Call Me Unimpressed
Moby Dick is a great book, but doesn't have much of a plot. It's more a series of meditations on just about everything in the world. Almost every other chapter stops the story dead so Melville can discuss one interest or another. He'd earlier written adventure books that might have made good TV miniseries, but I don't see how TV or movies could easily translate what makes Moby Dick so special.
On the other hand, Futurama just did an episode entitled "Mobius Dick." They got the right idea. Don't be faithful to the original, you'll just be dragged down with the rest.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:11 AM
3 Comments:
I contracted pneumonia in junior high school and spent a week in bed, with little to do except homework, and it happened to be when we were assigned Moby Dick. When I got to "The Ship's Lantern," I learned how to skip material. Today Melville would do a hyperlink to a Coleman web site, I suppose.
If you read Les Miserables, unexpurgated, you will find it does the same thing as Moby Dick. Every other chapter is a digression into a discussion about French society, architecture, history, or whatever. My favorite chapter is an extended explanation of the development of the French sewer system, which is tangentially related to the plot.
Personally, since I read a lot of non-fiction, I enjoy this style of writing (loved Devil in the White City, for example). But you need a plot for a movie (or Broadway Musical), so I've generally liked the theatrical productions of Les Miserables as well. I've never seen the original Moby Dick movie (with Gregory Peck, right?), but should some day.
I should add, I don't think Devil in the White City would make a good movie.
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