tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8035434747786768960.post1224338146559338750..comments2024-03-22T14:44:41.519+00:00Comments on Checking On My Sausages: Bridge to TerabithiaUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8035434747786768960.post-63231568506980044602010-08-11T06:55:33.409+01:002010-08-11T06:55:33.409+01:00Thank you, Sadako.
"You know how it is when ...Thank you, Sadako.<br /><br />"You know how it is when a classic doesn't hold up on film, and you have your own ideas about how it "should" be."<br /><br />Absolutely. There are times when the images of a disappointing adaptation 'overwrite' what your imagination saw when you read the book - which can be frustrating.Stephenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07036103762441216161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8035434747786768960.post-85340857068115846842010-08-11T05:33:39.025+01:002010-08-11T05:33:39.025+01:00Great review. I remember loving the book as a chil...Great review. I remember loving the book as a child, but never saw the film...I was a bit wary. (You know how it is when a classic doesn't hold up on film, and you have your own ideas about how it "should" be.) But it sounds like the filmmakers did a great job with it.Sadakohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01164802394129505587noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8035434747786768960.post-82732604747945155672010-08-09T06:48:54.365+01:002010-08-09T06:48:54.365+01:00Sam,
Thank you very much.
I think it does indeed...Sam,<br /><br />Thank you very much.<br /><br />I think it does indeed have maturity. I look forward to reading the book and maybe I will write another piece on the film as an adaptation.Stephenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07036103762441216161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8035434747786768960.post-74548344648193598762010-08-09T06:45:37.255+01:002010-08-09T06:45:37.255+01:00Bob,
I agree with you about C S Lewis' use of...Bob,<br /><br />I agree with you about C S Lewis' use of language. You can feel that the Narnia books are, let's say, more motivated in the larger sense. He is trying to say something deeper, something that he has a passion for. Tolkien, in the end, is writing a story. It's more like an experiment - to create a world and a language and a mythology. Lewis is pushed by a greater force.<br /><br />I wouldn't say, however, that I was bored so much by the language in LORD OF THE RINGS but by the tale itself. It is so very rambling and full of bland, self-important characters. The language is simple. You won't remember a particular line, or intelligent turn of phrase, but it is very easy to read. It is the story that is stodgy.Stephenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07036103762441216161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8035434747786768960.post-60064176419798297272010-08-09T03:17:16.161+01:002010-08-09T03:17:16.161+01:00As I mentioned to you at WitD, Stephen, I had (in ...As I mentioned to you at WitD, Stephen, I had (in large measure) a positive reaction to this film. I've used the book a few times with my middle schoolers, and always found this acclaimed Newbery Award winner as contained quietly powerful and affecting prose (Patterson would again turn the trick a few years later with a second Newbery for JACOB HAVE I LOVED, another coming-of age tale, set on an island off the coast of Newfoundland in Canada) but BRIDGE is a darker story, which I have always seens as a navigation of grief. The film version you consider here (and your typically fecund work is here in full force I must say) is reasonably faithful to the book, even if the psychology can't be transmitted. The book and the film's realism, and the inexplicable if inevitable intrusion of tragedy (remember John Knowles' A SEPARATE PEACE and Wilson Rawls' WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS)gives it a telling universality, which if handled with maturity can give the work lasting resonance.<br /><br />This here is brilliantly posed:<br /><br />"Grief is a problem for writers because it lingers. They see their storylines and their audiences as needing a quick changeover or a neat resolution. This grief is thus accelerated and expelled in a grand cathartic gesture because "it's time to say goodbye" and to "move on with your life". There is an element of this in Bridge to Terabithia (Jess floating a drawing of Leslie along the river in a toy boat) but the hole that she has left behind is never filled. It does linger with him and with us."Sam Julianonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8035434747786768960.post-62487180452941180222010-08-08T20:48:11.562+01:002010-08-08T20:48:11.562+01:00On Lewis-- I think the