A few years ago, the husband made a rather astute observation about me: I treat pretty much everything in my life in an all or nothing way. I get obsessed easily. This was a time when I was ignoring him because I was focused on something else, and he was starting to get upset until it hit him that this is just who I am, and that it was not personal to him. He could point out times when I acted with the same laser focus toward a range of people, places, and things. I had never thought about it before, but he is completely right.
I only mention it now because anyone who has seen anything I have been doing online knows I'm obsessed with The Girl with the Dragon Tatto right now. And what is so bizarre is that I had not read any book or seen any movie until two weeks ago this past Friday. When I was flying to Houston, I was at home looking at my books and thinking that I really did not want to read anything that I intended to take seriously or was going to use in my research. Add that to the fact that a few people had asked me what I thought of the novel, if it crossed the line into rape porn or if it handled the depiction of violence well. So I decided to buy a copy at the airport and read it on the trip. As I noted on Twitter, I finished it on my flight out of Houston to Atlanta, so I bought the second one in Atlanta and finished it in NYC before I returned home a week ago yesterday. One week ago tonight, I watched the Swedish version of the first film. And I've been reading all news articles related to the upcoming film that I can find.
I'm planning to see the film at 7:00 on Tuesday when it premieres (I'll be at the AMC in Plainville if anyone local is also planning to see it then). This morning, the husband asked me if I was going to spend the rest of the week complaining about all the changes Fincher made in his film version (Fincher has already said he changed the ending, which has raised my ire). I told him I would respond the same way he did when he first saw the first of the Star Wars prequels and could not shut up about Jar Jar Binks and the future Darth Vadar yelling "Yippee!" in the pod race.
I also told him that I'm now reading The Hunger Games, so my obsession should be switching soon.
Oh, and I do not think the book crosses the line into rape porn. A writer, artist, or filmmaker has to tred a very fine line between revealing too much or too little. I actually get just as annoyed at too little because I think it helps people ignore the seriousness of sexual assault. To me, the book was a perfect balance. The movie? We'll see, and I won't be able to stop thinking about it for days, I'm sure.
I read all three back to back, too, and I've seen all the foreign films which I thought were very bit as good as the books. We'll see about the new version.
ReplyDeleteI read the first of the Hunger Games when I saw they were making a movie b/c both of my boys had read the entire series, and I pretty much gobbled that trilogy up, too. I'm *majorly* hyped about that movie, probably because it'll be the first version brought to screen for me.
And Hunger Games has an amazing cast. Yes, several friends said I should read it, but when I saw the different people signed on to the film, I knew we'd be watching it and that the odds are that it's going to be good.
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