Is Hollywood killing literature?

We can all usually predict that when a movie version of a book is released, the movie usually stinks. Even with popular fiction such as horror, action/adventure, mystery and other popular genres, Hollywood has a unique ability to totally destroy any artistic and entertaining merits a book might hold.

With classic literature, the movies tend to get worse. This post is, in part, prompted by the release of the movie Beowulf, the epic poem of anonymous authorship. While this isn’t the first movie based on Beowulf, it’s cast of famous actors (ie. Anthony Hopkins) and special effects, will probably make this version the most publicized.

But then when I was reading through one of my Google Alerts I get daily in my email inbox about literary news, I came across an interesting article that gives an interesting analysis of how Hollywood movies and literature operate on very different levels, making them awkward partners to say the least. The article first gives a good explanation of what (in the author’s opinion, with which I agree) is wrong with Hollywood:

Hollywood seeks to connect with the common denominator of target audiences endlessly researched through focus groups, pre-release tinkering and the dabbling with formulaic ingredients that seek to please everybody.

Personally, I have given up on Hollywood. Very rarely do I go see the year’s blockbuster movies. Yes, a few good flicks come out each year, but the number of those is steadily dwindling. But the article continues:

The end result is often a one-dimensional hype-driven-aim-for-the-awards output that fails to spark thought, questioning or trigger a lingering resonance. But these intangibles, central to true art, don’t really matter for cinema is after all a multi billion dollar business enterprise fixated on ratings, Academy sweepstakes and the omniscient allure of hits and collections.

Indeed, it’s hard to argue with the above quote. Very few movies these days offer anything more than one-dimensional characters and easily predictable plots. And they certainly don’t illuminate any part of the human condition beyond the idea that the good guy always wins and the world is filled with beautiful woman who will almost always sleep with the main character.

Literature is very different. As the author of this article states, a simple "two thumbs up" is simply not enough to rate classic works of literature (or even contemporary literary fiction and poetry for that matter):

Classics are crafted in the writer’s personal crucible of experiences, perspectives, angst and world views (with all their warts, idiosyncrasies, controversies and personal biases). Unlike writers of screenplays, pulp fiction or the ubiquitous made-for-film books nowadays, literary giants like Christopher Marlow, John Donne, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, JD Coetzee, Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Pramodeya Ananta Toer, to name a few, cannot be simply slotted, stereotyped or distilled into populist themes.

One thing that makes literature unique and really separates it from the self-congratulating world of Hollywood is that many classic "literary giants" such as Christopher Marlowe and John Donne cannot be understood or even appreciated by reading just one poem, play, essay or any other work. No. Their cannon of writing is much too big. I spent much of my last semester in college studying the likes of Marlowe and Donne. Even then I only grazed the surface of all they have to offer.

So when Hollywood takes on one of these literary giants, they are doomed to fail from the very beginning. No movie can ever offer the depth and complexity of the written word. Beowulf is no different. Sadly, many who see the movie will not have read the epic poem, and they probably won’t:

Those who will not bother to read the original will be left feeling that the original is all about a body builder superhero and an irresistible temptress in the form of the Devil.

I don’t know if Hollywood really is killing literature. Maybe I’m just being pretentious in my views that the written word holds more power than what can be shown on a movie screen. Or maybe Hollywood is keeping these classics alive outside the academic world where they interest only stubborn old English professors and a few motivated English majors.

As of now, I don’t plan to see Beowulf. Perhaps I’ll get the itch sometime in the future. But for the time being, I’m content with living with the memory rich and complex poem I read on more than one occasion – a memory not contaminated by Hollywood special effects.

Hollywood’s tragicomic adaptations of literary classics

Related posts

• Short fiction meets Hollywood with Fitzgerald story
• F. Scott Fitzgerald still trying for success in Hollywood
• Sex, Lies and Literature!
• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” has always been a great story!
• ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ a great book, even before the movie

Read More: Classic Literature