The answer is probably not.

The reason I say this first is because adaptations of books, movies especially, usually end up as a blazing pile of trash. Although usually the people who hate on the movie are ones who were fans of the book.
 
I will preface this set of blog posts by saying that this is my opinion, and you should enjoy whatever series, movie, TV show, or other media you want. These are just a few examples of book to movie/other media that maybe didn’t turn out well quality-wise or in comparison to the books. I have three examples of series that I am well acquainted with, that started out as books.
           
The first one, some of you might have seen this coming, is the movie Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. The original series was written by Rick Riordan, and the movies were screen written by Marc Guggenheim, a man who I am convinced had never actually read the book.
           
This might be a controversy that many of you had heard of, and those of you who had seen the movies only might be thinking “what’s the big deal, the movies were great! My friends and I enjoyed them.” That might be true. Even I thought that, if the movies weren’t supposed to be based on an actual book series, it would have been okay. The problem was that they forgot to say “loosely based on the books”. The movie took the names of the characters and the book, vague facts about them, very few of the events from the first book, and threw away the rest.
           
The arguably most important fact that they threw away, is that the main character, Percy Jackson, and one of the companions are supposed to be twelve years old in the first book. You read me right, twelve. It’s not like movies didn’t use young actors before, in fact the director of the first movie, Chris Columbus, was well known for working with actors who were mostly younger.
 
I’m not going to talk about every fact or detail the movies messed up, and there are many (although one of the things they messed up is the hair color of one of the main characters which would have been such an easy fix), and Marc Guggenheim doesn’t seem to have said anything about why he made so many changes, but we do know that Rick Riordan ripped the producers a new one, not just because the script deviated from the book, but because, “this script doesn’t work as a story in its own right.”
 
So if you want to know if the adaption of a book/series to another form of media will be good, check to see who is writing the script for it. If it’s the original author, you’re probably good. If it isn’t the author, then check to see how involved the author is going to be. If they aren’t, maybe lower your expectations on similarity between.
           
Finished with the movies, there are two other forms of media for Percy Jackson that I want to talk about. The first, is a musical.
           
That’s right. Someone wrote a musical about this book. And I saw it.
 
And it was actually pretty good. I do have to concede that they were in a similar time crunch as the movie, and therefore skipped a few events, but they didn’t lose touch with the book. The scenes they couldn’t put on stage, they managed to get almost all of them in one of the  songs or lines. Most importantly, to me anyway, is that it was fun. I enjoyed being there a heck of a lot more than I did when I saw the movie for sure.
 
The other piece of media is a TV show. Which we can only hope will be better than the movies.
           
That’s all I can say about this series. If you have any questions, please comment below!
 
Next part… we tackle the Mortal Instruments series.

​by Elizabeth Marvin

​White Noise
He’s an orb of water
suspended in refracted
candlelight--
an image of likeness
and opposition.

Water
like his eyes,
like his ever changing shape,
like the depths he withholds
and reveals upon his own command.

Light
like his smile,
like the rhythm of his swagger,
like his laugh
that rests upon the transformed aura within a room.

To warm or burn,
to cleanse or drown,
the illustration of multifaceted chambers
that rise out of need not vanity,
the essence of baptism all the same.
 
His life in dedication to both
waves and flames,
forming in the shape of
peculiar thoughts
that settle comfortably
upon his crown with pride--
unapologetically alive,
confidently present,
enthusiastically pondering
and challenging
the white noises of our mindless humanity. 

​LORI ABLE

Epiphany

You ran before the storm to join me
Threw your arms open, slammed your eyes shut
Inky hair blown back in the gale
Purple heat lit the horizon and illuminated our pining faces
Two beautiful fools dancing in the warm rain
Trembling at the taste of the terrifying truth. 

​KATHERINE KACZMARSKI

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (1937)
Reasons for Challenge: Language, blasphemy, violence

A short but incredibly impactful novella, there is a good chance that Of Mice and Men was taught at your high school despite it being listed as one of the most challenged books of the 21st century. It follows two friends, George and Lennie, as they move from place to place during the Great Depression. This book is as endearing as it is heartbreaking, and while there is some strong language at times, this is no excuse to try to censor such a powerful story. 

​

​The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)
Reasons for Challenge: Language and Sexual References

An amazing novel that follows Nick Carraway as he unravels the story of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. A true classic, the novel has been challenged for many of the same reasons as the other books on this list: language and sexual references. While it is true that this novel, just like the other books in this list, has items that can be questioned, going so far as to keep it away from libraries seems like a step too far. Children will always encounter challenging ideas, but the immediate response to things that challenge us should not be to ban them.




​ERIK ANTONIO

Only a year away from its 40th anniversary, the Friday the 13th franchise stands alongside other film series like Halloween, Evil Dead, and Child’s Play as a classic, acquiring unwatchable sequels, a considerable cult following, a surefire reboot and a killer whose powers are irritatingly vague. But what is it about this hockey mask-wearing, machete-wielding star that sets him apart from the roster of synonymous slashers that almost seem to be the same character?
    
