Food for Thought

“Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.” 
― C.S. Lewis

Stephen King's "Carrie"

Most of us went to high school and most of us know what an awkward period that can be. Not feeling pretty enough, tall enough or smart enough. Not fitting in with the “right crowd” at some point. Stephen King’s character “Carrie” had never fit in, she was the ultimate misfit.

Carrie White was a shy, quite 17 year old who lived in Westover, Maine. Both her parents were very religious. Her father was killed in a construction accident before she was born. That left her alone with her mother, who felt her daughter was a product of pure sin. She and Carrie lived a very simple life in their home and conducting home churches at least 3 times a week for several hours at a time.

Spare the rod and spoil the child was the philosophy of the house. Due to the strict religious code, Carrie did not behave as a normal teenager would of the time. The story begins with Carrie showering in Gym Class at the high school. This was an act her mother would disapprove of as showering was viewed as sinful, especially with other people. As she leaves the shower, blood begins to drip down her leg. Not an unusual occurrence for a typical teenager if it had been her first period. Carrie has never been told of menstruation and becomes instantly hysterical. The other girls tease her by calling her names and throwing tampons at her while she stood wet and naked in the shower. The gym teacher intervened, the taunting girls are punished with detention in the gym or no Prom and Carrie is sent home for the day to recover.

The day in the shower was unfortunately no different than most days. Ever since she started school, Carrie was teased and the butt of jokes. She never had one friend throughout her years in school. She wasn’t unattractive or unintelligent. She was just different and in the clicks of youth, just different won’t do.

Carrie had begun to notice in times of emotion stress, such as the shower incident, things would happen. A light busted after in the showers while the gym teacher tried to comfort her. A little boy on a bike was making fun of her on her way home and his tires popped. And there was the incident when she three years old…where stones fell from the heavens on only the home she lived in. It seemed stronger after she began her monthly cycle. She worked in secret in her bedroom to strengthen this ability.

Life seemed to get a little better when Carrie was invited to the Prom by one of her schoolmates. It all seemed too perfect, a wonderful date, a beautiful dress she made, and it would have been an unbelievable night if not for a girl in her class, Christine. She had been one of the girls who had teased Carrie in the shower and had never attended her detention. So she was unable to attend the Prom and blamed Carrie for it. She and some followers planned a horrible prank to play on Carrie. That prank would bring out the worst in Carrie White and cause destruction in the little town of Westover, Maine.

The book shows Carrie as the true victim of the story. The never ending teases and taunts from fellow classmates and teachers who didn’t care. A mother who was obsessed with religion and felt her daughter was an abomination. All she wanted was love and friendship but in the end all she could she caused was hate and fear. It also asks the question “If Carrie had a different childhood, with love, caring, and friendship, would her powers have come out?” This review was not mine but if you want to read more, please check out www.king-stephen.com

Adaptation

     Many books have turned into major films, this is called and Adaptation and I often hear “OH the book was way better than the movie!” Books are things that take time and imagination, not only to write but to read as well. So of course the book is better because you yourself put your own point of view into the story making it a much engaging piece of work.

     However I have read some amazing books that just do not translate onto the silver screen well at all. A few examples of these books are “The Lightning Thief” by Rick Riordan and “Carrie” by Stephen King. These reasons are as follows; “The Lightning Thief” is written from the point of view of a 12 year old boy, the boy in the first film is almost seventeen…WOW. They really did an awful job of following the story line to any degree accuracy at all. Annabeth in the books is a blond, in the film she is a brunette, Grover is white in the books and just has a limb and weak legs (no mention of crutches), in the movie he is a black guy with crutches and is a total douche bag “player”. WHAT?!? In the books Grover is so shy and frightened all the time, hes described as having a bad case of acne and the jitters almost all the time. Also they took out several one of the main characters, Dionysus, Clarisse, The Stoll Brothers, The Fates, And Ares (there are even more). Not to mention the thing with the pearls being so wrong. Not only did the screen writers take out a few main characters and events they also completely changed the story line! (I’m not gonna go into even more of a rant here but if you want to see more(not all)of the amazing things that happened in the book that were not included in the movie click here) Honestly though I could not believe how many main characters that are vitally important to the story line were removed for this piece of crap they called a movie.

     Carrie was a good movie and an even better book, the reasons I don’t think it translated very well though to the silver screen are somewhat minor. Considering the time frame in which the movie was produced I understand some of these things not being done, and other things I understand because they just only work for a book. The way “Carrie” is written makes it a challenge to adapt because a lot of the story is exerts from medical books and things like that, things that must be read and not filmed. There are mention of text books and news paper clippings that are thrown into the story every now and then to tell you more about what Carrie might have gone through, things like this are just difficult to explain, let alone turn into a movie. Other things that were different were the ending scene and the description of Carrie’s mother. In the book her mother is fat and in the film she is skinny, it is a small difference but one worth noting. ( BTW I’m talking about the 1976 version of the movie). The ending scene in the book Sue find Carrie and they have a short telepathic link with each other, but in the movie Carrie is stabbed by her mother while the house burns to the ground and she hides in the closet. All of these things were differences that did not have much of an impact on the film, but in general the film was just well done and well directed. At least when they rewrote things they rewrote them well, unlike “The Lightning Thief”. Carrie was a better movie than it was a book, but it was not as bad as “The Lightning Theif”.
   
