(Debby)

Books to Movies and Back Again

Bad Book to Great Movie

As mentioned earlier, probably the worst book to be made into a truly great movie would be The Children of Men.

Great Book to Great Movie

Holes – by Louis Sachar. Man, that book is the bomb-diggity. And the movie? They just do it so right.

A Movie I Always Loved and a Book I Never Could Find

Hey Amanda, are you going to watch Bladerunner in your science fiction film class? Bladerunner. My favorite my-asthma-has-gotten-bad-and-i-need-to-breathe-on-the-nebulizer movie. I have watched Bladerunner in a slightly oxygen-starved state so many times, and it was always good. I’ve also watched it since my asthma is better controlled, and I still love it. When I went to Bangkok, my first time in Asia, all I could think as I walked down the street that first day was THIS LOOKS LIKE THE SET OF BLADERUNNER! BANGKOK IS THE FUTURE! I can’t believe I’m in Bangkok and all I can relate it to is Bladerunner. OH MAN, THIS TOTALLY LOOKS LIKE BLADERUNNER!!!

I knew that the movie was based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, a pulp science fiction author. I looked for that book for over a decade. Along the way, I found a few collections of short stories – they were really, really disturbing.

Did I say that he was a really, really good pulp science fiction author? He was. He churned out amazing visions of the future – he created new realities and then explored all the aspects of mundane life within them. He created internally consistent universes. Oh, yes, that’s right – internally consistent universes.

So, there I was, in the Heathrow Airport, on my way back from the States to Kenya, feeling fairly exhausted and sorry for myself, and I finally found it – Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep – for way too much money, and in sterling pounds, too. I bought it, and I read it, and it was awesome. More awesome than Bladerunner. That’s right – more awesome than Bladerunner. The plot is more awesomer, the world is more fascinatingly messed up, the characters are…awesome.. I don’t…I don’t even know what else to say.