CHARACTER EVOLUTION

    If there’s one thing to be said about the Friday the 13th franchise, it’s that its main character never stays the same. While contributing to the plot’s convolution over the course of the series, Jason’s changes are partially responsible for what helps shape his overall character. He goes from a muddy lake-child in the series kickoff to a space villain in Jason X over the course of nearly forty years. This is partially due to the constantly shifting property and studio rights, writing, and direction changes and the need for something new to invigorate the next chapter. 
    His changes in wardrobe are almost constant; he goes from his first actual appearance in Part II,  wearing a feed-bag mask, to the classic hockey look and ultimately turning to a metallic, space-age fit that looks like it belongs to a different series entirely. Things across the series change up a bit beyond outfits, though. There are almost no constant characters outside of the killer (who even changes up from time to time) constantly leading the audience to a misunderstanding of what’s happening. The only thing that’s constantly original is the violence, which never seems to disappoint in any of the movies. 

CONVOLUTION

    The problem with a constantly evolving character is the set around him trying to evolve at the same rate. The concept of a summer-camp slasher doesn’t exactly carry well over the decades, but sequels still need to be made. The first bit of convolution comes at the end of the first movie with one of the greatest plot twists of the 1980s with the death of Jason’s mother and Jason’s first appearance as a child out of the lake. He then goes on in the sequel as a fully-grown man--taking place mere months after the first film--killing the happy camp counselors of Crystal Lake once again. It becomes even harder to understand as the series carries on after Jason is miraculously resurrected from multiple deaths and even changes personalities (i.e. Roy Burns, who pretended to be Jason in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning). Things like this ultimately kill the character and make the plot-lines even laughable for the following audiences. 


VIOLENCE

    While plot and story-development may not be the franchise’s strong suit, creative brutality is what seems to be constantly bringing people back. From people being stabbed through beds to being staked to doors to being thrown down flights of stairs in a wheelchair, the series never fails to deliver in violence. The writers and set designers continually find new ways to kill teenagers in the franchise, even going so far as to making Jason X (a space adventure that’s arguably the worst film in the franchise) a copy of the Ridley Scott classic, Alien. Comical, but creative. 

                                                                             .    .    .


    Overall, the Friday-franchise is a campy, facetious series of films that draws in the viewer through nostalgia, mainstream pop-culture, and the classic cheesiness of the 80s that made it as unwatchably watchable as it is. If you’re a viewer looking for serious scares and unsettlement, look elsewhere; Friday the 13th is a classic revisited for the laughs and a silly 80s funk that never fails to deliver in an age that’s so stuck to billion-dollar budgets and special effects so real, you can’t separate them from reality. It’s nice to know that these films are still around to keep us grounded in a world where horror has become too real and too watered down.

DAVIS WHITE

Consider the following:

“La Haine” is a film about life at the bottom of the socioeconomic totem pole. The story goes as such: In a neighborhood of impoverished housing projects on the outskirts of Paris, riots broke out the previous night in response to the vicious beating and hospitalization of a neighborhood resident by police officers. Our protagonists—a trio of friends named Saïd, Vinz and Hubert—spend the following day bouncing around different locales in the neighborhood, observing the aftermath of the riots as well as engaging in their usual shenanigans.
Through each protagonist, we are shown a different mindset held by people living a lower-class life. Vinz leans towards aggression and violence; he participated in the riots and yearns for the chance to violently resist the system. Hubert, on the other hand, wants to put his past of criminal activity behind him; he wants to escape the projects and live in peace. These two are often at odds as Vinz tries to escalate things and cause conflict while Hubert tries to reign him in.

Saïd doesn’t much care for either side; he prefers to go with the flow. For example, he objected to participating in the riots, not because he thought it was morally wrong, but because they interrupted a drug sale he was trying to make. Saïd is often tasked with keeping his two friends from fighting each other. He epitomizes a repeating theme of the film: “so far, so good”, the idea that people in the projects are just biding their time until disaster eventually strikes.​
​
All three main characters are done fantastically. They each have a lot of depth. When they clash over their differences, they play off each other in such a way that each perspective is explored thoroughly. The actors do a great job bringing them to life, displaying a wide range of emotions and coming off as completely authentic. Most importantly, you can tell that, at the heart of all their interactions, there is an unbreakable bond of friendship. They’ve always got each other’s backs. Even at their lowest points, you can still tell that they care very much for one another.

Another area in which the film shines is its ability to completely immerse you in the setting. The trio’s adventures take them all around the neighborhood and beyond, giving you a large scope of the environment. This point is well exemplified in one of my favorite scenes: A DJ is blaring music out of his fourth-story window for the whole neighborhood to hear. The song is a remix of 90’s American hip hop and the classic French song "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" by Edith Piaf. The camera slowly retreats from the window and pans downward to the residents below, giving a bird’s-eye view. Children are running around playing on the playground. Then the camera rises, showing a vast array of drab, uniform apartment buildings stretching across the horizon. This scene truly made me feel like I was there.

This movie made me feel a lot of different things: joy, laughter, sorrow, anger, and every possible combination therein. I’ve watched it several times and each time, I’ve found something new to appreciate about it. It’s truly a masterpiece in my eyes and I think everybody should see it.
XAVIER CHARLOT- BLOG EDITOR