Talking pictures : how they are made, how to appreciate them (c. 1937)

WHY STORIES ARE CHANGED The novel, the stage play, and the talking picture demand three different forms of writing. They are alike only in that each uses words to gain emotional effects and to establish an illusion of fiction, or to give a rational presentation of fact. The novel and its miniature, the short story, are confined to the written word. The effect of these forms must be secured entirely by the emotional reaction of the reader to printed symbols. It is not necessarily bound by restrictions of time or place, plausibility or possibility, a fact substantiated by the enormous popularity of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea and of the Tarzan novels. The most successful novels have strong action and clear plots. Occasionally, so powerful is a pen in the hands of a great writer that stories with weak plots succeed because of brilliant word imagery. It would cause controversy for one to name ten English classics which will never be seen on the motion picture screen. But they exist, and any student, teacher, or amateur expert in English literature could easily prepare his own list. The stories in mind are excellently written, but beneath their words there remains an unsubstantial shell. In such stories, great as they are in [57]