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I don’t necessarily like adaptations of books. Screenwriters often tend to simplify the deep message of a novel, making it manageable and thus dismissing the viewer. But in my aversion to book adaptations, I often encounter a paradox: no dog watches sublime, cerebral book adaptations. In other words: I find it particularly annoying that it’s the less notable adaptations that attract audiences – yes, I’m sounding pretty snobbish here, apologies. At the same time, I think I understand where the shoe pinches: people are less inclined to pick up a book than to turn on the television. So why on earth would you want to watch visual literature?
When I of the week Jazz (1992) by Toni Morrison (1931-2019) I regularly thought of such a side book adaptation of a television series that no one was watching: The Subway Railway (2021) by Barry Jenkins (Moonlight, 2017). Morrison – who after the publication of Jazz won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993 – written in his book about black Americans who migrated from the countryside to the big city at the turn of the last century. She describes very precisely how it happened, what those lives were like. Details are important. Thoughts attract attention. This creates a sometimes dreamy atmosphere that is also found in his other books, such as Beloved (1987).
Sometimes it’s almost like Morrison stopping time. To highlight a seemingly insignificant moment. But nothing is trivial, and all the little trivialities of his work are part of a larger whole. Nonetheless, the halting of time – ironically enough – results in the plot’s propulsion also stagnating, temporarily or otherwise. It’s exactly what you see in The Underground Railroad: Beautiful and pitiful moments that stand out from the story, which are still relevant without the plots. It’s literature on a visual level: the importance of a sunrise, the daydreams of a character captured in close-up.
The Underground Railroad It revolves around a young enslaved woman who, in the early 1800s, uses a clandestine underground network to escape the slave-dominated American South. The book was written by Colson Whitehead, who is undeniably indebted to Morrison. Whitehead also writes books on the position of black Americans in the contemporary and historical United States. It would be nice if the writers focused even more on his work – Whitehead works on the cutting edge.
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But back to my aversion to book adaptations. Van Morrison became . in 1998 Beloved filmed. The book about an enslaved man who is visited by a ghost got the Hollywood treatment, starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. I saw the movie – which was directed by Jonathan Demme, remarkably also the man behind Thesilenceofthelambs (1991) – a very long time ago and I remember a certain laziness. As well as the solemnity for which Winfrey is known. Not my thing. Too pompous. I would love to see more visual boldness from Jenkins.
But to The Underground Railroad no one watched, despite the rave reviews. (Although Beloved also turned out to be a box office flop.)
