Are Some Books Unadaptable?

[@peterg1646]

Finnegans Wake, I had trouble adapting that one to my own brain.

[@Wilsonn_esquire]

There’s never been a good adaptation of Wuthering Heights! You’d need actors (etc) who could convey the power and madness of a King Lear, the hysteria of an Ophelia, the claustrophobic brooding of an Ahab, the incestuous horror of an Oedipus, against a backdrop of vicious, prolonged abuse, and a landscape of pure, bleak poetry, carried through multiple, intimate generations growing from childhood into adulthood, and all expressed in a single (breathless) breath by an ensemble cast equal both to one another and the task. It’s exactly the kind of magic that only exists on the page!

[@HannahsBooks]

Wuthering Heights would be my nomination, too!

[@harpothekidrs3282]

You clearly never seen the monty python skit "wuthering heights in semaphore"

[@HannahsBooks]

@ Oh my goodness! I haven’t thought of that in years! My friend and I who lived in different college forms used to pretend to use semaphore from one window to the other-inspired by that amazing skit!

[@scottjones8100]

I absolutely love everything you said about Rings of Power, and the tragic future of fantasy, sci fi and comic adaptations because of the wrong conclusions Hollywood will reach after the failure of recent attempts.

[@diamonddavewonfor]

"Gravity's Rainbow" was the first thing that came to my mind.

[@AlbertAlbertB.]

I'd imagine an live-action adaptation of the Metamorphosis to be similar to the Russian film Stalker or Lynch's Eraserhead, and I think it could very well be done. It needn't be a body horror, it has to be a psychological horror. I think it can even be done without the physical metamorphosis.

[@MaximusStetich]

Epic poetry has been very magical for me, but so much of it rests off of heightened beauty and fevered sentiment, It would be hard to get an adaptation that could match these things with sincerity. I’d love to see The Iliad, The Shahnameh, or Orlando Furioso - but Hollywood would be tempted to either metaphysically mock the grandeur of the story, or pretentiously posture about it.

[@joshuacreboreads]

I was about to say the same thing! So much of it depends on the beauty of the language too, it would be hard to translate that onto the screen.

[@juliemartin6101]

I came across this site and this post. I was very impressed - didn't agree with everything he felt couldn't be done, but really enjoyed his reasoning. I'm glad you found the site and gave us your own list

[@jackwalter5970]

I think it would be impossible today to capture the ambiance of 1950s New York of Catcher in the Rye. Perhaps Steven Spielberg as director.

[@lisagarrity5836]

Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow. With improvements in CGI, they could create Runa and Jana'ata but the number of changes to the story that Hollywood would need to make to the script to be put on the screen in today's culture would make the story unrecognizable.

[@gaildoughty6799]

Thoroughly agree with this choice. I can’t see how’s true adaptation could be made.

[@pamelatarajcak5634]

Unless they do it quite like the first season of Once Upon a Time, where each episode bounces between the flashback and current day. I thought the first season of that show unwound how things got to be how it was is masterful.

[@Boonton2010]

My goto answer here would be Joyce's Finnegans Wake. 1. Almost no one has read it or can read it? 2. If you have, how are you going to get everyone else to read it for a production. 3. How do you adapt puns and wordplay in multiple languages into a visual medium? On the other hand Ulysses could probably be done as a decent limited series. A problem is most people do not know Homer well enough that they will recall the story chapter by chapter. What to do would be to have two stories, one would be Homer's Odyssey for half of each episode and then Dublin. It would essentially be two adaptations fused together and for the elevator pitch you could note that since both works are public domain you don't have to pay anything for the rights. If done well I think it would have an effect like the adaptation of Cloud Atlas but since it would only be toggling between two time periods it would be easier to focus.

[@Tolstoy111]

Salinger hated “My Foolish Heart”, the 1949 adaptation of his story “Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut”. He refused to allow any further adaptation of his work. CITR will be under copyright till 2046.

[@ScottDanielson]

My example of a story that I thought was unadapatable was "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang. Was proven wrong when it was made as "Arrival". Since then I think about this question differently.

