I will spend my whole life being mystified by the seemingly clear consensus that reading a book and then watching its on-screen adaptation is the superior consumption order. People are just setting themselves up to hate the on-screen product as a result of its relative brevity and the cuts required to get it there. On the other, the movie/TV → book pipeline is one where you get the extended director’s cut of a story that you presumably liked enough to keep pursuing it in another medium. To me that’s easily the better way if you’re going to take in both.
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Going TV > book might be the better way but that’s not realistic when most of the books came out 20+ years ago and people were reading them long before the TV adaption was a possibility. Those are usually the people that complain the most about on screen stuff. Big fans that have been in love with a story for half their lives see it put on screen and it sucks/is mediocre and can’t possibly live up to thousands of pages of text.
I never thought of all this. 
In addition, by watching the movie first, I know how all of the book characters look.
Some people want the feeling of superiority that comes from being a fan of something before it’s popular. It’s okay to not be fan of a band until they have hits, then check out their back catalog from before they were famous. It’s okay to watch a TV show or movie without even knowing there was a book it was adapted from.
I only look down on the people who would never read a book at any point.
- What DUCY said
- Generally (not always) the book is the superior version. So by watching the movie you’re essentially exposing yourself to a bunch of spoilers before you get to the best version.
I agree that book first does set you up to hate the movie (or not like it much). But movie first generally ruins all sorts of subtleties in the book.
Meh, I avoid spoilers if it can be helped, but good works hold up well to repeat viewing (often even improving on second or third watch), when a person is obviously fully spoiled. It only really has a significant ruinous effect on Shyamalan gimmick shit. I definitely don’t accord a ton of weight to this aspect, as I don’t think it matters that much when the spoiler happens.
Obviously when it’s not truly a choice as in the scenario DUCY outlined, I don’t have any argument against the order that life has already chosen for you. And I’ve certainly done book first myself. I just don’t think it’s at all optimal.
The issue with this is that many of the book to movie adaptations are plot-driven and watching the movie take two hours to spoil a forty hour reading experience’s ending isn’t optimal.
S3 was terrible, total waste of Steve Zahn
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totally agree, I love that guy but I didn’t buy a thing he was selling, right down to perhaps the worst-looking wig in modern television history
WTF takes 40 hours to read?
Lots of fantasy series?
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I feel like WoT adapts to screen better than other books since it’s more about extravagant world-building than plot or themes. Still, season 1 butchered one of the main characters (Mat), but it looks like they corrected that mistake (new actor even) in season 2. It’s also darker visually in a good way and so far (fingers crossed) they cut down on the teen love drama. I mean I know unsatisfied “book = canon” people can be annoying but it seems like the show runners actually listened to complaints and the show is just better as a result.
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Speed reading privilege ITT
Everything Miranda July makes (movies, books, live performances) are very good. She’s one of a kind.
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What would you suggest I look at next from them?
I saw that David Attenborough was trending and I feared the worst but actually he’s still on his grind.
https://twitter.com/BBCEarth/status/1697293179291115769?s=20
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Say goodnight, Danny.
See you in 30 years, Bro!
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Hell yes.
I was working at Borders Books and Music (RIP) when Planet Earth I came out on DVD. It was the most stolen item in the store. While the thieves may not have been fans, their customers were!
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From what Ive read, richly deserved. Rot you motherfucker.