# Unfilmable Books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 9, 2012, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501 "2012-11-09T18:19:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501/1 "2012-11-09T18:19:31Z")
I’ve seen this phrase a lot since “Cloud Atlas” came out. Haven’t seen it yet, so can’t comment there. Since the advent of CGI, al lot of unfilmable books have been filmed (Lord of the Rings) but in the Cloud Atlas case it’s the structure as much as the shifting content that was seen as a problem. Now, I see previews for “Life of Pi”. I really, really liked that book & to me it is unfilmable. The reasons would be spoilers for the book, but we could go into that if anyone’s interested. I’m just so disheartened by that preview - & not just because the lead character sounds like Raj on Big Bang Theory. Any thoughts on this book as unfilmable, or other books you think are unfilmable? ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501/2 "2012-11-09T18:38:08Z")
_Naked Lun_– shit, no. _Atlas Shru_– no. _A Scanner Dar_– no. _Johnny Mnemo_– no. Granted, none of those are _good_ movies… But seriously, _House of Leaves_ is a book that is unfilmable. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501/3 "2012-11-09T18:48:39Z")
A Fan’s Notes Takes place mostly as a running internal monologue. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501/4 "2012-11-09T19:03:30Z")
Finnegan’s Wake? ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501/5 "2012-11-09T19:07:38Z")
There are plenty of non-fiction books that are unfilmable (except in a “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex\* But Were Afraid to Ask” sense). Like the Oxford English Dictionary (“the zebra did it!”). The first book that came to mind was [Codex Seraphinianus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Seraphinianus), but you probably could make an animated movie about it that would be similar in spirit, if not exactly in content. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501/6 "2012-11-09T19:25:51Z")
Someone has the film rights to _Inifinite Jest_, and I’m hard-pressed to figure out how that would be filmed in a reasonable or compelling way. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501/7 "2012-11-09T19:27:22Z")
_Perdido Street Station_ (and its sequel, whose name I forget), by China Mieville. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501/8 "2012-11-09T19:51:40Z")
\*The Illuminati Trilogy. \* An unfilmable book because it’s basically an unreadable book. You don’t read it; you experience it. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501/9 "2012-11-09T19:54:06Z")
How did they ever make a movie of _Lolita_? I think a _Life of Pi_ movie could work, but the trailer I’ve seen looks terrible. I’m hoping it’s misleading. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501/10 "2012-11-09T20:02:36Z")
I too hope the Pi preview\* is misleading (after all, the “Lincoln” previews look deadly dull to me & it’s getting great reviews; same with “The Master”). I may just stick with the book. Some interesting ‘unfilmable’ ones have been named. \*when did ‘previews’ start to be called ‘trailers’ , anyway? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501/11 "2012-11-09T20:07:23Z")
I keep trying to imagine how one could make a film out of Nicholson Baker’s _The Mezzanine_ and have it come out anything like as good as the book. _The Fermata_ on the other hand… ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501/12 "2012-11-09T20:10:26Z")
Gravity’s Rainbow would be a challenge. The Silmarillion would be a bigger one. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501/13 "2012-11-09T20:22:05Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Finnegan’s Wake? Got your winner right there. Other contenders: The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (but then, I haven’t seen the play) ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501/14 "2012-11-09T20:30:26Z")
How about this, > **[The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_and_Opinions_of_Tristram_Shandy,_Gentleman)** > > The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, also known as Tristram Shandy, is a novel by Laurence Sterne, inspired by Don Quixote. It was published in nine volumes, the first two appearing in 1759, and seven others following over the next seven years (vols. 3 and 4, 1761; vols. 5 and 6, 1762; vols. 7 and 8, 1765; vol. 9, 1767). It purports to be a biography of the eponymous character. Its style is marked by digression, double entendre, and graphic devices. The first edition was printe... I think James Joyce’ Ulysses would also be as unfilmable as it is unreadable. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501/15 "2012-11-09T20:32:24Z")
_Dune_. I know it has been tried. It has not been done successfully. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501/16 "2012-11-09T20:34:02Z")
I still hold that _Dune_ and _Watchmen_ are unfilmable, even though movies have been made based on them. Other examples would be _The Fan_ by Bob Randall or _The Anderson Tapes_ by Lawrence Sanders. Both had relatively ordinary plots (_The Fan_ was about a stalker and _The Anderson Tapes_ was about an apartment building burglary). What was interesting about them were how they were told - _The Fan_ was written completely as a series of letters and _The Anderson Tapes_ was written as a series of transcripts of hidden surveillance recordings. Both methods created an interesting means of limiting the narrative. But when they were turned into movies, these methods were abandoned and the plots were told as regular movies. Which lost the point that made the books interesting. The movies were reduced down to their fairly pedestrian stories. Years later, Adam Rifkin made a movie _Look_ (later expanded into a television series) which was composed of supposed footage from surveillance cameras. It would have been interesting if Sidney Lumet had tried this in his adaptation of _The Anderson Tapes_. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501/17 "2012-11-09T20:53:28Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > Someone has the film rights to _Inifinite Jest_, and I’m hard-pressed to figure out how that would be filmed in a reasonable or compelling way. Who has the rights? I think it would be impossible to do it justice as a movie, but I could see a TV miniseries taking a crack at it. (That’s an artistic opinion; don’t know if anyone is doing TV miniserieses anymore, or if a television production would be daring enough to tackle the book’s structural issues.) ---
**Author:** ![Rollo\_Tomasi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58956e/32.png) [@Rollo\_Tomasi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rollo_Tomasi)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501/18 "2012-11-09T20:56:30Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > \*when did ‘previews’ start to be called ‘trailers’ , anyway? [Gfactor speaks.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2270/why-are-they-called-trailers-if-theyre-shown-em-before-em-the-movie) Short version: they were called trailers first, because they used to come after the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501/19 "2012-11-09T21:01:37Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Who has the rights? > > I think it would be impossible to do it justice as a movie, but I could see a TV miniseries taking a crack at it. (That’s an artistic opinion; don’t know if anyone is doing TV miniserieses anymore, or if a television production would be daring enough to tackle the book’s structural issues.) Michael Schur … the co-creator of “Parks and Recreation.” ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501/20 "2012-11-09T21:02:44Z")
I’ve never been satisfied with attempts to film fantasy stories which included a lot of psychic/mental trances/extraplanar visions, so I had assumed it would be a while if ever before we saw any serious, quality treatment for Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover novels. I would love to be proven wrong, particularly since they nudged up against the boundaries of this with LOTR and the X-Men movies, but I don’t think we’re really there yet. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfilmable-books/640501.md?page=2)