Expectations vs. Reality

What we can gain from the “original story” is of so much more value than all other interpretations thereof. In my opinion the “original story” is far more significant and worth far greater value than all of the adaptations that stem from it.

To illustrate this stance with a practical example, let’s take a look at something that most all of us familiar with: a book. It is often said that a book is much better than a movie or play that succeeds it. The reason this claim is usually made is because, when reading a book, the main tool used to visualize the events that occur is your imagination. The human imagination creates images and portrayals that make the words of the story leap off of the page. The human imagination is limitless and has no boundaries. The problem sometimes arises however when directors try to recreate images and characters from books into film. The problem is, that expectations don’t always meet reality when people go to see these films. For example one of the best books that I read when I was in elementary school was Holes by Louis Satcher. I remember being absolutely captivated by the story line, the twists and turns in the plot and being completely in love with all of the characters. I had already created images in my head of what the each character looked like, what each character sounded like, and how each and every image would appear. Shortly after I read the book, the movie came to theaters and I saw it on opening day. Although I was not completely disappointed with the movie I can remember saying to myself when new characters would appear “That isn’t how I imagined her to be” or when I noticed a particular feature on someone “I thought she would have red hair” or when someone spoke “Why is she talking like that?” The reason that I felt this way was because when I read the book I had set images in my head of all of these things and I expected them to be this way. But they weren’t. Herein lies the central problem with recreating the “original story.” It will never be able to fully reach the outlandish impossible heights of our imaginations.

I do believe that there is a certain hierarchy regarding the value of certain texts. Quite simply put more value should be placed on that which is original. This is because the original holds a certain degree of relativity. It is holds within itself, the author’s true intent, purpose and vision. If for no other reason, this is why the original holds far greater worth. Any other attempted duplication is just that. It is never worth even comparing to the original work.

One story that comes to mind when considering the subject of the “original story” is The Color Purple by Alice Walker. The book received great praise (and still does) when it was first published.

When the movie came to theaters, it was received well also.

Finally when the musical came to Broadway it received standing ovations.

Even after all of these heart warming and note worthy adaptations that only the screen and the broadway stage could bring, I would still rather read the book, the original. Why? Because it is just that. The very definition of the word original is such that one should desire to explore it.