and allows for an ever changing experience.
Televised serials, cinematic films, video game experiences will always attempt to reproduce that experience. To copy the formula of literature which has been defined and redefined and refined over and over again through the years, is always going to fail on fundamental levels. They are visual, but will never succeed in the elements that literature can exceeded in with its ability to shift perspective in a closed space of a characters mind, and allow for the experience to be dictated and viewed through their own mind. Such a more personalized form of narration usually requires flashbacks and commentary on the character. It doesn’t work as precisely or as well, as it does in a written format. Television, film, video games work so much better in a third person outlook. An observer peering in – not a character looking out.
I think the comparison of literature and television or film or video games is rather trite. The forms stand on their own merits alone. No comparison is needed in the long run. There is no need to melt the two together in a shady back alley lab, where the results could end up being some mutated disaster.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong.*
M. Mary
For further reading please see:
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/06/girls-mad-men-and-the-future-of-tv-as-literature/258469
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/magazine/riff-homeland-american-horror-story.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/15/AR2007091500132.html
