Sometimes the Movie might be better than the book
One of the good things about my job is that it gives me a chance to do some reading during the summer. When I last updated this LJ I wrote about waiting for "On the Beach", well I got it and finished it in three nights: It was good but really depressing. The novel is the story of what happens after WW3, North America, most of Asia and Europe have been destroyed and the fall out from all the bombs used is slowly moving south, killing off the remaining population of the world with radiation poisoning. A mix bag of survivors live in Melbourne and try to live out the last months of their lives as normally as they can. However just like in the bible, everyone dies at the end.

But this blog isn't about "On the Beach", it's about "Fight Club", which I read for the second time this past week. And you know what, I didn't really like it all that much, in fact I think that the film version, starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton was far better than the book. The thing is that some works of fiction just translate better when you see them rather than when you read them. "Fight Club" just works better as a film when the director is allowed to play with the viewer's mind in such a way that when we finally learn what is up with the main character, we remember all the clues he placed in the film, little clips that might have caught our attention. For example in the film version Brad Pitt appears for a few seconds three or four times in the background before his character makes his first real appearence. So basically the director is able to use a "where's waldo" type of image in order to set a certain tone and mood for the film without leaving the main story, something that isn't really possible in written fiction.

Also the end of the film version is much better than the ending of the book. Even the author of the book agrees with that.