Flicker (I) User Reviews

About a Hard book to film

[pearleaf · 29 April 2008]

I just finished reading Roszak's book. First of all this author is not well known but important. He invented the term "counter-culture." This book includes elements of Umberto Eco, Marshall MacLuhan, Robert Anton Wilson, Thomas Pynchon, and Dan Brown. Except for the last name, these references may be obscure or unknown. Knowing these authors' work will add to appreciation of what Roszak created, but it would not be necessary to enjoy reading the book. Who are these guys? Eco is famous for intellectual novels. The most famous of these was made into a film - "Name of the Rose." His second novel, "Foucault's Pendulum" is about vast historical conspiracies. MacLuhan was a prophetic academic who described the media as we know them now. Wilson is most famous for the 60s cult novel trilogy "The Illuminati" which is about an extended historical conspiracy. Pynchon is not an easy writer to read but his early novels were about historical conspiracies. Dan Brown is, of course, the author of "The DaVinci Code," which is the latest and most popular example of paranoid stories about huge historical conspiracies.

The conspiracy in "Flicker" is about the Cathars. Google that name and you will find both historical materials and some pretty outrageous Internet conspiracy stuff.

This is also a book about film as an obsession. It is a great read for IMDb activists and lurkers.

"Flicker" is one of only three novels Roszak has published and it is a fun read as well as being filled with interesting ideas and a lot of stuff that is quite perceptive and deep. I can't imagine how this book can effectively be turned into a 2 hour movie. Based on his "Pi" and "The Fountain" I think Aronofsky is the right director for this film.

Hopefully never to be done

[adiradathel · 30 July 2008]

This is one of the few books I hope I will never see on the big screen. The vast pastiche opened before our eyes cannot be rendered adequately within two or even three hours. Any movie adaptation will only result in brutal butchering of one of the most beautiful books about moving images ever conceived. Go READ. Don't wait for the film.

Anybody who compares this to Dan Brown's drivel, by the way, doesn't obviously know what he is talking / writing about. First, Roszak gets his facts right (hello Dan), second Roszak has written a highly original novel and not just used material published before (HELLO DAN) and third Roszak knows how to write engaging prose and gripping dialogue (HELLLLOOOO DAN). In short, Roszak's novel is on par with Umberto Eco's Pendulum and Name of the Rose, while Dan Brown is barking up a tree.

With a sore throat.