I rarely read sci-fi/fantasy (or any genre fiction in general) these days, as most of them are poorly written. I’m not talking about the command of the language, as all published books go through editors–what I’m talking about is the ability to create stories and characters that actually connect to readers on a deeper level than simply entertaining them. Not that there’s anything wrong with pure escapism, but at this point in my life, simply being entertained is often not enough anymore. Of course, this is a generalization about my reading habits, and it would be a bit pretentious to discuss the Potter books in that light. This isn’t to say children’s books can’t be more involving than disposable entertainment–I still remember the books I read as a child vividly, and whether they were “deep” or not, they remain an important part of my memory.

I’ve actually been listening to a lot of audio books lately (mostly on science, philosophy, or history) while I paint, so I’ll take your suggestion and give one of the Potter books a try. It might end up as an example of sometimes being entertained is enough.

I’m afraid the rest of the movies are going to suffer the same fate as GoF, because Rowling’s books have grown to mammoth sizes. For example the first book was only 7 CDs, while GoF was 17. Since the movies stay the same length, a lot more has to be cut from the later movies. Some things the movie cut out didn’t affect the story at all (eg. the House Elf Liberation Front movement started by Hermione), while others really reduced the richness of the story (off the top of my head, the House Elf Winkie and the two Barty Crouchs, for one, and the greatly diminished role of Rita Skeeter).

It’s really too bad, because I like seeing the stories rendered in the rich visuals of a big budget movie, but the story suffers so much because of it.

The acting in Meoirs of A Geisha wasn’t what I had hoped for. To my eyes and ears, they mostly seemed to be playing caricatures instead of multidimensional characters with layered complexities. I don’t think the cast’s difficulty with the language was an issue, since there’s plenty of great acting you could do with facial expression and body language alone. During some moments, it was painfully obvious that the Chinese actresses were given crash lessons on how to act and sound Japanese. They really should’ve just gone with Japanese actors for the whole thing. I don’t believe for a second what Rob Marshall said in interviews about how the Chinese actresses were the best candidates because they fit the roles. I’m willing to bet that it was a simple case of ‘they are the most famous Asian actresss in the world right now, and they’ll be able to sell more tickets than if we used Japanese actresses because there really aren’t any internationally famous Japanese actresses at the moment–at least not at the level of recognition as Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, Michelle Yeoh..etc.’ But the film is still worth a watch because it’s actually a pretty entertaining film, if you can forgive the obvious faults you should’ve been aware of beforehand.

Memoirs of A Geisha, on the other hand, I have not watched the film yet, and I am pretty appealed to the book. I’m also not too happy with the lead roles, personally, but I’ve been hearing it’s still worth the watch. How was the acting to you Rob? I believe the DVD will be released this week in America (Tuesday I think?)