The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #149: Susan Orlean
“I believe a writer should know a lot more than what she puts on the page.”
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Posts Tagged: adaptation
On Searching for Honesty in Writing: An Interview with Blake Nelson
Blake Nelson discusses his new book, Boy, letting his characters find their own fates, and possibly, maybe, being just the right amount of famous.
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The Rumpus Book Club Chat with Damian Duffy and John Jennings
Damian Duffy and John Jennings discuss their new graphic novel adaptation of Octavia Butler’s classic novel Kindred.
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I Love(d) Dick, but Not the Show
It’s difficult, if not impossible, to convey the arc of a series of letters in a TV show. Words flash on the screen at regular intervals in bright Helvetica.
...moreMeaty on TV
Cable television channel FX has purchased Meaty, a comedy series based on Samantha Irby’s memoir of the same title. Developed by Irby, Jessi Klein (head writer for Inside Amy Schumer, author of You’ll Get Over It), and Abbi Jacobson (Broad City, author of forthcoming Carry this Book), the show will focus on “failed relationships, taco feasts, […]
...moreThis Week in Short Fiction
For a story in a different medium this week, check out Amber Sparks’s “Thirteen Ways to Destroy a Painting” from this year’s The Unfinished World—adapted to a radio play. It’s brought to your ears by NPR’s truly excellent storytelling podcast Snap Judgment and read by Thao Nguyen of the San Francisco-based folk-rock group Thao and The Get […]
...moreRemaking Historical Memory
For JSTOR Daily, Ellen C. Caldwell examines historical “memory-making” and our changing interpretations of historical events over time. Caldwell focuses on the 1746 Battle of Culloden, a battle that ended the Jacobite Uprising and decisively transformed the British monarchy and Scottish Highland culture. Further influencing the history around Culloden, the battle features as a pivotal historical […]
...moreWires Crossed
By this point, the relationship between books and television is complicated enough to merit its own Netflix series. Or its own book. Or maybe both: Like lovers who share an apartment, they’ve started speaking and looking alike.
...moreBinge-Watching Bolaño
The latest installment in the trend of adapting the unadaptable is none other than Roberto Bolaño’s 2666, a sprawling, digressive novel to which director Robert Falls has allotted five hours of mixed-media stage time. Performances will begin at Chicago’s Goodman Theater on February 6. Bring snacks.
...moreA Misreading of Misery
NPR traces the history of Stephen King’s Misery from the novel, to the film, and, most recently, to the stage, and argues that this journey may have caused the story t0 lose a few key components: It is almost literally drained of blood and, more important, it is drained of urgency.
...moreNintendo IQ84
The world is a horrible place, full of bleak scenes and ghastly characters. Fill your eyeballs instead with the infinitely more appealing magical realist world of this Murakami-inspired video game.
...moreToo Excited for Words
Have you heard the good news? Singer-songwriter Patti Smith’s memoir, Just Kids, about her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, is going to be made into a mini-series. The Guardian reported that Smith will co-write the show with John Logan (who created Penny Dreadful for Showtime). “The medium of a television limited series offers narrative freedom and […]
...moreFear and Looking
It’s not like it’s the first time the book has come around in a different medium, so why not comics? Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a deeply visual book, and while Terry Gilliam’s film adaptation is nothing if not visually stimulating, it lacks some of the power of Thompson’s language. Out this October, […]
...moreKingdom of the Blind
So it goes. Kurt Vonnegut’s classic novel Cat’s Cradle has been optioned for television, setting the gears in motion for an adaptation of a book Vonnegut himself gave an A+ grade. With such great source material, hopefully the series won’t disappoint.
...moreOn Oryx and Crake
Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake has been adapted for HBO, and the good folks at Vulture have asked her about it. She riffs on language, Comic-Con, and The Hunger Games’ “stimulated environment”: I think the real issues there are moral: Would I kill my best friend? It’s funny how when girls are given weapons, it’s […]
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The Rumpus Interview with Susan Orlean
I think the idea of what people will do in order to service something they’re obsessed with or passionate about is very much a part of both books.
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Kool-Aid
Having been delivered by a (former) Merry Prankster in a Santa Cruz hospital, I was especially enthralled to learn that Gus Van Sant has received Ken Kesey’s blessing to make a film adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Please, Lord, may it not involve Jack Black. [via Galleycat; thanks, Ron!]
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