#THE STATION ELEVEN ADAPTATION?????

[wickedhawtwexler]

i reblogged that tv show ask meme and then promptly forgot every tv show i watched this year that wasn't lost, yellowjackets, or better call saul 💀

[sendme-2hell]

I find the “if you are adapting a book then ADAPT THE BOOK” idea that seems to be circulating through the culture so incredibly boring. I understand fans of a source material being frustrated by the way their favorite media is being adapted, and I especially sympathize if the characters become unrecognizable.

However,

I think the most important thing for an adaptation (or any piece of media) is that it has something to say and that it says it well. As long as it has its own distinct themes and ideas— that are not directly insulting to the source material—I am happy. I think many adaptations spend too much time trying to be true to the source, that they end up a soulless copy. The death of art is poor imitation.

My favorite examples of successfull adaptations are The Handmaiden, Station Eleven, and Watchmen (2019)

The Handmaiden is incredible because many of the themes are so distinct from Fingersmith. Park Chan-Wook took a story with Victoria-era-Britain as a main character and moved it to Korea. How did he do this? By changing what needed to be changed and having a specific vision. And it fucking works!! You can still see some of the main themes—sexualization of women and lesbianism (of course) —but it is also about the complicated relationship between South Korea and its colonial past.

Station 11 is another example of a great adaptation. While themes of civilization, art, faith, and survival persist in both works, the television show has its own interests. One giant change is that the show puts two of the main characters together for longer than they were in the book. This makes their relationship central to the show in a way it wasn’t in the book, creating an emphasis on connection and reconnection and community. The show expands on the book while adapting to a different media, in an incredibly powerful way.

In Watchmen (2019) Damon Lindelof and the writers used the Watchmen IP to address current issues with racism (and specifically inherited trauma) in ways that I believe stay true to the source in spirit, despite being completely different from the original.

It is such a boring take to say that an adaptation should not stray from the source material. I would much prefer a director to have their own vision than to blindly try to duplicate something that worked in book format. The most recent example is people’s reaction to House of the Dragon. They are frustrated that the showrunners haven’t blindly followed the “source” material. Despite the fact that the source material is a book written by fictional historians (maesters) using three separate sources. It is clearly a work of bias. Meanwhile the show has extremely clear themes about womanhood, inheritance, duty, etc…I am personally impressed with how clearly the thematic elements of HOTD are stated and supported.

To me, this is the most important thing of an adaptation. I am more worried about how well the media expresses its ideas, separately from the source material, than how well it colors within the lines.

[cuddlytogas]

i have no particular investment in the enola holmes series, but at least someone is AT LAST putting the "indian" back into "anglo-indian" uvu

[m0e-ru]

just watched chaircar adventure. again. biggest smile on my face for seven minutes straight until my cheeks started hurting too much I had to stop and massage it physically. would say a million things about it. me when I'm full of love.

[lesbegays]

continuing to be blown away by hbo’s tlou. it’s so refreshing to see an adaptation that really respects the heart of the source material and where every change made is in service of maintaining or enhancing the themes and character depth. it’s clear all the creators have so much love for the game or at least its story and have worked hard to be faithful to the spirit of it

[allmyoldhaunts]

can’t explain this but book miranda wouldn’t be able to burn down the pool house and show miranda couldn’t look in the mirror and say “i repent nothing”

[lascapigliata]

interesting what they (apparently) changed from station eleven the book to station eleven the show but nothing altogether surprising and honestly the biggest (?) one being jeevan and kirsten being together for the first hundred and reconnecting makes abundant sense in a television format. some things that can make great reading do not make great tv & i'm sure some media scholar could explain why neurospychocognitively but "two main characters literally never meeting after one brief interaction" is one of them

[figueroths]

@pscentral​ anniversary event: take two 2.0 adaptations — station eleven (2021–22)

[rotzaprachim]

Wanna know what was going through the hbo guys heads with station eleven when they were like we have a banging long form art house adaptation of a very popular literary novel it’s the most timely motherfucking plot of all time it’s about pandemic trauma it Speaks to our age it has a globally renowned incredibly famous Actor in a key role it’s our Emmy bait. Let’s seal it in a lead canister and bury it thirty feet underground so no one EVER finds it

[abirdie]

Gael García Bernal Doesn’t Believe in Skincare

The actor talks about Mexican coffee, his rock collection and reuniting with his Y tu Mamá También co-star Diego Luna.

From the Wall Street Journal, Oct. 14, 2024 8:00 am ET

By Lane Florsheim

(source) When Gael García Bernal landed a role in Y tu Mamá También in his early 20s, he didn’t know his career was about to take off. It was a small-budget film, and Mexican cinema had yet to break through in the American box office. 

