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Harry Potter discussion forum for movies, books, and more! - The Leaky Lounge _ Writers: Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop _ Fictional Writers
Posted by: NYBookworm Mar 22 2008, 11:09 PM
I was watching Throw Mamma From the Train today, and it occurred to me that writers are frequently shown in entertainment.
Here are are some works containing fictional writers off the top of my head:
Movies: Secret Window, Misery, Stranger than Fiction
TV shows: October Road, Studio 60, Caroline in the City, Ghost Writer
Books: Harriet the Spy, Little Women, Cyrano de Bergerac
How have various forms of entertainment portrayed writers? Have the writers been portrayed positively (ex. Little Women), or negatively (ex. the Shining) Has this portrayal been realistic? What have you learned from these writers?
Posted by: Smartaps_2 Mar 23 2008, 05:32 AM
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott has been the most inspirational book I've ever read. One of the reasons why it inspired me was the realistic touch in it. It was reality in fiction really. The situations surrounding the March Family, the response of the 4 sisters to it etc. etc. was great. Then there's the simplicity of life in it ... little things that matter. The 4 sisters are so so so real that you find a little bit of yourself in them and learn at lot.
Posted by: BrettMac Mar 23 2008, 07:04 AM
Well, Misery by Stephen King is somewhat less-than-inspirational, but what I learned from that was not to kill of someone's favorite character. 
I think, for the most part, writers are either portrayed as incredible people or incredibly insane. There is no grey area - we're either artists or we're eccentric. Some of these more eccentric writers in film, TV, and books are also inspirational, though (although I can't think of any except Jack Nicholson's character in the Shining right now, and that's a pretty bad example).
Posted by: davidenglish Mar 28 2008, 09:14 PM
Well, I can recommend the movies Shakespeare in Love, Adaptation, The Front, and Topsy-Turvy.
Posted by: chloe from Pomerania Mar 28 2008, 09:37 PM
What about the movie Stranger than Fiction? Emma Thompson, aka Trelawney, was brilliant as usual...and it portrayed the pain and existential angst of being a writer with great humor and reality, i thought...
Posted by: Acrux Mar 29 2008, 03:37 AM
As opposed to Anglea Lansbury's character in the TV series Murder, She Wrote who, from what little I saw of the show, was hardly ever seen in the act of writing. Though she did sometimes attend (and even speak at) writer-related conferences.
If I may indulge myself by including a couple of quotes from a Futurama forum thread regarding clichés in that show.
- DotheBartman
Of course, that also meant [as] they went on [there were] hardly any actual [deliveries] toward the end of the show. I guess the writers realized that seeing characters at work gets boring, no matter what they do.
- Nerd-o-rama
Not many professions make for good copy. As opposed to, say, fire-fighting, surgery, lawyering or even teaching, there's not much about the activities associated with writing for an engaging story to hinge on. So if the writing holds no interest the focus tends to switch to the personality of the writer. And a similar argument can be made along character lines with regard to positive/good vs negative/bad. The most common solution is to portray bad as interesting and good as boring while doing the opposite seems to happen much less frequently.
Another possible factor is, for want of a better word, self-conciousness. If "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story." contains even just a nugget of truth then it must be harder to write a "good story" about something that you are intimately connected with, because the more you know about something the more you appreciate that the "facts" aren't as straight-forward and simple as they may appear. And what is the one profession that a writer cannot get an outside-looking-in viewpoint on? Writing! Not that this is necessarily a bad thing but it does imply that writing about writers comes from a different objectivity than writing about professions that the writer is essentially unfamiliar with.
If I may end with another Futurama-related quote, this time from an actual episode of the show. The two characters involved are backstage at the Academy Awards.
Bender: They're giving out the minor technical awards. I think they're up to 'writing.'
- Acrux
Posted by: davidenglish Mar 29 2008, 09:40 AM
I loved the movie http://imdb.com/title/tt0185014/ with Michael Douglas and Toby Maguire. I haven't read the novel by Michael Chabon that it's based on, but it's a story about a professor with, well, a problem finishing his novel. He teaches creative writing and Toby Maguire plays his star student.
There's a great visual scene where we see Douglas typing his novel. He begins typing in the page number and we gasp as we realize how absurdly long it is and then he hits the return (it's an old typewriter, so think 'enter') and we realize it's a single spaced page. Ack!
