I’m catching up on my Summer Reading Thing reviews today, and we’ll be back on the website reviews soon!
Spires of Stone is a retelling of Much Ado about Nothing—a story of false accusations, slander, verbal sparring, making amends and forgiveness.
I was most surprised by how much I remembered of Much Ado—Annette used not only the plot lines (though she did change them slightly and eliminated a few characters), but also the actual lines from the play. (I’ve seen the play live once, six years ago I think, and the Kenneth Brannagh movie maybe three times in my life—had no idea I’d remember all that! Oh, and I think I might’ve seen the opera Beatrice and Benedick. . . . Maybe it’s not so surprising after all.)
My favorite parts were the scenes where Claude (Claudio) and Phillip (Don Pedro) are conspiring to trick Ben (Benedick) into admitting his feelings for Bethany (Beatrice) (and Hannah (Hero) and Marie (Margaret/Ursula, here) conspiring to do the same favor for Bethany). I especially loved how Benedick’s and Beatrice’s lines from those scenes translated into their internal monologue.
In all, I thought this was a good adaptation of a classic. Of course, Annette changed some of the plot for her characters—notably, they don’t pretend Hannah is dead just to make Claude pay. I was thinking maybe this wouldn’t work in fiction anyway—after all, in a play, there’s a lot less suspension of disbelief. You don’t have to stop and think, “Would someone really believe a falsely-accused woman could die of shame?” because it’s happening right before your eyes—and not even on a TV or movie screen, but with real people (even though you know it’s not real, there’s some evidence that our brains aren’t quite smart enough to differentiate between simulated reality and reality).
What do you think? Does fiction have to be more “believable” than drama, especially live-acted drama?
I think you are quite right. Fiction does offer the luxury of plenty of time to ponder over the written word.
But it also depends on how the reader or the spectator is compelled to embrace a certain set of conventions, like: accept the story as true and just watch the reactions, the actress with cigarette wrinkled lips is actually a shy virgin, and so on.
I think that a play definitely has an ‘easier time’ with suspension of disbelief, but a well written book can have a similar effect. It requires proper immersion tactics by the author, and you definitely have to work for it, but I don’t think a fiction novel is at a loss here 🙂