I'm guessing Greenwitch will be a whole 'nother ball of wax.
The upcoming opening of The Seeker, formerly known as The Dark is Rising, has a lot of people on edge, not least Susan Cooper. I'm reminded of another time this title got in trouble, branded as racist in 1976 by the Council on Interracial Books for Children in their Human and Anti-Human Values in Children's Books: A Content Rating Instrument for Educators and Parents. And it was the title itself that got Cooper's book in hot water with this crowd, who believed that the equation of darkness with evil was "racist by commission," meaning overtly harmful. If I recall right, The Dark Is Rising was also labeled "racist by omission," by the CIBC, because it didn't have any black characters. I'll have to remember to ask Susan what she thought about all this.
Labels: Fantasy, Intercultural understanding, Movies, Susan Cooper
posted by Roger Sutton at 6:21 PM
6 Comments:
I've just finished rereading The Dark is Rising in preperation for the film's release and was struck by the lack of action, something I did not remember from reading it as a child. But one thing that did stick with me from earlier readinsg was the importance of the physical British land to the story and its connection to Will because he himself is "old". It is difficult to imagine how this could work with an American protagonist, even if he is based in England, on the old land itself. In the book, Will takes part in customs--the scene where they go caroling sticks in my mind--that have fallen out of practice since the book's publication, so I can see where some modernisation might be needed. But he is supposed to be different than his peers, and I don't think turning him into "just your regular kid who saves the world" is keeping with the point of the book.
No movie can besmirch the perfection that is Cooper's Dark is Rising. I have spoken.
sez Jeanneb-who-must-be-obeyed!
(and, now after the Lottery post, I feel compelled to point out that I KNOW that joke did not begin on the BBC but rather with H. Rider Haggard!)
The magnificent SHE! Now, why hasn't anyone made a movie of that lately? I believe someone did a long ago -- isn't it time for a new one, what with feminism and all?
You know, I thought I was over my book/movie angst until I heard that NPR piece. Now I'm back to running around town howling "Is nothing sacred anymore?"
Is there some sort of treatment for this condition? I plan to avoid moving pictures until I figure that out.
I understand that they've left the character of The Walker out of the movie altogether. It doesn't sound like there's a great deal of the original book left at all.
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