I met Gordon Williams in a bar in Greenwich Village and spent
a day arguing with him in June of 1977. At the time he
couldn't believe I'd read his book as well as seen the movie.
He was suffering from some deep melancholia which made him
very angry and aggressive. He had been divorced. That said,
however, why do we generalize about fictional characters?
Certainly there are some women who do like a man who takes
charge. I've personally met many women who enjoy rough sex
play and some who won't have it any other way. To suggest
that all women, or people for that matter, want to be treated
respectfully as equals is just not true. Some may wish it
were true, but there's no real reason to think the world
would be better if this were the case. Certainly there are
women who have daddy fetishes and rape fantasies just as
there are those who like to play the dominatrix. Will anyone
deny this today? I don't necessarily think that anyone may
actually want to be raped, but according to law enforcement,
80% of rapes in the US go unreported. I can't imagine how
they reach this figure if they're
'unreported,' but that's the statistic. So a lot of victims
apparently handle this ordeal on their own. I respect the end
of both the movie and the book. At the end of the movie I
don't think those characters are going to do very well at
all. At the end of the book, it does seem that they, as a
couple, have crossed the Rubicon. People we read about do not
have to be just like us socially, economically, or
politically. But we make the best use of literature if we
learn from it that people unlike ourselves do exist and
sometimes quite comfortably.
Patrick King
--- Nathan Cain <
IndieCrime@gmail.com> wrote:
> Let me say, while I'm at it, that I also find
the
> ending of the book,
> which is essentially a happy one, to be a lot
more
> troublesome than
> anything in the film. Peckinpah has been called
out
> for his graphic
> depictions of violence (which I'll admit are kind
of
> quaint by today's
> standards), but I don't think he can be accused
of
> celebrating
> violence. The end of the movie was ambiguous
about
> the fate of the
> characters' marital relationship and about
the
> effect the violence
> would have on them. The book leaves the
impression
> that everything
> will be fine.
>
> On Feb 17, 2008 10:56 AM, Nathan Cain
> <
indiecrime@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I don't necessarily expect movie adaptations
to
> keep in line with
> > novels because they are, as you note,
different
> media and they each
> > have a different set of rules. I just think
some
> of the changes made
> > in this case were more for shock value than
they
> were for helping to
> > build tension effectively.
> >
> >
> > On Feb 17, 2008 10:44 AM, Keith
Sparrow
> <
ksparrow@buckeye-express.com> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Good morning, I think it's a trap to
expect a
> lockstep connection between
> > > the novel and the film. By their very
natures,
> they offer differing
> > > opportunities for, say, building suspense,
or
> depicting violence.
> > >
> > >
> > > ---- Original Message -----
> > > From: Nathan Cain
> > > To: rara-avis-l
> > > Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2008 9:35
AM
> > > Subject: RARA-AVIS: The Siege of
Trencher's
> Farm redux
> > >
> > > I posted a while ago, asking about The
Siege of
> Trencher's Farm, which
> > > was adapted into the movie Straw Dogs.
I
> finally got around to reading
> > > it last weekend, and I have to say I found
it
> to be superior to the
> > > film,
> > > Recent Activity
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> > > more online.
> > > .
> > >
> > >
> > > [Non-text portions of this message have
been
> removed]
> > >
> > >
> >
>
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