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Alfredo's comments about his approach to movies touched a nerve, to an issue
about which my family has a question. I will use "The Lord of the Rings:
Fellowship of the Ring" as an example of this, but it could just as easily
apply to "Harry Potter: The Sorcerer's Stone", or any other movie made from
a book. Do you read the book first, then go see the movie? Or, do you see
the movie, then read the book? If one is going to do both, which should one
do first?

If one reads the book first, then the book is obviously the first
experience, the experience with no preconceptions. The books is filled with
one's own imaginings. What does Gandalf look like? How does Gollum sound?
The Balrog is frightening us much by what is not seen and so is still
unknown, as by what is described. But, when one sees the movie, then the
movie has to live up to, or fail to live up to, those imaginings. The
suspense is ruined. It is much harder to wonder how the hero will get out of
the suspenseful situation. And one is painfully aware of what had to be left
out of the movie.

If one sees the movie first, then one can be totally caught up in the story.
One has no idea what is going to happen next, how the plot is going to
unfold, or how it should unfold. But then the book is diminished. Gandalf
looks rather like Ian McClellan. And the suspense of the narrative is
somewhat lost, as the reader has a fairly good idea of where the plot is
going. Or the reader is distracted by elements that are in the book, but
were not in the movie. Recently, I ran across a quote from Kurt Vonnegut,
which I could not now find, where he complained about this very thing, that
seeing a movie ruins the experience of imagination while reading a book.

I also remember seeing Roger Ebert in an interview, explaining how he and
Gene Siskel were privileged to see so many movies with no preconceived ideas
whatsoever about them, and then they ruin that experience for everybody
else.

Greg Stigers
http://www.cgiusa.com

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