The Ravenous Bookworm

The British TV terrestrial broadcaster ITV recently produced adaptations of three Jane Austen novels, viz. Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. These projects had been in production for a couple of years with initial reports of them appearing in the trade press and on various news/entertainment web sites in late 2005. In the meantime we've had the film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice starring Keira Knightley; much better than the much vaunted BBC TV serialisation from 1995 starring two wooden players (Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth).

This new ITV version Mansfield Park starred the ever present Billie Piper (once Doctor Who campanion then Phillip Pullman's Ruby in Ruby in the Smoke) --- which is the best thing that can be said for it. I do hope that the production crews' code name for the project was "Mangled Park" because that was what they did with it. There have to be some compromises when translating the story from book to screen but in this one there was no rhyme or reason for any of the characters actions. For example, the moment when Mrs Norris supports Maria has no weight because her hatred of Fanny's elevation to proper society has been completely excised. Similarly Edmund's vocation as a clergyman is completely lost so making nonsense of Mary Crawford's objections to marrying him. And what was the point of "Fanny" declining a ball in her honour to have a picnic instead? Huh?!? The location budget costs have swallowed up the budget; they filmed the entire programme at one location (so no trip to Portsmouth). The only connections to Jane Austen's original book are the name. In all other respects this was something entirely different and much less worthy. What a shame. All those fans of Miss Piper tuning in and seeing a travesty of Austen. With a couple of years production time why was this so?

Northanger Abbey fared much better. Probably because Andrew Davies (script writer for the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice) was involved. A lot of Austen's own wit expressed in the descriptive text was transferred to the screen.

Persuasion ... well on this I need a little persuading. Much better than the butchered Mansfield Park but still lacking any engagement with the audience.

ITV rounded out the season with a rebroadcast of their 1996 adaption of Emma. A wonderful book filled with irritating characters that we just love to hat. Yet this one succeeds. Probably because Andrew Davies was the script writer. The role of Mrs Elton especially is drawn wonderfully off the page; such a loathesome character.

The book that features at the top of my reading list is the Bible. But it seems that my interest in the book is not matched by others. Yesterday over at the Better Bibles Blog I contributed a guest blog, which you can read by clicking on the title above, and arose out of email sent to me from Sweden. From the article contained in that email it appears that only 40% of church-goers in Sweden actually bother to read the Bible at all. The other 60% don't even think about read it. I haven't read enough Swedish literature to know whether the Bible has as great an influence on authors in Sweden as the King James Version has had on writers in Britain and other English-speaking countries.

I'm no fan of the King James Version (as a translation) but knowledge of the accounts recorded in the biblical text is necessary to understand a huge pile of English literature. Many years ago I heard a lecturer at a British university say that he had to teach new students about the Fall before they could commence studying Milton's poetry. Seems that now those in the church need to be taught the contents of the Bible and how to use it.

Books are a passion of mine. Rarely do I not have several different books on the go at one time; some for professional reasons, some for pleasure, some just for the challenge, some because they are not politically correct.

Translations of religious texts are of special interest. Aspects of the translators craft intrigue me so among the books on the go there are theoretical books on the topic. Readability of the target text seems to be assumed in the literature; if the translator has followed the rules then the resultant text will be readable. The combination of translated religious texts and theur readability has been neglected in preference to other issues such as accuracy, whatever that means.

In subsequent blog entries I'll indulge myself by writing about books that are on the go (or that have gone). Occasionally mixing in some commented on readability of those translated religious text. The latter will probably be more than occasional and then mostly about Bible translation.

If you drop by once in a while and find some of interest then please comment.