When novels are adapted into movies, something is always lost in translation. Some interpretations are so poor that they seem to me an insult to the source material, like a horrible cover of John Coltrane by people who have no idea what a saxophone is, or that jazz exists. Some loved Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies, and some hated them, and some had mixed feelings. The other day I was visiting a friend in the hospital, and in the background, the most recent version of The Great Gatsby played on the TV and it seemed to me, without even hearing it, that it was a lightweight spectacle, a parody of the novel.

When amazon announced their new Tolkien show, I admit I was immediately skeptical. Last year I was excited when I heard they were adapting Jordan’s Wheel of Time, but the result was underwhelming at best, for a variety of reasons. Jordan was no Tolkien, but the territory is very similar, so it makes me suspicious. Even Roger Corman did a better job with Poe; at least he had Vincent Price and knew how to be scary. I just hope amazon shows more care with Tolkien’s material.

The racism on display when the cast for the Tolkien show was announced is abhorrent and revolting. It’s depressing that trolls came out of the woodwork to say vile things, and they must be denounced. I just want to make it clear that my unease with amazon has nothing to do with casting–it seems they did a great job with a diverse group of actors. I just seriously doubt Amazon’s production has a handle on the material, based on what I saw with Wheel of Time. I guess time will tell what they’ll do. No doubt many who’ve never read Tolkien may enjoy a new fantasy show with lots of effects and glitz, no matter the substance. Amazon’s Man in the High Castle was watchable and pretty good, mostly, so maybe there is hope The Rings of Power will be ok.

On the other hand, none of us should trust amazon with anything, ever. The company is terrible in so many ways you couldn’t list them all, and if they accidentally get this right, it won’t be because they love literature, or Tolkien, so much.

Streaming services are hungry for content, and books like Tolkien’s offer a built in audience with well known and beloved source material. No doubt myriad film versions of literary works will continue to be made. Companies need advertising dollars and subscribers, and people glued to their devices. But do we need such adaptations? Is the ultimate goal of a novelist to get a gigantic motion picture out of the deal? Maybe for some of them, that’s the idea.

This gets into a separate philosophical issue of art and media. We’ll never have a shortage of viewers, but the way things are headed, we may soon have a shortage of good readers. Novels demand something of the reader that movies and television shows never do. Reading requires deep attention and thinking that will reward you in a way that even the best television never will.

Someone once said that writing about music is like dancing about architecture. We might also say that films about novels are like paintings about sculpture.