OKAY EVERYONE LISTEN UP OLDER COUSIN SUNNY HAS SOME THINGS TO SAY (long post ahead)
the dps novel has been a point of contention in this fandom for many, many years because itās ass. so I want to get out of the way why most people donāt understand why this novel is so bad. consider this my official statement about the dps novel.
first of all, film novelizations were initially made because (before renting and streaming) it was the only way to experience movies outside of cinemas. [source] itās a rather outdated medium because of aforementioned renting and streaming (and also the internet now exists) but theyāre still around if you look hard enough. how do they get made, you may ask. and i need everyone to listen up when i say this:
typically, film novelizations are early drafts of the script. the person whose name ends up on the novelizations are using that draft and essentially converting the script into a prose format. that means n.b. kleinbaum is not responsible for the words in the dps novel; tom schulman is. also, it's standard that people who write film novelizations don't watch the film beforehand, so they don't have the benefit of watching the actors perform the script.
(it grinds my fucking gears when people cite n.b. kleinbaum with quotes from dps because she did not write dps. do not cite n.b. kleinbaum when quoting from the dps novel, those are more likely than not tom schulmanās words. in any case, the only medium of dps that matters in the film, so just quote tom schulman as the writer, or peter weir as the director. thatās how citations work. did none of you go to sixth grade english.)
now, from the other film novelizations iāve read, the dps novel is particularly unimaginative. if you read it, there isnāt much inner story (thoughts, feelings). it is solely what the characters say and the way they move. thatās why when I say itās just a script in prose format, i mean it. whatās in a script? dialogue and actions. absolutely no thoughts, inner monologue, nothing. itās like the first rule of screenwriting.
so this may answer some of the questions of āwhy is the dps book so bad?ā and itās because itās probably the first draft mr schulman wrote of the script, of course it sucks. especially because his final script didnāt even get the Peter Weir Treatment yet. some of the best scenes in the film are the work of peter weir, not schulman. (originally, after the boys find out about neil, todd goes into the bathroom to vom and they just like cry about it. on the day, it had snowed and weir decided to bring the boys outside and do the scene there. [source] the Poetry! Iām being chased by Walt Whitman scene was added by weir (at least it's not in the original script). There are a million and one examples of this.) itās also why knox is straight up a sexual predator in the book and not in the film. itās more difficult to get away with sa than with being a weird stalker who has clearly never interacted with a girl before.
returning to the point about the novel writer usually not watching the film before writing the novelization: everyone in fandom comes to some agreement that neil and todd had bigger feelings for each other than they ever properly expressed. outside of fandom, it's more or less debatable whether they were in love or into each other or whatever. nevertheless, the conversation about their relationship is there. a lot of that is not in the script. and it's definitely not in the book. if anything, neil and todd donāt seem to like each other that much in the book. because it's ethan and rsl's performance that makes it GAY.
i wrote an essay for grad school applications about this novel, in which i got into agonizing detail about its failure (it is not perfect, i'm not a great essay writer) and i would like to include a statement from my concluding paragraph:
āThe version of Dead Poets Society sans Weir reveals two tired and fed-up teenagers who take their frustrations out on each other instead of properly confiding. It may be a more realistic representation of how young men express their feelings, but it makes the main characters unlikable. When Weir, Hawke, and Leonard stepped in, they made Neil and Todd softer, more in tune with their emotions.ā
i have a bit of a call to action here about the book: we need to shut up about it. itās in no way an extension of the film and if anything, worsens the story. when we talk about dps, we should talk about the film and the script. that was the medium schulman intended. besides, most things people like about the book (however little they may be) are IN schulmanās script and were taken out by weir. in any case, a film novelization this poorly written doesnāt need to come up in conversation about one of the greatest films ever made. (imagine having never seen dps and instead you read the novelā¦)
if youāre curious, here is a list of differences between tom schulmanās revised script and the edited weir-ified one. i am aware that this website is awful to look at. all i can offer is that you read it in toggle reader view. you can read the revised draft and final draft here. i refer to this as the final script. i believe ad-libs have been added in. at this point, i think the only people who have the true final drafts are the actors soā¦
in sum, the dps novel is trash and we should put it in the trash <3 i donāt want to see any of you silly little children talking about the novel ever again. it is not a relevant piece of media in this fandom anymore. at this point, itās scratch paper to me.
also if anyone says theyāre the leading expert on dps, just know that they are lying. i am the leading expert on dps. i have gone to bed with dps. i know its ins and outs, its crevices, its scars, its stretch marks, its sun spots.
i'll cite my fuckin sources:
Alter, A. (2015, January 5). Popular TV series and movies maintain relevance as novels. The New York Times. Retrieved August 21, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/05/business/media/popular-tv-series-and-movies-maintain-relevance-as-novels.htmlĀ
Borrelli, C. (2020, March 30). Movie novels are still around, and they aren't all trash - just ask the Chicagoans who wrote them. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved August 20, 2022, from https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ent-novels-from-movies-star-wars-20200330-a3dximjbujhi7pjccspxmnft6u-story.html
Rance, M. (Producer) (2006). Dead Poets: A Look Back [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zm8Byw52dQ
Schulman, T. āDead Poets Societyā Film Script, 1989.
the links to the comparison and old script are from the Welton Library website - i have no idea who runs this site and couldn't find their name but they are doing god's work (but if they're reading this, please for the love of god fix the red and yellow)
essay by me <3 i don't know why you would ever want to cite it lol
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