Merrily Watkins
Oct. 16th, 2015 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloI watched the TV series and now I'm reading the books- and rather admiring the way the film people streamlined the books without betraying them. The books are leisurely- with ample space for lore and landscape and character development- while the TV show goes,"Here's a murder, here's a ghost, here's another murder." I like them both. The books are a long draught of- well- it has to be cider, doesn't it- Herefordshire cider- and the TV show is a shot of apple schnapps.
The screenplay takes enormous liberties- conflating characters, changing the way they look, eliminating back story, cutting to the chase- but the essential things- an approach to the otherworldly which neither discounts nor misrepresents and a sense of place- remain.
I remember- oh- ten years ago- someone in the pagan world recommending Rickman to me and my thinking, "jolly little paperbacks, and a heroine with a twee name"- not my thing at all." And I was wrong. If I had the talent- which I don't- these are exactly the kind of books I'd write myself.
The screenplay takes enormous liberties- conflating characters, changing the way they look, eliminating back story, cutting to the chase- but the essential things- an approach to the otherworldly which neither discounts nor misrepresents and a sense of place- remain.
I remember- oh- ten years ago- someone in the pagan world recommending Rickman to me and my thinking, "jolly little paperbacks, and a heroine with a twee name"- not my thing at all." And I was wrong. If I had the talent- which I don't- these are exactly the kind of books I'd write myself.
