I guess there are a good number of things I could write about. Several topical things can happen in the course of one day that occur to me – funny thoughts over something I’ve heard (”it’s an ever revolving beast”) or insights about something I’ve read; maybe even something as straightforward and simple as an opinion formed on a quotation or theme in a book I am reading, a dissenting viewpoint… and yet, I never seem to manifest those ideas into reality. Like so many other ideas, I abort them before they’re fully formed. I often tend to worry or think things to death. I over-analyze most things in an attempt to find meaning, as if there should always be so much more meaning than what is readily available. But there is just a denseness and nothing… Why is it that it seems so often the true meaning of something is so much more easily understood and superficial than it feels like it should be?
At any rate, I’ve read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books (including The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest) and have since seen the movies. The books were enjoyable enough. The movies were not objectionable, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say they were entertaining. I was surprised that the role of Salandar was played in a way so as not to be repulsive or out of character, where I am sure it would’ve been if it had been undertaken by an American studio. I was at first glance put-off by, then found I enjoyed the fact, that the majority of the characters were played by average and less-than-average looking people. We get so used to the crazy idealized Hollywood cookie cutter types that it’s strange to see anything different. As luck would have it, there will soon be a debacle of a Hollywood version of this movie coming out later this year or early next. I don’t think it’s even possible for Hollywood to attempt to make a movie about a female heroine without her being ridiculously sexy and, in the case of Salandar, out-of-character for the film’s protagonist.
Another thing that didn’t bother me about the movies vs. the books was the divergence from the storylines. Parts of the tales and the endings were changed or omitted. This usually really upsets me, but not this time. Probably because the writing in the book was straight forward and the characters weren’t full of depth or transformation.
One thing that struck me as absolutely dismally incorrect and reprehensible was the portrayal of Erika Berger in the movie as a sort of weak, helpless, pathetic character versus the tough female powerhouse generally full of self-confidence that I took her for in the book. Often after reading a book or seeing a movie I’ll go on a Google-spree to see if anyone shares my thoughts. On this point, my search turned up no results. I was pretty surprised that other folks out there weren’t also vexed by the different characterizations of Berger in the books vs. the movies… Even if you haven’t read the books, you have to agree that the character in the movies is obnoxious and unlikeable. Erika’s stance on publishing the issue of Millennium during the Salandar trial was repulsively unlike the position I think the woman took in the book – why was no one on IMDB or any article I could find making the same annoying conclusion I’d drawn? I don’t get it. So, I guess, since I cannot find anyone to collude with, I’ll just have to put my own opinion out there. Was Erika even considered Editor-in-Chief in the first film? She seemed so minor a player. If I had more time and motivation, I’d do a side-by-side comparison between the movies and the books.
One thing I find incredibly surprising is, knowing that people are generally ludicrously selfish, that they don’t mind reading about other sickeningly selfish people. For example, just to stay on topic with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the characters of Berger, Blomkvist, and Salandar seem to generally care primarily for themselves and their own well-being. The most outstanding example of vapid selfishness in modern “literature” would have to go to Twilight, but that’s obvious and neither here nor there.