But the steamy 2001 movie, about best friends on a road trip through Mexico, was a hit. It became one of the highest-grossing Spanish-language films in the U.S. And it anointed García Bernal and his costar, Diego Luna, as leading men.

The two actors had known each other since infancy, growing up together in Mexico City. “Anything I say stays short of all the complexities of the love and the brotherhood we have for each other,” García Bernal, 45, said of Luna. Together, he said, “we learned that to make cinema, you have to misbehave a little bit, but be humble as well.”

García Bernal has gone on to star in a variety of Spanish and English projects, including The Motorcycle Diaries, Babel and the TV adaptation of Station Eleven. All the while, he and Luna have remained close collaborators. The actors run a production company together called La Corriente del Golfo. And this month, for the first time in over a decade, they’re reuniting onscreen. Their new show, La Máquina, features García Bernal as an aging boxer and Luna as his flashy, corrupt manager. 

Now available on Hulu, La Máquina is the streamer’s first original Spanish-language series. “It was about time,” García Bernal said. “We’re very happy that it’s happening like this.”

García Bernal lives in Buenos Aires and Mexico City. Here, he shares his most prized possessions, how he got into character for his latest role and advice from a Nobel laureate. 

What time do you get up on Mondays, and what’s the first thing you do after waking up?

Naturally, I wake up very early. My ancestors must have been people who worked the land. I hate when I wake up late. Sometimes I go straight to having a coffee or reading the newspaper or even, heroically, exercising. But that doesn’t happen so often because I always wake up very hungry.

What do you eat in the morning, and do you drink coffee?

Mainly fruits. In Mexico, there’s really good coffee. I do a pour-over. 

What do you do for exercise? 

I’ve been into boxing for a long time. I jump rope, go run, sometimes I hang from things. And I love playing football and baseball. 

What about skin care?

Nothing. I think it’s better actually. The washing-your-face industry has created a lot of problems for skin. I think it’s too much soap. 

How did you prepare to play the boxer Esteban in the new Hulu series? Did you model the character on any real life boxers or athletes? 

It was an amalgam of many boxers that I admire. We took a lot from all of them, but at the same time, there was something that came out, which is the boxer I have inside. It’s a bit like the clown in acting. We all have a boxer, we all have a clown. 

How would you describe your boxer?

What I found is that I’m really good at receiving punches. I think I read the ring really well. I’m able to figure out what’s going to happen, how to move around. The problem is that I run out of stamina very easily from hitting hard. Something happens after 10 punches. My punches start to become complete butter. 

Diego looks so different in this role, with his spray tan and a face that appears full of fillers. How did you keep a straight face while playing opposite him?

We had to try really hard not to laugh, but we managed. He made a big sacrifice as well. It takes a lot of time to do all of that, and it’s uncomfortable. 

There’s a great karaoke scene in the series. What’s your go-to karaoke song? 

I’m very promiscuous with my karaoke tastes. Most of the songs that I would end up singing in karaoke are older, like from the 1980s—the time of a man or a woman and a microphone. Nowadays it’s more complicated because a lot of songs have autotune.

Your characters from Y tu Mamá También, Julio and Tenoch, would be around 40 years old today. What do you think they’d be doing now?

I think maybe my character would be in government in Mexico right now. Diego’s character would be, I don’t know, a successful lawyer somewhere. I always wonder, where did they end up? Maybe because those are the characters that are closest to our upbringing as well, the closest we’ve ever been to playing ourselves. 

The movie captures so well the feeling of being young and having your entire life in front of you. How do you look back on it?

Our voices sound different. It’s actually very tender because we were very innocent. We didn’t feel like it when we were that age, but I hear us: We sound hopeful and interested and also brave and wanting to experience [life].

What’s your most prized possession? 

The notebooks I write in. The stones I gather. On every journey I make, I put stones in my bag. They weigh a lot, but I have a lot of stones. Certain photographs of my family. And there’s a football and some shoes that remind me of my childhood.

Do you have any hobbies that might surprise your fans? 

I do a lot of jumping rope, I can do a few tricks with that. I juggle. I play a lot of chess.

What’s one piece of advice you’ve gotten that’s guided you? 

José Saramago, who was a Nobel Prize winner of literature from Portugal, and I did a play together at a book fair in Guadalajara, where I’m from. I introduced him to my family. I’ve got a huge family. He was fascinated by my grandmother and the amount of kids she had and all the many, many, many people in my family. Before saying goodbye, he said, “You would be very stupid if you missed all this. You would be such an idiot if you have it and don’t experience it.” I grew up in a loving environment, and I was very lucky to be born into it. 

[hurricane-eva]

Biblical References in Lord Peter Wimsey Novels: Have His Carcase

I would like to eventually have a post like this for each book, but since this is the one I most recently finished, we're starting with this one instead of at the beginning.

If I've missed any, do tell, because I would love a Complete and Accurate List. I don't think there are any major spoilers here, but just in case, I'll put 'em under a cut!

