Writing and Reading

I get it. There are die-hard fans out there. There are purists. I completely understand. I fully comprehend the outrage in how a film/tv adaptation should follow word for word the original novel/story/drama etc etc. On one respect, I’d be outraged, too. I have no resentment for those who feel this way. In fact, the only thing I feel is respect.

Let’s talk about “Legend of the Seeker” for a bit.

Unfortunately, I missed the 2-hour season premiere because I had to work. But I promise you–I will be catching it online. True as toasted toads. I’ve read reviews already. I’ve even had a friend talk to me. To sum up, in one word, their feelings–it’s this–

OUTRAGE

The underlying concept behind the outrage–underneath the common criticism of, ‘oh, the characters are stiff,’ and ‘the dialogue is forgettable’ and blah blah blah (critics, people everywhere, PLEASE dump your minds of ANYTHING else you’ve seen on TV or in the movies, and just watch something for what it IS instead of comparing it to something else)–is the simple fact that the show seems to be not true to the books.

They changed the ’story’. The plot has been changed.

Let me make one thing clear here. Let me demonstrate something. Here we go….

(Pierre walks over to his bookshelf and grabs the actual copy of WIZARD’S FIRST RULE, starts flipping through the pages)

Okaaaaaay, one, two, three…. Yeah.

820 pages long. 820 freakin’ pages long!

Dear, God, the trees! Look at all the freakin’ trees fall down at the sight of so many freakin’ pages! And all the ink! Look at all these damn paragraphs and the incredible, unbelievable and unbelievably seamless drivel masterfully, ingeniously and genuinely formed into one huge chunk of a story, pages and pages and pages mounded into one whole section of characters (seriously, read the book again–chapters and chapters follow with the same exact characters! THE SAME.) without jumping into a new setting of characters. Terry Goodkind’s style, ladies and gentlemen. That is, indeed, his style.

I repeat: 820 pages. 8-2-0 pages LOOOOOOOOOONG. Okay, remember “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” in theaters? Yeah. Good film. Pretty true to the book. Yeah, the damn book was about 300 pages long, people! Lord have mercy on me, a sinner! May God strike me down for even expecting that the film be COMPLETELY true to the book. And if I remember, the film really was quite true to the book. At least as far as plot was concerned.

In that respect, we’re talking about a film. Here, with “Legend of the Seeker”, we’re talking about a two-hour premiere. Fine. That’s just about the size of a film. But we’re also talking about a television series.

So, okay, let’s do the math. We have a two-hour premiere (essentially film length). That would amount to maybe 300 pages of book. That cuts down Goodkind’s book to 520 pages. Okay.

So now we’ll probably have a full season’s worth of episodes–maybe 12, maybe 20 episodes total? I honestly don’t know how many ABC has ordered for the season. A full season, I think is somewhere around the ‘teens. That’s an hour each episode. Got it?

Good. So we have 300 pages of novel put into a two-hour ‘film’, so to speak. So let’s take an hour-long episode. What’ll that be? You guessed it! About 150 pages worth of novel! You get a cookie. Yummy.

Okay, more math–here we go–come on, people, stay with me–

So we were at 520 pages left to go in WIZARD’S FIRST RULE. 150 pages for each episode, speculating, of course. We’ll say, hmmmmm….. Maybe 12 more episodes to go before the season finale? That’s just a guess. Let’s multiply 150 times 12. Okay. That’ll beeeeeeeeee…..

1,800 PAGES

LONG

I knoooooooooooooooow.  That is a lot of pages! In fact, I literally can’t stop laughing at that! I purposely made it that big for a reason.

Listen, everyone. You heard it from Terry Goodkind himself, in fact. There were going to be ‘new’ developments within the series. Stories/scenes he never included in the books themselves. Stories he couldn’t include. Remember?–820 pages long.

We’re talking about a television series here that in many ways needs to expand on the original novel, transition in different ways. (For example, you can’t simply take chapter 1 and call that episode 1, for crying out loud. I mean, seriously.) Without a doubt, the ‘plot’ will change no matter what. Goodkind himself alluded to that.

And for those critics who think Goodkind has no say in it. Let me remind you of one thing:

He’s writing at least one episode himself.

A man who’s already started writing a brand-new series of books for a new publisher is actually writing one ’script’, if you will, for a television series. Even that surprises me, what with knowing how talented Goodkind is already.

Again, the plot will change. That’s a given. We knew that. We’ve known that for almost a year. Goodkind kept telling us that on his site.

But, seriously, again, I have to say this with the utmost respect for the purists, the die-hard fans (which I am as well), all the critics out there who firmly believe in accuracy and following the letters to a tee–

THE STORY STAYS THE SAME NO MATTER WHAT.

I, quite frankly, don’t care if Richard’s eyes aren’t light gray in the series. I, quite frankly, don’t care if Darken Rahl’s hair isn’t blonde either. I really don’t care if the plot gets reworked, twisted, turned, tightened, condensed, dissolved, expanded, exfoliated, exported as a Microsoft Word document (?), WHATEVER!

Because the truth is, a story stays the same even if the telling of it changes. You understand what I’m saying, people?

We are dealing with an epic series of books. The first season will be dedicated to WIZARD’S FIRST RULE. The sheer magnitude of that one book can’t even be honored by a film! Think about it. The only way Goodkind’s books work–is with a television series.

I, for one, look forward to invention. I, for one, look forward to creativity, expansion. To me, it’s honoring the characters. To me, it’s honoring the story itself. Not the plot.

The plot was designed for the book. That’s why it worked so well. But the plot for the book won’t work in the same way for an hour-long episode television series. It just won’t.

Again, for the purists out there: I understand. But, frankly, I’m tuning in every Saturday for “Legend of the Seeker”. And I hope it goes the full 11 seasons. But, as Zedd would say–

“Nothing is ever easy”.