The Book Was Better

+++ title = “12” date = 2019 +++

One of my favorite questions to ask people (especially kids) when they see a movie adaptation of a book…

When you read the book after having seen the movie, do you visualize the actors from the movie playing their characters in your mind?

If you’ve seen the Harry Potter movies and you’ve also read the books, does Daniel Radcliffe appear in your mind instead of the young wizard boy you envisioned when you first read the series years ago?

And if you do see the actors, does it change the experience of reading the book again?

For one of my favorites, A Wrinkle in Time, nothing could ever replace the characters that I created in my mind on my first read through the book. Not the 2007 straight to DVD budget movie, and not the Ava Duvernay version from last year. Perhaps the world that Madleine L’engle was too good. Or perhaps the movies that the Harry Potter production team produced were too good, so that I now think of Emma Watson instead of my true version of Hermione.

Either way, it’s something to consider. Childhood beloved novels are important, and the visions we create while reading them as children may be important to preserve. They’ll still make movies, no question… but we may choose not to watch.