This is a topic that every book nerd, like myself, comes across at some point in their lives (shout out to you comic nerds as well, this also applies). You find a book (or comic) that you really like and get super invested into the characters and the story and everything about it. You get invested into the fandom and would be completely lying if you claimed to not have geeked out hardcore on something in regards to whatever you fell in love with. Then comes the news as your book/comic becomes more popular: an adaptation is in the process!
Ok, time for a pause. For those of you who haven’t experienced this, it has to be hard imagine. Think about it this way: imagine your wildest fantasy. It can be anything. Anyone can be there and you can do anything. Be President? Done. Marry Kim Kardashian? Done. Binge watch ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ without any other things to be done? Done. Now take this amazing fantasy of yours and relinquish all control of it over to someone else. What’s going to happen now? You have little say. Instead of marrying a Kardashian, you could marry Hillary Clinton instead. That is basically what it’s like in most cases when authors sell the rights to their book(s) and allow it to be made into a movie/show. They lose all creative control of the adaptation and are only rarely consulted. Ok, pause time is over.
When reading, the reader has to picture in their heads what is going on, what the characters look like, and everyone can come up with their own interpretation. If an author says that a character has “fiery, red hair” you may most likely interpret this as the character being a ginger, but your friend may read the same thing and imagine the character’s head covered in literal fire. It’s all about interpretation. That’s the awesome thing about reading though, you can interpret anything and no one can really prove you wrong (except for comics, really). That’s where adaptations make people mad.
Many times, new adaptations of books or series or comics fall onto the spectrum of loved or hated and are highly criticized. For example, the new series ‘Shadowhunters’ is a new adaptation of The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare and it was met with some criticism right from the casting. Two main characters who are siblings were cast, Alec and Isabelle, but the actors were of different races. Emeraude Toubia, who portrays Isabelle, is of Mexican heritage while Matthew Daddario, who portrays Alec, is of Italian heritage. Fans of The Mortal Instruments went into an unreasonable outrage at this because they didn’t fit with their views of the characters—aka, white and Caucasian. Ironically, these same fans hated the movie adaptation that was failed (‘The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones’) because their views weren’t satisfied but for reasons other than race.
A much harsher example can be seen in criticism of the new Harry Potter play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. For those that don’t know, this play follows Harry Potter and his youngest son and will be premiering later this year (the day before Harry’s birthday, nonetheless). Daniel Radcliffe and friends will not be returning to portray Harry and his compatriots though, new actors and actresses were cast. The criticism that came into play really falls with the casting of Noma Dumezweni, an English actress with African heritage, as Hermione Granger. Examples of some tweets include:
Hurtful, right? There were some pleasant tweets and reactions, but many reactions were just plain hurtful. J.K. Rowling, aka The Queen of the Potter Fandom, shut down the haters and proved them wrong by using the canon of the source for Hermione:
The source (the Harry Potter books) never listed Hermione as white, however, the popularity of the Harry Potter films has lead everyone to conclusion that Hermione is just like she is in the movies—white. However, race isn’t the only factor that has caused book fandoms to freak out over adaptations.
A huge point that concerns fandoms and book nerds and whatever else you want to call us are changes or lack of plot and character development. When a several hundred-page novel is condensed into a 120-minute time-frame (if that), it’s a given that some things will have to be cut out. Favorite scenes and moments deemed unnecessary are just not included in the movie. Take Professor Snape in ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.’ He is the Half-Blood Prince and the book goes into depth to explain this. In the movie, he literally just says to Harry while fighting, “I am the Half-Blood Prince.” In The Hunger Games movies, character development is taken out. In the end of the first book it is explained that Katniss and Peeta have to be fixed up from injuries they sustained while in the arena. Peeta got a prosthetic leg while Katniss went deaf in one ear and had to get a hearing aid. This shows that the characters are far from perfect, they’re flawed like everyone else, and Katniss’s improved hearing with her hearing aid actually assisted her in Catching Fire. In the movie, none of this is shown. The characters are shown as practically perfect for all intents and purposes.
So, which is better? The source or the adaptation? Well, it’s best to think about it this way: each one is its own universe. The ‘Shadowhunters’ TV universe differs greatly from The Shadowhunter Chronicles book universe. The Harry Potter fandom can be split up into universes of books, movies, and even a play. A popular example is the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which consists of the Marvel movies and TV shows. These characters, while based off the comics, are allowed to differ and change because they act on their own. The MCU is its own universe, separate from the one that the comics take place in. The list just goes on and on.
Personally, I’m a fan of always reading the book first since you understand the source going in, but you are allowed to like whatever you want. If you want to watch the movie/show first and then read the book, great! If you want to read the book first and then watch the movie/show, that’s great too! Just understand things will be different, and be respectful of that fact.
