There has been a lot of buzz in the blogosphere and entertainment news outlets about the recently released movie entitled The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Since seeing the first previews a few months back I have been trying to decide if I wanted to see the movie in theaters, or wait a little longer and grab it from the local Redbox at some point.
Normally, if a movie looks like it is probably going to be pretty good I will just go see it in the theater, but this one has had some interesting news surrounding it. According to internet rumor, the movie originally received an NC-17 rating, which while I'm definitely not opposed to seeing R rated movies, NC-17 is pushing it even for me, and I likely would never have seen it if that were the case. The reasoning behind the first rating was apparently due to a specific rape scene found in the book, which has a pretty dramatic impact on the story as a whole.
So, instead of going to see the movie when it first came out, I figured I would read the book it is based upon first, and then make my decision. I grabbed the Kindle version of the text with some money from a gift card I received for Christmas and have been working my way through it ever since. I've been reading for about four days now, and while the story started a little bit slow and took a little getting used to it has begun to pick up quite a bit.
Stieg Larsson, the author, has a very interesting way of telling his story. The prose isn't quite like anything I've read before given my background in science fiction and fantasy novels, but despite that I've found that I'm riveted. The easiest way to explain the prose is to imagine someone is trying to tell you a very, very good story, but is doing so while trying to read you an essay at the same time. It's quite fascinating really. The dialogue between characters is minimal at best, and the type of prose I'm used to where the author depicts the various actions of the characters from moment to moment seems almost nonexistent, but I have yet to feel like anything is being left out.
It's definitely a writing style that is different from most, and the only way to appreciate it would be to read it for yourself, which I highly recommend, and I haven't even finished the book yet.
At some point I knew I was going to reach the rape scene that has caused so much conversation about the movie, and when I did it was pretty tame to be honest. Not that rape is a "tame" thing in any fashion, but as far as the depiction of what was happening is concerned it was done in a very non-graphic manner that said just enough to make it clear what was happening, but never crossed the line into making the reader uncomfortable. In fact, I happen to know some fairly innocent minded folks who tend to shy away from books and movies that depict anything remotely taboo and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the book to any of them.
As a result, I think I will see the movie whenever I have the chance, but I probably won't rush it. Right now the book has me hooked well enough that when I get it finished (probably in the next day or so) I will likely jump directly into the second book of the series before I do anything else.
It isn't often that I stray from my science fiction/fantasy background for pleasure reading, but I'm glad I did this time because the result has been extremely good.
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