Will Rankin Go The Whole Hogg? And Other Similarly Crass And Degenerate Comments On A Great Work Of Literature… November 27, 2008
Posted by bensix in Uncategorized.trackback
I’m pleased to see that Ian Rankin is going to adapt The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner for the screen. The first time that I read Memoirs and Confessions I was in year ten, and, well, just found it exciting. Having rediscovered it over the summer, however, I can confidently gush that it’s a truly magnificent novel; a fantastical horror that challenges the moral perceptions of the reader rather than merely guiding them through a rogues gallery.
It’s possible, of course, that Rankin will screw it up. I am – and, as someone who has a nauseatingly pompous attitude towards irredeemable shite like Harry Potter, this feels a bit like a confession – a fan of his, and he writes really good, tight novels. He does, however, have a weird habit of overpacking his openings and introductions. They read a little like this..
John Thribb was gloomy. Not just because of his acute depression, his crappy pay, Jane dumping him and the overcast weather but because he was standing over a body. The body of his aunt.
I don’t know whether he’ll carry this over to his scripts, but it’d be particularly disorientating when the opening is trying to set a tone.
On the other hand, Rankin is far more subtle than his contemporaries, in character, dialogue and, importantly, imagery. Thus, we are happily unlikely to see ravens swooping down from church towers before settling on gravestones and looking out over barren moors etc. etc. etc.
I have to confess I’d never heard of either TPMACOAJS or James Hogg (and I consider myself reasonably literate). It looks interesting though so I’ll definitely give it a try.
Heh, I wish I could say that my knowledge of it is illustrative of my fiendishly intellectual nature, but I think that I just found it in a library and thought that it looked cool.
(Incidentally, Andrew Sullivan has noted that Melanie ‘Roaring Into The Wind’ Phillips “appears to have gone off her rocker”.)
Ben
the poor poor aunt. how dreadful. and to think jane killed her only because of the weather conditions.