I'm afraid you're quite mistaken
Sweetheart—you appear innocently under the impression that that the film spectacle just now soaked through your wondering retinae is akin to an ordinary cinematic adaptation from an existing literary source, and deplore the sundry cuts and compromises attendant upon the imperative of squeezing the original saga with all its richness into just 140 minutes. Alas, dear, we're not talking Brideshead Revisited* or even Lord of the Rings here: there was no literary "original," for all that a booklike object was made available for gentle pop culture consumers like yourself in advance of the cinematic release. The booklike object (which you are pleased to call a "novel") was in fact derived from the shooting script, and the author, 43 year-old "Matthew Woodring Stover" (whose bibliography and biography both fairly shout "Hack!" "Hack!"), was permitted, doubtless with adult supervision, to flesh out the story you raptly absorbed from the screen. You really should understand, though, that your experience at the St. Louis McMultiplex was the real deal, and that the paperback you greedily absorbed upon its release last month was merely a riff upon a theme.
Ah, well first of all, I started off writing the word book (instead of novel), but since I was planning to post this in all my Star Wars groups as well, and they call it "the novel" I decided to go with novel instead. I did goof a few times I think though, and refer to it as a book.
I know what a literary work is, I even own Brideshead Revisited, and it was stupendous. It was also a marvelous PBS series that I hope to someday own. Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews were just brilliant in it and the only thing I'd seen Anthony do better in on television was Danger UXB, also a wonderful series. I own that novel as well. :)
So I wasn't referring to Star Wars ROTS the novel as a "literary" work, but as the fleshed out, more detailed version of the movie in book form. And Lucas approved the book so it's right on with the movie as in what's missing, and even has many of the deleted scenes in it.
yours in hope that a life awaits you after SWE3,
Of course it does. I didn't even have any sort of empty feeling because this is the "last" movie, supposedly. I just enjoyed the film. :)
*Brideshead Revisited is a novel by Evelyn Waugh (a boy), originally published in 1945, that takes up 351 pages in the trade paperback edition. It was adapted for television a quarter of a century ago, and in a full eleven hours was rendered to the screen as faithfully as it is possible for a novel to be so transformed. You, Brenda, would find it unendurable: if pinned beneath a heavy bookshelf with Brideshead Revisited playing on a monitor in your line of sight you would chew your leg off and crawl to the multiplex to see "Revenge of the Sith" one last time before you expired from loss of blood.
I would not find it unendurable, I loved it! I would have purchased it by now, but it costs a lot! And when I was watching it, I didn't yet own a VCR. But someday I may own it. :) So I would most certainly NOT chew my leg off to escape, I would lie there and enjoy it. :)
You sir, would be surprised to discover what I like and don't like. ;) For example, I can't stand Lord Of The Rings.
Brenda