[@Moonpome]

Although the world may finally be ready for an adaptation of The Left Hand of Darkness, the likelihood of it being done badly makes me hope that it doesn’t happen. It could be glorious if it were done well. Another difficult one would be 2666, it might work as a longer format tv production, but it’s impact wouldn’t be the same.

[@joshuacreboreads]

I just looked up whether there are any adaptations of The Magic Mountain… Apparently, there is one that is 5 hours long. I’m going to have to dedicate one of my evenings to it sometime soon.

[@jamesholder13]

I think my take on this would be to see if I can make an adaptation work, not that a work is unadaptable.

[@CSreader]

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino would be hard to adapt well in my opinion.

[@crab0traps0now]

The Overlords of War. My sense is that space opera and the the alien creatures in the book could not be turned into a show or movie and keep the same tone as the book. It could be made funny or campy, but it seems to me it is very difficult to do a sort of dry space opera without being too serious, too dry, and awful. And I can't imagine a media company executive even wanting to try. What came to mind for me when you discussed sacrilege to even attempt an adaptation is not book-related, it is a recent movie: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. No matter how much respect the creators have for the subject, my respect for the subject makes me shudder when I think of someone dressing up like him, trying to act like him, no doubt adopting his deliberate child-friendly speech patterns, etc. I can't believe I'm saying something so melodramatic, but seeing Tom Hanks dressed up like Mr. Rogers on the poster for that movie is repulsive to me. Even though I have nothing against Hanks. It has been recommended to me, but I don't think I will ever watch it.

[@gerarddonohoe5806]

After The Hobbit & the rings of power, I would be incredibly nervous & concerned of any adaptation of The silmarillion. On a personal note, I always felt that mark helprin's winters tale should never be adapted, the god awful movie proved that (at least for me)

[@GinaStanyerBooks]

Totally agree about Winters Tale!

[@GedDonohoe]

​@@GinaStanyerBookssuch a magical book, and such a terrible film.

[@mattygroves]

Good point about New Sun. I've always assumed it was unadaptable, but it's interesting to speculate about a gradual process of revelation in a visual medium. The constraints could be creatively productive. I think Wolfe's story "The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories" could make a truly great adaptation. I sometimes imagine an adaptation of the Silmarillion as an anthology series with different styles to suit the range of mythic registers of its various parts. Parts like the Ainulindalë mostly narration over animated visuals, others like Lay of Lúthien more traditionally cinematic, but with the elevated reality of a stage play.

[@thebigshep]

It's funny he mentioned Book of the New Sun, because when I read it I thought it was uniquely suited for adaptation, so much so I thought that if it was done well I'd probably enjoy an adaptation better. Personally, I think it's perfectly suited for an animated adaptation of creatively colossal proportions, with multiple animation styles.

[@gaildoughty6799]

Thanks, Steve; interesting subject. A book I think could be adapted and wish that it were is The Shadow if the Wind.

[@thursdaythursday5884]

What usually makes books unadaptable is when they consist mainly of a people’s thoughts inside their head or else people standing around discussing ideas. A lot of Henry James novels would be examples of the former, maybe God Emeror of Dune for the latter. Books with lots of plot and dialogue tend to be easiest to adapt.

[@hamorhage]

This made me think I'd like to see a stage play adaptation of The metamorphosis, or a contemporary ballet :P And if that could be done, then definitely we could have a movie adaptation, even though nobody would be interested in seeing it. I guess what we need are people genuinely passionate about the source material, instead of money hungry studios looking for a director for hire to just see a return on their investment.

[@davidnovakreadspoetry]

With _The Metamorphosis_ I automatically thought, “I bet the Quay brothers could do something like that.” Then I Googled, and it appears they have done. I didn’t watch - it appears to be pared down considerably - but if anyone I suppose they might capture the essence.

[@RyanLisbon]

The Overstory would be no easy task.

[@musashimiyamoto586]

I first watched the Foundation series and then read the books by Asimov. Probably hard to do as they span a period of hundreds of years. And although I very much enjoyed the series I also now know that it is not exactly accurate.

