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Description:
Have you ever picked up a book simply because they made a movie out of it? You wouldn’t be the first. It’s fun to see how filmmakers take the written word and convert it to the big screen. That said, the book’s always better. At least that’s what our lawyers told us to say.
Transcript
- 00:04
Adaptable Bestsellers, a la Shmoop. Think of the phrase "pop culture."
- 00:10
What comes to mind? Movies? Music? Reality TV?
- 00:14
A tablespoon of Diet Pepsi in a Petri dish?
- 00:18
What about books?
- 00:19
If you don't think that books can be a pop culture phenomenon, we have six words for
Full Transcript
- 00:24
you: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
- 00:27
If you don't know about Harry Potter, then you're totally missing out...
- 00:30
...because the series is one of the biggest happenings in pop culture in the last twenty
- 00:34
years.
- 00:34
You'll likely find that many of your friends and relatives consider the Harry Potter series
- 00:38
to be their favorite reading material. Harry Potter is the great-grandfather of the
- 00:44
modern bestseller...
- 00:46
...and he's only eleven years old in the first book!
- 00:51
The author of the series, J.K. Rowling, has earned herself incredible fame and fortune.
- 00:56
Writing has made her wealthier than the Queen of England.
- 01:02
So if you don't know the "Boy Who Lived" from Edward Cullen...
- 01:05
...you really should learn a little something about the book, its effect on the book industry,
- 01:09
its author, and Harry Potter himself. But what if you graduate from Hogwarts and
- 01:14
are ready for something a bit more, um, mature?
- 01:16
Well, consider reading George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. It's epic...
- 01:21
...and it's scandalous...
- 01:23
...and Martin hasn't even finished writing the books yet...
- 01:27
...which means that you'll have lots to time to agonize over the destinies of your favorite
- 01:32
characters along with the rest of the world. While Harry Potter has ruled the big screen...
- 01:37
...the gritty HBO adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire has taken television by storm.
- 01:42
The show's success has put fantasy back on The New York Time's adult fiction bestseller
- 01:46
list...
- 01:46
aand introduced us to awesome characters like Tyrion Lannister <<anyone there familiar
- 01:50
with the show/able to help with pronunciation?>> and Daenarys Targaryen.
- 01:52
So what if we didn't know how to pronounce their names until we watched the TV show?
- 01:56
It's difficult to believe that these two very different series inhabit the same genre, given
- 02:01
that the Harry Potter movies received PG or PG-13 ratings...
- 02:04
...and HBO's version of A Song of Ice and Fire, if it was a movie, would get an R.
- 02:09
However, both series are fantasies, and we'll be exploring why they fit into that genre
- 02:16
and why these stories resonate with so many fans.
- 02:23
Do people like these books because of all the swords and sorcery?
- 02:26
Is it the dragons?
- 02:28
Or do readers love that these books transport them to another world?
- 02:31
Or... do they just need something to balance that rickety dining room table?
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