The Road to The Big Screen

Original Cover

While reading Cormac McCarthy's, The Road, I couldn't help but think to myself how amazing it would be on the big screen. Envisioning the dark, desolate setting of this post-apocalyptic world, I would daydream about how they would portray it in film.

Like any other book addict, I was aimlessly wandering around Borders one day when I noticed the title of a very familiar paperback: The Road. The cover was different; it was no longer the plain, black, cover that I owned. Initially this disappointed me. The simplistic, yet dark cover it originally was symbolized the world McCarthy portrays on the inside. The barren, gloomy cover coinicided with the sinister, mysterious world the characters face in the novel. As I disappointedly headed over to investigate it, I noticed the illustration was actually a photograph. Or was it a still frame? A potential movie poster? As I snatched the book off the Bestsellers' table, the frown on my face quickly transformed into a beaming grin as I read, "Now A Motion Picture" across the cover. I looked up at the strangers around me, all shopping halfheartedly, unaware of this incredible discovery I had just come upon. It took a great deal of self control to not turn to the person next to me, shove the book in their face, and say, "Oh my God, did you see this?!"

I was absolutely ecstatic to see that one of my favorite books would soon be coming to theaters. Naturally, I searched IMDb the first chance I got. Since the movie is not to be released until later this year, information was rather limited. But to my surprise, there were a few pictures of the film. "Perfect," I thought as I looked them over in awe. Perhaps they were able to truly illustrate the dismal world McCarthy aggressively writes of...

A man and his son are living in a post-apocolyptic world--dark, ash covered, lifeless, and above all, treacherous. Humanity is minimal, and what is left of it could hardly be considered humane. Most people that are still living have converted to cannibalism--besides the man and his son. They are determined to find a haven again. Is there any safe place left? Will they make it there alive? Readers are faced with these questions as we are taken on a suspenseful, disturbing, and at times heartrending ride across a tarnished, desolate America.

So will they be able to capture the intensity and depth of McCarthy's words? Will I be one of those crazed fanatics screaming out in the theater, "No, that's not right!" Hopefully not. But as I've said before, the book is normally better than the movie. Accuarately depicting this controversial and pyschological book should be an interesting cinematic vision. Will they do it?

New Cover

What would Shakespeare think?

Have you ever seen some of the books on today's bestseller lists? Last week, Barnes and Nobles' bestseller list included Paul McKenna's, "I Can Make You Thin." This week, "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man," by Steve Harvey. Call me crazy, but I don't think people will be reading "I Can Make You Thin" in the Norton Anthology two hundred years from now. I'm sure Shakespeare and Whitman would be rolling over in their graves if they ever saw what our society regards as top sellers these days.

On the other hand, Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga has been a phenomenal hit that has undoubtedly deserved to be on bestsellers' lists since day one. Nonetheless, I'm sure plenty would argue with me that it is pure absurdity that Meyer would be ranked as a topseller for so long, or for that matter, at all. I guess not everyone is destined to be a Twilighter much like myself.

But will Meyer be considered a classic years and years from now? Will people be studying J.K. Rowling in high school English classes? Will Stephen King be a required literature course as Shakepspeare is now? Will Shel Silverstein's famous children's poetry still be read in the year 2984? Will Cormac McCarthy's intense thrillers be a required topic of term papers in the 22nd century?

These are just some of the ideas that pop through my head as I push aside my Shakespeare book to pop open my copy of Breaking Dawn, the last in Meyer's vampire romance saga. Times have clearly changed the way people write and what we enjoy reading. At the same time, as good as Stephenie Meyer and Cormac McCarthy may be, I have a hard time imagining people calling them classics one hundred plus years from now. In reality, can they even compare to the brilliance of Shakespeare? I find it morally wrong to even rank Homer's "The Iliad" with McCarthy's "The Road" though I unquestionably love both.

So what will the classics be?