I think it pisses God off when you walk by the color purple in a field and don't notice it.

I watched The Color Purple (it feels so wrong spelling it that way) again the other day and was shocked after watching Precious a couple of months ago by how much the latter is based on the former. Both have obviously been adapted from novels, however, Precious (from the novel Push by Sapphire) is such a blatant re-writing of Color Purple (Alice Walker) it makes me quite angry.

I have no problem with re-writings, especially if they are done well. Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea is a brilliant re-imagining of Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) and Margaret Attwood's The Penelopiad is an outstanding sing-song version of Homer's Odyssey. Thing is, Precious is not a re-writing. It's a simple copy of a much better and much more poignant novel. If you're going to use a novel like Walker's as inspiration, at least have the decency to change the plot a little and to credit the original.

I loved Push when I read it and though Precious was a great adaptation. Now that I've watched Color Purple again (I read the book about three years ago as well) I'm just disappointed that Sapphire chose to rip off a great novel. She's an exquisite writer and the character Precious is excellently portrayed, but Celie and herself are such similar characters, even down to having the same amount of children by their fathers. Both uneducated, underprivileged, black women who overcome their oppressive parental figures (In my mind, Mr. in Color Purple still constitutes a father figure - he treats Celie just as her father treated her) and become better people for it.

Both novels are worth a read, however, I am going to have to take back any brilliant things I previously said about Push in other blogs. It is well written and an important novel to read but I think it is unjust of the writer to plagiarise Walker and receive so much credit for it.

All that said and done, Walker wrote an amazing novel and Whoopi Goldberg's debut performance as Celie in the film version (directed by Spielberg!)is really brilliant. Read and watch them both.

You say goodbye, I say hello.

Hello fellow blogees and blogettes. Once again apologies but it has been a crazy few weeks and, unfortunately, this has fallen by the wayside. Anyway, I'm back now and will crack on regardless.

TV, Films and Books this week. I watched the trailer for Scott Pilgrim the other day and found my interest peaked. A colleague had been talking about the movie for ages and I finally broke and watched the very brief trailer and was pleasantly surprised. Definitely interesting.

Finished Stolen by Lucy Christopher this week and, considering it was a book I picked up on a whim, I really enjoyed it. The main character, Gemma, is kidnapped and the novel is comprised of a long descriptive letter to her captor. However, because Gemma's dialogue remains squarely in the past, we are unaware how her life has progressed; whether she has escaped, been rescued or learnt to accept her life. By the end of the novel, we are of course treated to the outcome, and I'm pleased that Christopher doesn't give away any of the plot before we need to know it.

I'm attempting, at the moment, six novels. Small Island by Andrea Levy, We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver and A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire are all so close to being finished and hopefully I'll have reviews for you next week. A Lion Among Men I've had for much too long and it's just getting ridiculous.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro was one I did finish though. And I am so glad I did. Ishiguro brings to life an impossible alternate reality that, although steeped in our own history, focusses on a entirely different future. Like I said before, parts of it truly are spine tingling and Kathy, the main character, makes us question completely what it means to be human. If you haven't already, it is a novel that deserves to be read.

My final book thought is on Push by Sapphire. The basis for the film Precious, it is simply sensational. Whatever your preconceptions about the book or the film, it is an essential novel for our times. Precious Jones is a beautiful yet destroyed young woman and it is amazing to watch her progress and her gaining of independence through her education. Sapphire is a truly spectacular writer and her characters jump off the page until you want to carry all of them away and to safety.

So it's been quiet on the book front for a while. Films and TV have been thriving however. I saw Alice in Wonderland the other day for example, and I must say I was very underwhelmed. Such a big hype, so many big names but such a small film. Burton seems to be walking a line between the absurd and the traditional and it, unfortunately, doesn't work in this particular film. Burton is a master of his craft but I think his style has become slightly stale. His films no longer shock because we expect the weird and the wacky. The films that shock now have to break different boundaries. Take Kick Ass for example (a film I am still dying to see). Seeing a child swear THAT profusely and kill without regret makes us sit up and pay attention. Not much else does.

I did say last time that I had almost finished In Treatment Season 1. I am now on the final two episodes of Season 2 and am still enjoying it so much. It's great mostly because you feel like you really shouldn't be hearing what these people are saying, witnessing their breakthroughs and breakdowns. It feels illicit, watching their private lives unfold and for this reason I would recommend watching it alone. If you're with someone else, it breaks the spell.

I'm going to leave it there for today. Until next time.