     I think adaptations can be great if the screen writers follow the story and try not to change the plot too much, and if they do change it, make it small, and make it work well with the rest of the story. For example, “Harry Potter” is excellently adapted for the silver screen. These were just my thought on how adaptions work, but please feel free to comment and let me know what you think, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Characters

Alright so tonight I will discuss characters. Characters are what make a story so special; characters have to be engaging and round. If a character is not very “intense” or well formed and thought out then the whole story can be a total drag and make it nearly painful for the readers. So that is to say that the character must be described so that readers can see the details in their minds eye, readers don’t want to just see words on a page readers want to have the opportunity to “feel” and “see” the characters. I have read several books with nearly no descriptive wording in them and all and I can say is that it has prevented me from continuing with the series, Lorien Legacies or the “I am Number Four” series is so terrible btw do not read. After reading the book I have next to no idea what the characters look like or anything! Simply awful.

However descriptive language is not the only important thing in a story, the characters must be likeable and easy to sympathize with. For example “Harry Potter” was a completely relatable character. As a reader you must have the opportunity to really see through the characters eyes and have a sort of connection with the character. Even though the characters are full and vital to the plot you don’t have to like them for them to be important. Draco Malfoy was an important character in the “Harry Potter” series even though he was not liked by any of the other characters he played a big role in the series. I’m getting off track now, but… the point is that the most famous books and the most successful books have very round and engaging characters. But not only are the characters round but some of them are original like “The Boy Who Lived”. If you guys have any thoughts on my writing technique and ideas for futures articles please message me THANK YOU.

Originality

This word is extremely important. The originality of a work in literature can make something successful or make it an example of what not to do. Originality does not just stay confined to books though; it applies to movies, art, dancing, music, and pretty much any other art form you can think of. When writing a book the author must ask themselves “is this cliché or is this original? Does it sound like something I’ve read before?” these questions, and others, must be asked to ensure the purest and most enjoyable reading and writing experience for the author and the readers.

           However to me an original story is not just the idea, the writing form must be “executed” perfectly and original to the author, the story base does not need to be original however. For example Agatha Christie wrote about murder but each book she changed the story to make an original work of literature, the idea does not always need to be original for the work to be considered “original”. Although it never is a bad thing to have a completely original idea (Rick Riordan).

Death In a Story

     Well...sad topic for tonight guys. In literature death is quite a big theme. In  a story death can make or break a character; it can drive them toward the goal they seek, or it can crush them and cripple them to a point they can't go on. Death in general is something that everyone avoids, but it seems to be the holy grail in literature. Death plays a major role in several famous  tales such as Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. This novel takes place on an island with ten people invited to a small get together, but one by one they are being killed by an unknown assailant for an unknown reason, so obviously death is a major player in the plot. That story was a mystery and death was perfectly anticipated and in fact encouraged in that genre. However then, there are stories that all about trying to cope with death and not just face it head, one such story is Tears Of a Tiger which is about a high school student who is trying to deal with the death of a close friend. In the story he struggles with depression and ultimately (SPOILER) commits suicide.

     A lot of authors use death so predominately that it has become what they are known for such as Edgar Allan Poe, and Stephen King. Both of them have written many famous stories involving death, Edgar Allan Poe wrote The  Black Cat and A Cask Of Amontillado, Stephen King wrote 1922.

     Outside of literature death basically controls our lives and I think that every decision we make is based on whether or not it is going to affect us and our lives. I mean even the simplest task may be analyzed to the point that we believe if it is done wrong then it will in some way kill us. However at that point it becomes paranoia. Besides all that, death is a major factor in life, the death of a loved one can invoke such strong emotion that we ourselves cant cope with the sheer "rawness" of the emotion. People have written books on death and what it may be like. Ive even heard of a book called 90 Minutes In Heaven, its about a man who had a near death experience and its his story of how he traveled to heaven and back. People are captivated by the idea of death and authors use it because of that...its not just the mystery of death either that captivates us its also the idea of just "not being there" anymore and being "gone" so the mystery of it is perfect for an author to take and shape however they want. I think Death is in almost every part of literature. Thanks for ready guys PLEASE show me to your friends and don't forget to give me some feedback! THANK YOU

Villains

      Villains...when I hear this I think of evil scientist and insane dictators, but what makes villains so evil? Surely the villain is also the main antagonist in the story, but is there a reason that a villain is so evil because surely not all villains were simply born that way...In most stories, not just books, the antagonist is bitter for something that happened to them in the past. For example in X-men Erik (aka Magneto) worked with Charles Xavier for the good of all mutants. However, because Magneto believed that mutants were superior, he left the X-men and started the brotherhood. In some stories, however, such as The Lion King, Scar was Mufasa's brother but was bitter towards Mufasa because he believed that the crown was supposed to be his and his rage eventually led to Scar killing Mufasa. So, even family relations can create a villain, especially when one does not get what they want. Many villains believe that someone has wronged them and want to take their revenge out on anyone and anything that gets in their way.

        Some antagonists become mad towards the world because they have suffered great loss such as the death of a spouse, and begin to believe that it was someone’s fault. In fact now that I think about it all Villains are bitter because they believe that someone has wronged them in some, what they interpret as, a terrible way. However we must examine the fact that all villains were good before a specific event in their lives turns them bad. After all no one is born evil. To say that when an antagonist realizes the truth that they would turn good is a perfectly reasonable statement, I have seen this many times a great example of this is in lion king two when Kovu feels remorse for betraying Simba. BTW Great examples of all of these things I’ve talked about are in the Percy Jackson series if you have not read I STRONGLY recommend it. YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED. PLEASE guys leave me some feedback and perhaps even a story idea and a big thanks to my first follower Delta Altair, please tell your friends about me!!!! THANK YOU