Blog post 7: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close book trailer

Blog post 6: Readicide

The more I think about it, the more I believe that Readicide is real - at least to some degree. I know I'm not the only person who despises Shakespeare and struggled to stay focused while reading The Crucible; more often than not, I disliked the book or play I had to read for whatever English class I was in. I understand why these works are taught; besides the fact that they're "classics," a lot of them have themes that have been deemed important. The problem with this is that there are plenty of works today that contain the same themes, but can be more easily read. I wish I could be an advocate for Hamlet or Macbeth, but the truth is, I couldn’t stand them. I love the lessons that they teach and the underlying questions, but I can also find these concepts in books that are written in modern day English. Classic works should be taught in a way that students can understand them today.

 Unfortunately, we are trying to too hard to preserve these works of literature. Classics are deemed classics because they were extremely popular when they were released and for a period of time thereafter. But many classics aren’t enjoyed by students today, and that’s because they don’t think the same way students did decades ago. We have to adapt to our time period. I think we should adopt the “50-50” method of teaching half classics, half modern books. There are books that were written last year that are just as important as those written fifty years ago. Students may enjoy reading more if they feel they can relate to the characters more, or if they can at least understand the text. Just because a book is modern doesn’t mean it can’t be analyzed. Critical thinking skills can be built while reading Perks or The Fault in Our Stars. Eventually, even those books will be considered classics…so why not start teaching them now? We’ve changed the way we look at and teach other subjects, and English is long overdue for a makeover.

Blog post 5: Adapting Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close has already been made into a film, but I haven't seen it, so I'm going to address this post as if a movie hadn't been made. Any filmmaker would have a few difficulties capturing the unique elements in this book. For example, there are two solid pages of numbers when Oskar's grandfather asks what the sum of his life is. That's an interesting way to prove a point, but it would be hard to put into the film. It would also be hard to show the part where the text gets smaller and smaller until the words are blurred together and illegible, eventually blending into an almost entirely black page. It's things like that that make the book so interesting, but I feel like they would be difficult to transfer to the big screen. The plot wouldn't have to change if these things weren't incorporated, but it would take away from the unique aspects of the book.

One specific scene that needs to be kept is (spoiler!) one of the final scenes, where Oskar discovers that the key belongs to a banker whose father passed away and left the key in a vase, which the banker then sold to Thomas Schell. This is important for obvious reasons; without it, nobody would know what they key was for, and since Oskar spends the better part of the book searching for its lock, it wouldn't make sense to leave viewers hanging.

Another scene that I have deemed important is the "Hamlet" scene, where Oskar imagines what the play would be like if he had spoken his mind. This scene is essential to the film because it adds comic relief, and also gives viewers a glimpse into Oskar's mind, and how funny he is - unintentionally, of course.

The third scene that should be kept in the movie is the scene where Oskar's grandfather and grandmother first meet. Viewers need to be introduced to the "yes" and "no" tattoos and the grandfather's hands, and his notebook/means of communication. This scene also establishes the relationship between the two, and foreshadows how difficult things will be down the road.

If I had to cut two scenes from the book in order to create a great movie,  I would probably cut the scene where Oskar's mom tells him the story of the sixth borough and the scene where Jimmy Snyder and his friends make fun of Oskar at recess. While I do believe they contribute to the book, I don't see their contributions as major; meaning, if these scenes were cut, the story would still make sense and the important messages would still be conveyed.