Literary Hodgepodge

According to sources, Julia Stiles is planning on making a movie out of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, which is without question one of my absolute favorite books. I have a bias though because I read Sylvia Plath for years before I contemplated reading her novel. Anyway, the story also reports that she plans on starring in the movie. This scares the crap out of me for myriad reasons. The primary one being Julia Stiles can't undertake the role of Esther Greenwood, the same way that Halle Berry was a terrible Janie in Oprah's version of Their Eyes Were Watching God.

The fact that characters within novels have a very distinctive voice and characteristics, I always have a problem with translation of books to movies. I know, there are a lot of movies that are based on books. I tend to avoid movies on books that I've read. For example, if Sandra Cisneros decided to make a movie version of The House on Mango Street, I'll never watch it because I know the book and love it. Additionally, I know that they would mess the characters up. It's inevitable. Also, if I find out that a movie I have seen is a book, I won't read the book because I know the whole plot: rise, peak, denouement, and finish. What's the point of me reading the book at that point in time? Even with such absurd, self-imposed rules as that, I have to say that there are exceptions. I would watch Robert Redford as Bob Woodward in All The President's Men just to see how they work the relationship between Woodward, Deep Throat, and their sketchy late-night meeting spot. But, that's really one of the only true exceptions. Other ones will be addressed on a case-by-case basis.