Chapter 4:

"Who told you about the body?"

"I nosed it from afar. Where the carcase is, there shall be eagles gathered together. May I join you over the bacon and eggs?"

Chapter 8:

He had covenanted with himself to interview Colonel Belfridge at eleven o'clock.

This one is more Biblical language than an actual quote, but I'm counting it because according to my rules it fits.

Chapter 9:

"...Alexis wasn't the sort to take a long country walk for the intoxicating pleasure of sitting on a rock.

"True, O Queen. Live for ever. ..."

Chapter 10:

"Wilvercombe is the more probable direction of the two, because anybody coming from Lesston Hoe would have seen her and put his crime off to a more convenient season, as Shakespeare says."

This one cracks me up because Inspector Umpelty has, earlier in the chapter, attributed a quote to the Bible which is not one.

Chapter 12:

But now, with the hope that they might be found to have entertained an angel of darkness unawares, they foresaw all manner of publicity.

Chapter 16a:

"Two boats stationed off the Grinders."

"Fishermen?"

"Fishers of men, I fancy," replied Wimsey, grimly.

Chapter 16b:

Harriet: Oh, death! where is thy sting?

Chapter 16c:

Harriet (reading): 'Last of all the woman died also' — probably from backache.

Chapter 16d:

Harriet: What is that in your hand?

Peter: A dead starfish.

This one, I admit, some might argue about, but it is EXACTLY the kind of thing I would do, pull some obscure quote and have a character use it, so I'm giving DLS this one.

Chapter 21:

"A contempt for money, Inspector, is the root—or at any rate, the very definite sign—of all evil."

An adaptation rather than a quote, but a very strong one.

Chapter 23:

Presently the inner door opened again and the young lady emerged, clothed and apparently very much in her right mind, for she smiled round...

Chapter 25:

"Which brings us to the point that either Weldon's party wrote the letter or the foreign party did the murder."

"True, O king."

Chapter 31:

"I said the Wilvercombe alibi would stand, and it has broken in pieces like a potter's vessel."

[clonerightsagenda]

In this summer of me getting progressively more annoyed by adaptations at least we will always have Station Eleven where after every episode I just said "this fucking rules" louder

[laiqualaurelote]

Some people have said they'd like to hear about the meta behind all the men and women merely players and I was like "oh god are you sure" because there's a lot of it, but here goes:

The Shakespeare

Each chapter of this fic takes its framework from a different Shakespeare play, which is signalled by the title of the chapter and the opening epigraph. In some chapters (A Midsummer Night's Dream, Henry V) the influence is marginal; in others (Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing) it heavily informs the plot, motifs and atmosphere of the chapter. My model for this has been the Brexit seasonal quartet by Ali Smith, the four novels of which are each subtly patterned after a Shakespeare play (Autumn - The Tempest; Winter - Cymbeline; Spring - Pericles; Summer - The Winter's Tale). The way I went about it was to use the Shakespeare play as a scaffolding and let the story in that chapter grow up and around it like a climbing vine.

While each chapter has its own play, there are three plays that underpin the structure of the entire fic: As You Like It, Hamlet and The Tempest. They're all highly meta-theatrical and contain bad fathers (they are also my three favourite Shakespeare plays). As You Like It lays the ground in the way that Ted Lasso S1 did - it's a charming, relentlessly optimistic look at a form of exile and creates an idyllic bubble where any sense of wrongness is consistently subverted. Hamlet is the dark forest of S2, where nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so and everyone does too much bad thinking. The Tempest is S3, or what I had hoped S3 would be - a sea-change, in which the characters undergo a process of transmutation and have certain lost things restored to them or find things anew. They are respectively (to borrow the language of the magic trick) the pledge, the turn and the prestige of this fic.

If there is anything fantastic about this AU it is that everyone somehow seems to know Shakespeare by heart; that said, I think most people actually know more Shakespeare than they realise.

Station Eleven and Station Eleven

This AU draws very heavily on both Station Eleven the novel by Emily St John Mandel and Station Eleven the HBO TV adaptation. In terms of writing style and formal experimentation, I sought to be as Mandellian as possible, most notably in the CRIMM/LASSO interview sequence in Chapter 2, the "problem with the Richmond Players" run-on paragraph in Chapter 4 and the deserted theatres of London section in Chapter 8. Spoilers for Station Eleven ahead!

What I find most interesting about Station Eleven the TV show is that it is very consciously not a straightforward adaptation of the book; in fact, "adaptation" is one of the themes of the show, both in the sense that survival in the post-pandemic world requires adaptation, and in that it questions how adaptation occurs when a story is retold, restaged, reproduced or otherwise passed on. This fic is an adaptation of an adaptation of a novel which in its own way adapts old plays for a brave new world.

