[HPforGrownups] Re: Interview with HP screenwriter

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 11989

Simon wrote:

> Oh well - I was coming to the conclusion that I did not want to see
> the movie anyway.

For those of you afraid of the coming movie, I've finally pondered
myself into a rambling discourse. Get comfy.

It is in instances like this, when movies are to be made of books that I
love, that my association with a medieval recreation group comes in
handy in an unexpected way. Our society is a literate one, not an oral
one; we use the technology of writing to record and convey information.
Hence, we expect letter-perfection in most instances--like my old
roommate who didn't like any of the Monty Python stuff done live,
because (get this) *they did it wrong* (i.e., it wasn't verbatim from
the records, down to the millisecond pauses). Like someone who goes to
see a musical, and doesn't like it because it wasn't just like the other
time she saw it--the scenery or staging was different. Etc. In the age
of records (excuse me, my age is showing), CDs, videos, etc., we are
losing the little tolerance we had, as a culture, for variation.

Me, before I was married and had children and a Serious Life to deal
with, I spent many, many hours around campfires listening to tales. Many
of these tales dealt with misadventures of the very people I was sitting
with. None of them are written down. Most of them have been told for
years. And for any one specific event (my favorite, say, where I ran
Ivar's pants up the flagpole), there's really only one set of salient
facts, but zillions of versions. It depends on who's telling it, whether
they were there, the particular thrust they want to put on different
little details, and on occasion, the sobriety of the speaker. It's not
uncommon to hear the same story told twice or more in a row, by
different people, for the "hey, whoa, *this* is what *really* happened"
type fun.

My point is that because I have spent a bit of quality time in a
quasi-oral situation, I can approach this movie as someone's retelling
of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The salient points will be
there. But I don't expect it to be exactly the same, because someone
besides JKR is telling this version. That doesn't mean that it won't be
a damn good version. Just not verbatim.

Hope this ramble made sense.

--Amanda


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