[@scottjones8100]

How about Turgenev's Father's and Sons? I absolutely love that book, but I'm not sure there's enough of a story arc to make a movie out of it--not without tinkering that would annoy me, anyway.

[@b.w.2849]

The Kalavala would be interesting as a movie...

[@shallmaneser]

"Stand on Zanzibar" ?!?!?!

[@Unpotted]

I rarely watch movies, but the only time I watch adaptations is when they have a different title or I otherwise don’t realize that they’re adaptations. 😺✌️

[@Paul-i3p4w]

An adaptation of Blood Meridian is in the works..

[@allancowley2254]

The one that comes to my mind is another Pynchon - the Crying of Lot 49. I guess anything can be done if you allow for an explanatory voice over ( and I could have done with one when I read it !). A version of the Metamorphosis done in the style of the Japanese Tetsuo would be fun. If I can add a non- fiction choice - could someone have another crack at a AShort History of Time - I'm still not getting it !

[@oneviewcornwall8200]

Nice one Steve

[@thomashefferon9711]

Any novel where the narrator’s voice on the page is as important as the plot and characters. Lose the voice and lose the magic. Examples: To The Lighthouse, Middlemarch, Sabbath’s Theater, and just about any Trollope novel.

[@jobuckley2999]

Any novel that uses literary prose or elegant writing usually won't translate its essence to a movie unless the screenwriter copies the prose. I enjoyed the "vibe" and style of The Gentleman from Moscow novel. When it was adapted to the screen it lost its soul due to the lazy screen writing. I didn't even recognize it.

[@AlbertAlbertB.]

I think that Dante's Paradiso, or even the entire Divina Commedia, is unadaptable. Not only is it far too complex, but its anti-islamic contents would be impossible to adapt. Not to mention the abstract nature of the Paradiso. It stings me to say this though, because of the incredible imagery it has. Just imagine the scope of it all, the soul of Bertrand de Born who carries his own head amongst the sewers of discord, the field of graves, the city of Dis, the maelstrom of lustful souls, or the dreams in purgatorio, or the beauty of the scene where Dante enters Eden and has to abandon Virgilio!

[@pamelatarajcak5634]

I kind of think an adaptation of Mansfield Park is pretty difficult. They've tried twice and none have been great. Hollywood abhors a very moral, old fashioned, introverted girl protagonist. So I'm not sure how they can nail Fanny Price effectively. The 1999 adaptation made her too fiesty. The 2009 version made her mousy, thinking mousy equals introverted. I hope Wicked part 1 will dispel the myth Hollywood is perpetuating about fantasy not being popular ( no pun intended).

[@ellesse3862]

I can't think of anything that can't be adapted with the technology, budget, and skilled artisans available, virtually nothing is beyond the reach of movie makers. I'd prefare books I really like to remain overlooked, to have the characters and stories remain true and not adapted with a hatchet, not reimagined and rewritten or regendered or cut, or to have the story hijacked and repurposed as an agenda cult piece of propaganda. Sometimes its as simple as theres magic in the words that are lost in translation.

[@dplol_]

Absalom, Absalom!

[@zoydmaas731]

Some People would suggest "Infinite Jest" would be un adaptable. I disagree. My question for you Steve is why did you hate it so much?

[@ColombianThunder]

I enjoyed it but I'm pretty sure Steve's big issue with it is that it's overwritten and the footnotes are too demanding and borderline unnecessary. That the book could have been less than half of it's length and nothing would be lost.

[@zoydmaas731]

I can understand that point of view, and can't logically disagree. However, I read an article that suggested DFW was playing a joke on us with the footnotes. Constantly moving one's head left to right give the reader same effect as watching a tennis match. I enjoy dark and dry humor.

[@Mnnwer]

I watched an adaptation of Brothers Karamazov and it convinced me that it's probably unadaptable. It just isn't the same without Dostoevsky's strange and nervous presence: because without it, there is no one in the story to convince us we should take these ridiculous characters seriously. There also is in Dostoevsky an element of feeling trapped in a surreal kind of world.

[@anotherbibliophilereads]

I did this video a while ago. You did a response, but I can’t find it. m.kzbin.info?sp=mAEA&search_query=+++5+novels+that+should+never