There's another great scene where he has his manuscript in the car and is quarrelling with his agent and, well, you have to see it. It's heart-stopping.
ETA: The actress http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001114/ seems to have played a lot of writers. Check out My Brilliant Career, Impromtu, Barton Fink, Naked Lunch, Deconstructing Harry, and Dash & Lilly.
And then there's Ken Russell's http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091142/. Interesting.
Posted by: twillick Mar 29 2008, 05:21 PM
I just think writers like writing about writers (say that five times fast 
) from time to time.
The Shining by Stephen King was based on what was happening emotionally with himself and his family. The book scared me (mission accomplished, Steve) plenty though I didn't care for the movie at all.
I believe authors just have an easier time writing about fictional writers because it is easier for them. Imagine if they had to write about a nuclear scientist and the research and time they would have to put into it. Writing about a character's profession that they are intimate with already is a lot easier.
Posted by: chloe from Pomerania Mar 29 2008, 06:40 PM
Davidenglish, thank you -- Wonder Boys is one of the best. Read the book, though. Chabon is always provactive (and imagine, Katie Holmes was in that before she was Mrs. Tom Cruise)
Posted by: chloe squibbulus Mar 29 2008, 09:53 PM
Out of Africa - Isak Dinesen (Karen Dinesen / Blixen) I loved the film but they should have cast Daniel Day-Lewis as Denys Finch Hatton (or at least an Englishman - the book is even better.
Mishima - A very good film about a powerful writer - Yukio Mishima. He wrote the 'Sea of Fertility' Tetralogy....a series of four books that are beautifully written. He also wrote "The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea"
The Hours - Nicole Kidman....About Virgina Woolf, not a happy or great film - but interesting.
Kafka - Jeremy Irons, Interestingly structured - Kafkaesque
And if we are talking about 'fictional' writers...Secret Window (Johnny Depp) Creepy
Posted by: Arcalus Mar 30 2008, 09:34 AM
First Strike -Eric Nylund
What have I learned? "If one man wins at the expense of the team, you lose"
"I'll find a way to make this work. I will make sure Everyone, gets off this island. Even if I'm the one to be left behind."
Shows the importance of teamwork and perseverance.
Posted by: davidenglish Mar 30 2008, 10:15 AM
Robert Altman's http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105151/ is a fabulous indictment of Hollywood's treatment of writers. There's a hilarious story-conference where one studio exec suggests doing away with writers altogether and just using the reality of newspaper headlines.
Posted by: Spectrespecs Mar 30 2008, 10:54 AM
The other day I watched the film Becoming Jane, about the young Jane Austen, starring Anne Hathaway. Not sure about the historical accuracy, but "believable", in line with Austen's own novels. Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Becoming_Jane
Posted by: Moose_Starr Apr 24 2008, 11:55 AM
So, I dont really know if this is in the category of *writer* but, I love John Candy and in one of his movies, Delusional, he portrays a guy that writes a TV show.
It's interesting because we actually see the guy writing, and the writing process. It's fiction about a fictitious TV show but it gives an insight into writing and the main character is a writer, and the entire movie is about and revolves around writing.
The movie Longtime Companion also features a character that writes a TV show, and although it's not a major part of the story it shows the evolution of writing scripts for TV shows, and what can be aired now.
I used to love watching Murder She Wrote (starring Angela Lansbury who also stars in Nanny McPhee). Everytime this show was on I would watch it 
Posted by: Lilly Apr 25 2008, 01:14 PM
It's interesting because we actually see the guy writing, and the writing process. It's fiction about a fictitious TV show but it gives an insight into writing and the main character is a writer, and the entire movie is about and revolves around writing.
MOOSE!!! You are my hero! I was trying to remember the name of that movie a few weeks ago, and couldn't even find anyone elde who remembered seeing it!
I was starting to think I had imagined it.
Lilly
Posted by: Virginia Black Jun 5 2008, 01:02 PM
I've learned from all those Futuristic dicatorships and the rebellion that;
~Those evil dictators should never brag about how they can defeat the weak,
~never hire anyone they haven't known to be trustworthy
~instead of locking the rebel leader in the highest tower, just shoot him.
~Don't tell your secret weakness to someone in a crowded room
~Don't put the thing that is your weakness on an island in the middle of a lava sea, put in the most expected place ever
~last don't imprison your brother whose thorne you've taken, kill him too.
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