I was sitting in a creative writing class the other day, and my professor played a cinematic take on a short story we read for class. At the culmination of the film, a classmate turned to me and said;

“That completely ruined the story for me”.

This got me to think, does cinema ruin literary texts? How many reviews of movies do we see that praise the movie over the book, very few. I make it a point to never watch the music videos that correlate with my favorite songs. This is because there are images that dance around in my head that evokes a feeling or emotion about a specific text, and when those images don’t sync with the artists it completely changes the feelings I have towards that piece of literature.

In no way am I discrediting the artistic interpretation of thousands. Thats all it is, interpretation. And many can view a painting, or song, or film, or book, or poem in a contrasted interpretation than one I had thought of. It is all to the viewers and readers and listeners perspective.

Many of the works of literature that are made into works of cinematography today often are recreated after years of the author, or original artists, passing. How these pieces are literature are portrayed on the big screen is entirely to the discretion of the artists behind the film. Their interpretations may be distorted from the author's original intent, or the readers original view.

What is so amazing is the different ways of understanding behind a particular piece of art. And although film may ruin our original views of a piece of literature, film itself is an artistic medium that is leaves an opening for interpretation as well.