I am a dork, and because of this I am extremely excited that we got to send our mini-screenplays to Jonathan Lethem. I'm not sure what I am so excited about since most of what I sent him was his own words just formatted differently, but I suppose it's the whole idea. A famous author is going to be reading my (mini) screenplay adaptation of his novel. Perhaps I am such a writing freak that any chance to get my (semi) writing out there and noticed is like Halloween come early (if we're looking solely at the commercial offerings of holidays, Halloween is my favorite).
I give Lethem a lot of credit for willingly and (nearly) freely putting his work out there for others to use and abuse as they see fit. So many times I’ve read amazing books only to see them slaughtered in movie format. And this makes me think, how is that book’s author handing this? If it were me, I would be horrified. You spend so much time and effort crafting detailed plots, breathing life into intricate characters, and then suddenly some hotshot young screenplay writer changes the war story into a romance and gives your main character a limp and a bad accent.
But perhaps Lethem sees the fun in this. Maybe he wants to find out what crazy things people do with his work, who stays close to the story and who gets rid of everything but the title. Judging by the Promiscuous Materials Project, I think he enjoys this all very much.
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Yeah, I agree that Jonathan (we're on a first-name basis now) seems like a pretty cool guy.
Deanie, don't think for a second that your love of writing and reading makes you a dork.
Perhaps your new connection with Jonathan will one day allow you to connect with E. Norton.
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