deep religious convictions ...On Lewis-- I think the deep religious convictions he had, while sometimes troubling, are exactly what makes his work such a deeper and richer experience than Tolkien. LOTR, by and large, is mainly motivated to invent a mythology for England that it never really needed in the first place-- if the tales of King Arthur or Robin Hood folklore aren't good enough for you, I don't know what to say. The Narnia books, however, had a clear Christian motivation, and even if you don't agree with it yourself, it's easy to see how much more it brings to the table. Of course, Lewis is also a far more talented writer than Tolkien was, and his prose is simply a joy to read in and of itself. I've especially enjoyed "The Screwtape Letters" nowadays, which is even MORE religiously minded, and cleverly at that. At any rate, I sit his work next to the atheistic work of Pullman on my shelf, and I suppose I'd fall somewhere between them, personally. Perhaps that's where the more hollistic, New Age spirituality of Lucas lies.Bob Clarkhttp://www.designersdilemma.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8035434747786768960.post-74750304647561290832010-08-08T06:42:38.594+01:002010-08-08T06:42:38.594+01:00Bob,
I've never read the book or even heard ...Bob, <br /><br />I've never read the book or even heard of it but the film has made me want to. I'm always keen to compare treatments of the same subject. In America you have different favourites and different texts that you do at school and it was never in my sphere.<br /><br />The only fantasy literature that really stuck with me at a young age was the Narnia series and at that time any religious parallels were rather lost on me - consciously at least. They were just more gripping than THE LORD OF THE RINGS or THE HOBBIT. The fact that I thought Peter Jackson's films incredibly faithful and yet tedious indicated to me how little I got from the books.<br /><br />I think that the details or scope of Jess and Leslie's fantasy world is largely unimportant. I'm glad that the film wasn't the all-out adventure the trailers suggested it might be. What's important is that it is there as a sign of and guide to their development. It enriches their lives rather than taking them over.<br /><br />I think you should revisit it, especially as an adult's perspective can be worlds apart from a child's. Let me know, too, what you think.Stephenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07036103762441216161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8035434747786768960.post-56807137917598363832010-08-07T20:57:02.445+01:002010-08-07T20:57:02.445+01:00I have to admit, I sort of avoided the film when i...I have to admit, I sort of avoided the film when it came out and haven't bothered to watch it since, as I already grew up with the Terabithia story, reading the book in school when I was ten. It's definitely a very affecting work, especially when you're that age, and as such I've never really wanted to relive it. Reading this makes me think there's good reason to revisit it all, but I'm still a little wary. Even at that age, I was pretty much outgrowing fantasy literature in general, giving "The Hobbit" its obligatory read and giving up on "Lord of the Rings" somewhere in junior high. The only fantasy-lit I've pursued agressively since then has been Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" books and some of C.S. Lewis' Narnia stories (though both of those straddle a much richer territory of religious myth and science-fiction). Perhaps if Jess and Leslie imagined Terabithia as another planet, I'd relate to it a bit more, but all the elves, trolls and giants from the trailer struck me as odd-- I'd more or less forgotten about those parts of the story, recalling only the budding friendship between the boy and the girl. I will have to look at this sometime, though, I'll say that.Bob Clarkhttp://www.designersdilemma.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8035434747786768960.post-10766478334381554942010-08-07T06:40:14.590+01:002010-08-07T06:40:14.590+01:00Thanks, JAFB.
If you do get to see it I hope you ...Thanks, JAFB.<br /><br />If you do get to see it I hope you can tell me what you think.Stephenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07036103762441216161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8035434747786768960.post-50736673948873734132010-08-07T05:38:54.460+01:002010-08-07T05:38:54.460+01:00Nice, Stephen. This film was more or less dismisse...Nice, Stephen. This film was more or less dismissed as fluff (I haven't seen it though). It's really commendable that you look into the finer aspects of the film.Just Another Film Buffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17880550053788464732noreply@blogger.com