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New Patreon Exclusive Video! My Favourite Book Was Turned Into a Film and Now I Have to Rant About Adaptation (Patreon)

Published:
2024-01-31 18:00:06
Imported:
2026-06
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Hello everyone!

Just letting you know that the new, Patreon-exclusive video is now available! Poor Things has been receiving almost universal critical acclaim in its hilarious representation of a woman's coming-of-age fairy tale. It's a visual treat and the remarkable performances sell the sharp dialogue well. It just so happens to be an adaptation of one of my favourite books of all time by my absolute favourite author—the late, great Alasdair Gray.

In that regard, I have some *problems*.

Let's talk about whether the cast/crew actually read the book, Scottishness in art, changes in setting, national politics, metafictional narrative devices, the disregard of legacy and that awful N64 Neon Genesis Evangelion game.

This one is a bit like the Cheese Drum Kit video from a couple of years back—a bit of a departure from the channel's regular programming, but one I hope you'll join me on. Immensely fun and cathartic to put together. Also, while it isn't directly related to games, it's focusing on work that deeply shaped my views on art and my critical voice in evaluating it.

(a reminder that I have an unlisted playlist of all the Patreon-exclusive vids up to this point, found here—please do not share it around!)

As I say at the end, experiments like this keep things interesting for me—it's rejuvenating to be able to talk about media of all kinds as it all relates to how I view art. Hopefully that comes through. I would not be able to experiment with stuff like this if it wasn't for your unbelievably generous support here. You keep the channel going and I cannot thank you enough for that. You are all the best.

I'm thinking in February I might end up doing a video on Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth as I've been playing that in what little spare time I have and expectedly adoring it. Outside of that, I'm going to try my absolute best to get this Ace Combat behemoth done and uploaded next month. Hopefully that's as as exciting a prospect to you as it is to me!

Thanks again for all your support,

Hamish

Files

Previews only

My Favourite Book Was Turned Into a Film and Now I Have to Rant About Adaptation (Patreon exclusive)

Poor Things has been receiving almost universal critical acclaim in its hilarious representation of a woman's coming-of-age fairy tale. It's a visual treat and the remarkable performances sell the sharp dialogue well. It just so happens to be an adaptation of one of my favourite books of all time by my absolute favourite author—the late, great Alasdair Gray. In that regard, I have some *problems*. Let's talk about whether the cast/crew actually read the book, Scottishness in art, changes in setting, national politics, metafictional narrative devices, the disregard of legacy and that awful N64 Neon Genesis Evangelion game. This one is a bit like the Cheese Drum Kit video from a couple of years back—a bit of a departure from the channel's regular programming, but one I hope you'll join me on. Immensely fun and cathartic to put together. Also, while it isn't directly related to games, it's focusing on work that deeply shaped my views on art and my critical voice in evaluating it. Hope you enjoy. Footage from a number of sources: The film Poor Things, obviously The Gray Matter (great doc on Gray's life) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwWzNBvGoT8 Alasdair Gray, A Life in Progress (another good doc) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U3gWg9mdDk Alasdair Gray: Magnificent Citizen - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbNXMBvj3ew Vanity Fair's Breakdown of a Scene - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpZIeS_0CRs CBS report on the film - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe__rFo-eCM Golden Globes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4zC41vMYOU Wee Walks - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26h0Mqm1pPY

Comments

DukePebbles

Great video Hamish, even though my experience of Poor Things is quite opposite. I've not read the book (though you have convinced me I should) but I am in awe of the film. It's already among my favourite movies of all time, and might even get the top spot depending on how it ages. I think extracting whatever is valuable to you from a story and adapting only that part of it, is completley valid. As I understand from your video, the story as portraid in the movie is not 'true' within the book-canon, and the original ending recontextualises it all. As someone deeply touched by the story as shown, I'd say that is a testament to the story of Bella Baxter, rather than that of Victoria. I imagine the screenwriters were similarly touched by that incomplete part of the book, and wanted to adapt it. It reminds me of the musical Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812. That musical is an adaptation of a ~70 page segment from War & Peace. A lot of the book is obviously left out, and vital information about the characters in the musicals is not shown in any way for those who have not read the book. That doesn't mean the people who wrote the musical don't care for those bits, but there is a specific substory they wanted to tell in a different medium. And it works, it's a fantastic musical where the medium adds so much to the original story, even if a lot of the context is taken out. I wouldn't want to see a full adaptation of the whole novel, because either the musical would be 12 hours long or so much would have to be cut out that it would lose all value. Turning that back to Poor Things, there is value in adapting only part of a story so you can do that part justice, even if what the audience walks away with may be different than they would with the original work. Since I saw the film not a day has gone by where I didn't think 'What would Bella Baxter do?', and I can't imagine the effect would have been as profound if that whole narrative got rejected at the end. Though I will see if I strongly change my mind after I read the book of course. Thanks again for your perspective. PS: One reason why I think movie viewers don't feel strongly about the change from Glasgow to London is that it doesn't feel like London is very important in the story anyway. Most of the runtime takes place in Lisbon, Paris, and other parts that are not London. You made it clear a lot of other Scottish elements were also cut out, but without that knowledge the choice of London feels very arbitrary and not impactful on the story.

Graham Walker

I think there's an interesting point your making here that I would add to, in terms of gaming. When making a game and starting with the design doc many game directors will start with trying to outline what is central to the core experience and the pillars which support this that the rest of the game should be grown out of. So, say for a metroidvania you may say that often the pillars of the core experience will be feeling lost, moving from powerless to powerful, a world to be understood where you are not the centre of it (hey, I just described most of the core of dark souls, too). So with regards to this it sounds like you are saying that the core pillars of the book are likely: independence/ free will (on a personal and collective level), perspective as shaped by experience (or lack of) and something like the role of women in society. Glasgow is a natural off shoot of at least the first of these pillars, if not also the other two, but that the film has not followed through with this. So, I suppose the question is has the director purposely, consciously chosen the same or different pillars to the films core and were the artistic choices from there in service to or at odds with the core intended experience? It may be that the director has chosen a different set of pillars which you may personally disagree with and that's fair enough, or that the director has indeed made an error of judgement in making artistic choices which are not in service to the intended experience of the film. I couldn't say which is true, but I think this is how to judge it.

Parachuting Turtle

Should I watch the movie, then read the book, then watch this video? Should I watch the movie, then watch this video, then read the book? Should I watch this video, then watch the movie, then read the book? Or some other order?