As fire is much on my mind this week it is a coincidence that those nice people (grovel) at Harper Collins sent me a graphic novelization of Ray Bradbury's Fareheit 451 to review.
It must be well over tthirty years since I read the original novella and then the expanded (short) novel version. god, that makes me feel old. But it is one of those novels where the idea possibly transcended the actual work itself sand left an indelible mark on everyone who read it and, eventually, on society itself. I guess it's one of those books that everyone feels they've read, or possibly should have read, though i wonder how relevant it is to society today. Perhaps there is an internet version waiting to be written.
The graphic version - The Authorized Adaptation - is by Tim Hamilton, with an introduction by Bradbury himself. Relying on memory it seems to be a faithful interpretation and even maintains that period feel SF of this era (forties/fifties - the first version was written n the forties, the rest in the fifties). And i'm still trying to work out whether I like it that way or not. At first I thought the artist/adapter had missed a chance to sybtly update the piece and make it more relevant to today. the I thought tha tit was more effective as a period piece. Now, I'm not completely sure. I'd love to hear from others who have read it as to how they feel. In the end i was a little disappointed, mostly because Idon't think the story is particularly visual in conception or in execution. This si a book about words - surely the very antithesis of agraphic novel. But that is possibly merely my own prejudice.
For those who don't know the plot - check out Wickipedia, it's essentially the same as the book.
I guess this is a pretty good (and painless) introdcution to what might be considered one of the true classics of the genre. Unfortunately I feel that it does not bring enough to the table in an of itself to make it truly worthwhile. Though I wonder how much more i might have taken from it had I not been so familiar with the story already. And I must also wonder how any of the target market could have avoided the essential details of the original which seem to be ingrained in the very molecules of the air - a bit like 1984 really.
(Published by Harper, Voyager. paperback, 150 pages, £10.99)
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Interesting comments. I wonder, are there classic books, that just cant be translated to graphic novel, no matter the skill of the artist?
ReplyDeletePerhaps I should have said "vision" instead of skill, or perhaps both.
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