13
Apr
2009
Nana by Émile Zola
I’d like to adapt this book into a screenplay set in modern times, where Nana, instead of a crappy singer/actress at the Parisian Varietés, is a crappy pop star in LA. My only problem is how to update her prostitution for the modern era? Maybe she becomes a webcam girl or something. Otherwise, it could work pretty well. Zola’s prescience of Britney Spears’ marriage to Kevin Federline is quite startling. Add some elements of Madonna, Christina Aguilera, Jamie Lynn Spears, most Playboy centerfolds and several other pop stars whose names we have already forgotten, and you get Nana.
13
Apr
2009
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
Holy shit, this is one of my favorite books. The first time I read it, I already knew the ending, having read about it in Helen Simpson’s short story, Heavy Weather. Let me be explicit in saying that that did not ruin it for me. In fact, knowing the ending made the lead up that more painful. But by painful I mean that in a good way. If we didn’t enjoy pain, sorrow would be nixed out of all forms of entertainment, when it fact it seems to be the central theme for thousands of years’ worth of it. So, yes, tragedy is never as exquisite as in Thomas Hardy’s world.
