Take the Cuennei challenge

A good friend and loyal reader writes:

I'm shocked that you still have a ratio of almost 3:1 for political posts compared to most anything else. I'm also shocked that culture posts come in at #2. I would have thought that economic posts would be #2 or #1.

He's right. I should bring all categories to 10 posts each before I post again on politics. (Shannon Elizabeth posts notwithstanding, because that was meant to be tongue-in-cheek all along.)

To wit: eight "books" posts in a row, of which this is the first.

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I'm watching A Scanner Darkly, the film adaptation of the novel by Philip K. Dick. I hate his books, but love the films based on his books, Blade Runner, Screamers, Minority Report, parts of Total Recall. I find this to be more common as I get older, preferring movies to novels. Why?

The easy answer is that my life is filling up: family, work, commute, home ownership. A 90-minute film is an easier pill to swallow than a week-long book. But this is almost too easy. Lives are always full. What was my excuse before? And you have to account for the national decline in readership overall.

I think the real answer is that film is improving while books are not. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind would never have worked as a book. In the book version of Jesus' Son -- and this is hard for me to admit, because Denis Johnson is a first-tier writer -- your heart does not break when Michelle gets the abortion. It is still tempting for me to cry when I see Samantha Morton on screen.

Sometimes I watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Amores Perros without subtitles. On that latter film, all of the parallels between the characters and their pets would have been pretentious and overwritten in fiction. On screen, it is brilliant.

There are exceptions to every trend. The King by Donald Barthelme is my favorite novel, and would never work as a motion picture. The English Patient was excellent in both media. I am nervous about the upcoming film adaptation of Life of Pi. And on adaptations, Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation of The Orchid Thief was terribly flawed.