io9 
Enter your username and password.
San Francisco, 9:39 AM
Fri Nov 27
15 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors: tips@io9.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Annalee Newitz | Email
News Editor:
Charlie Jane Anders | Email
Associate Editor:
Meredith Woerner | Email
Assistant Editor:
Lauren Davis | Email
Weekend Editor:
Graeme McMillan | Email
Contributors:
Joshua Glenn
Stephen Goldmeier | Email
Ed Grabianowski | Email
Austin Grossman
Paul Hogan | Email
Lauren Davis | Email
Chris Hsiang | Email
Lynn Peril | Email
Ann VanderMeer
Alasdair Wilkins | Email
Graphic Designer:
Stephanie Fox | Email
Interns:
Tim Barribeau | Email
Julia Carusillo | Email
Alex Eichler | Email
Cyriaque Lamar | Email
Caitlin Petrakovitz | Email
Mary Ratliff | Email
Josh Snyder | Email
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/26/09
*sigh* nostalgia... #fanzines
10/26/09
10/26/09
I had an old site up there in 2000 - mostly dorky fan fiction, but there were some photos up there that I didn't have anywhere else. Haha, I think I found my new profile picture.
Pain in the butt downloading it all, but I'm glad I got it. I wonder if my corny SW fics stood the test of time? *Shudders* I'll try reading it later. #fanzines
10/26/09
Oh, and don't do it man... trust me. Just don't go back and read fanfic you wrote when you were significantly younger. I've done it and it never ends well. #fanzines
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
[www.geocities.com] #fanzines
10/26/09
10/26/09
Around 2000, Joe finally got his own commercial site from the guys who created his friend Andrew Vachss' site, so there was really little need for mine once Yahoo put the block on me.
I spent a few hours today doing some cutting and pasting of the source code just to save something for posterity. I might upload the images to Facebook....
Being that I'm a tech-dummy, who had to do what little advanced coding that site needed with a now seriously outdated HTML for Dummies guide, relocating was never an option. #fanzines
10/27/09
10/27/09
That's the reason my main site, B-Independent.com, wasn't been overhauled year ago and I've since gone from the main spot for underground horror to a dead shell outshines by facebook and myspace... LOL, I run a site without knowing how to actually run a site. Or use those new-fangled fliberty gibbert programs you're talking about.
I appreciate the suggestion! #fanzines
10/26/09
geocities has served its purpose i guess. #fanzines
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
I wonder what time zone midnight they're pulling the plug? Or maybe they won't get around to it until it's tomorrow everywhere. ;-) #fanzines
10/26/09
10/26/09
Mass repositories of web sites going away without any backups is like the libraries of Carthage burning.
Okay not really, but still, hope someone backed them up! #fanzines
10/26/09
10/26/09
In my case, I'll miss an awful lot reading old info about starcraft and its expansion in some geocities sites I had in markers. ; (
10/26/09
07/24/09
"The Godfather," for example, is considered by many to be the greatest film ever made. I found that, but for a subplot or two, the book was almost identical the to the movie. I wouldn't call the book the greatest book ever, but it was quite enjoyable. I don't believe anything was lost in the adaptation. In this case, it seems to me that the adaptation was so successful that it superseded the novel. I suppose the same could be said for "Gone With the Wind." I've never seen the movie or read the book, but I imagine I could just watch the movie to save time and not miss anything from the novel.
Similar to "The Godfather," I saw "Fight Club" before reading the book. Once again, but for some minor details, I found that they were quite similar. So similar, in fact, that after some time had passed, I found I couldn't remember the differences anymore.
Which reminds of the main problem I have with film adaptations: after seeing one, it seems to erase the way I had imagined the book version. Put a gun to my head right now and I wouldn't be able to tell you how main battle of The Two Towers played out in the book. The only difference I remember in "Contact" is that more than one person went on the interplanetary subway. The only versions of Dexter, Frankenstein, Interview With the Vampire, Catch-22, A Scanner Darkly and several others that I remember are the filmed versions. It's for this reason that I refuse to watch the Harry Potter movies: for fear of losing the books as imagined in my head. Thus is the power of the visual medium.
This brings me back to my main point: good adaptations seem to take the essence of a book and the most important points and make them work. I think this is why I forget the little details that have been excised from the filmed versions. The films that I can clearly differentiate in my memory are the ones that had serious departures from the original work: the end of "A Clockwork Orange," the completely different "I Am Legend," "Jumper,"etc.
So, if I had to give advice to someone trying to adapt a book, I would give these pointers:
1. Understand the essence of the source material.
2. Be careful to keep the main points intact.
3. Don't significantly change things!
(As long as this post is, it only scratches the surface of what makes a good adaptation work. I should mention that I saw the first Harry Potter film and was utterly bored by it. Perhaps because it was more a literal translation instead of an adaptation.)
07/24/09
One book I'd like to see re-made into a movie is Naked Lunch, only do it low budget, independent, and preferably made in a country that has a lenient attitude towards obscenity. I actually liked the version that was made but it felt like a surreal take on the real life story of the writing of the book. I'd be happier with something that does justice to the fucked up humor of the book and a bit of the shit-eating ickiness of it. And the bits that offend Muslims - no ethnicity on teh planet should ever be beyond ridicule. Ever. Someone should suggest it to Peter Jackson.