Another theme of the show is "connection/coincidence", and one such connection/coincidence is at the heart of the show's adaptation: the Kirsten & Jeevan storyline. In the book Kirsten and Jeevan pass each other like ships in the night. The show connects them, however, and their relationship and eventual separation forms the emotional core of the story - if they hadn't met by chance, if Jeevan had not taken Kirsten home with him, she would almost certainly have died that night. Trent and Miranda's relationship in the fic is based on Jeevan and Kirsten's - what could have been if they'd been able to stay together. ("You walked her home.")

Coincidental connections power Station Eleven. Miranda's graphic novel connects Kirsten and Tyler years before they meet, and each of them adapts it in their own way into a belief system, with drastic impacts on their lives and those around them. Miranda herself is a connector extraordinaire - she works in shipping and so her job is figuring out how to get a thing from point A to point B. She is on her way to safety when Clark's call about Arthur's death derails her; because of this, however, she makes the connection with the pilot of the Gitchegumee and convinces him not to let the infected passengers off the plane. Miranda would have lived if not for this coincidence, but she dies; everyone in the airport, including Clark, Elizabeth and Tyler, would have died, but they are saved because of Miranda.

It is no coincidence that Shakespeare relies heavily on coincidences in most of his plays. Funny thing, coincidences. Sometimes they just happen.

What I knew from the start

one of the very first scenes I wrote was the last scene where Miranda meets Henry on the beach. I knew from the beginning that this would be the endpoint, it was just a question of getting there

Rebecca had murdered Rupert to save Higgins and Bex

Nate was always going to be Hamlet

Nate's family, Roy's sister and Trent's father were dead. Jamie's mother's death came later

Rebecca would be reunited with Sassy and Nora at the Museum of Civilisation (where and what the Museum was was a different question which I only solved later)

What came later

my initial plan for this fic had petered out after the Much Ado About Nothing chapter - I did not know how we were going to get from there to the Museum of Civilisation, or what the Museum of Civilisation was (in earlier drafts it was an airport, a train station and even at one point an actual museum). Ted Lasso S3, for its many flaws, resolved this for me by, among other things, giving me a whole Dutch pilot and also Jade

this fic was not meant to be Roy/Keeley/Jamie, only Roy/Keeley. By S3 however the OT3 vibes were too compelling to be ignored; it also solved the problem of what to do with Jamie, whom I had left wandering the wilderness for way too many chapters

Roy's Sutton Hoo backstory, which came about entirely because one day I was at the British Museum looking at Anglo-Saxon stuff and thought "lol Sutton Hoo wouldn't it be great if somebody made a terrible movie franchise with that name". This has since become an unexpectedly popular headcanon

The Richmond Players

Plays the Richmond Players have actually performed include:

Hamlet (full cast list here)

As You Like It (starring Keeley as Rosalind, Jamie/Sam as Orlando. Bex as Celia, Zoreaux as Oliver, Roy as Jaques, Isaac as Charles the Wrestler)

Romeo & Juliet (starring Jamie as Romeo, Keeley as Juliet, Colin as Mercutio, Sam as Benvolio, Isaac as Tybalt, Sharon as the Nurse, Beard as the Friar)

Macbeth (starring Roy as Macbeth, Rebecca as Lady Macbeth, Beard as Duncan, O'Brien as Banquo, Isaac as Macduff, Bex as Lady Macduff, Diane as Baby Macduff)

Henry IV Part I (starring Jamie as Prince Hal, Roy as Hotspur, Keeley as Lady Percy, Beard as Falstaff, Sharon as Henry IV)

Coriolanus (starring Roy as Coriolanus and Isaac as Aufidius. I don't actually know who would have played Volumnia here - probably Rebecca or Sharon, but it'd have been weird as they're close in age to Roy)

Othello (starring Sharon as Othello, Dani as Desdemona, Rebecca as Iago, Bex as Cassio, Colin as Emilia and Richard as Bianca)

A Midsummer Night's Dream (starring Rebecca as Hippolyta/Titania, Roy as Oberon, Dani as Puck, Isaac as Bottom, Keeley as Hermia, Bex as Helena, Sam as Lysander, Bumbercatch as Demetrius)

The Tempest (starring Ted as Prospero, Miranda as Ariel, Jelka as Miranda, Colin as Caliban, Roy as Sebastian, Jan as Antonio, Beard as Alonso, Higgins as Gonzalo, Dani as Trinculo, Isaac as Stephano)

Pre-pandemic roles: Rebecca has played Katharine in The Taming Of The Shrew, Viola in Twelfth Night and Rosalind in As You Like It; Sassy has played Celia in As You Like It; Roy has played Hamlet; Bex has played Cordelia in King Lear; Colin has played Viola in Twelfth Night.

Dates

This fic begins on April 23, 2016 (Shakespeare's 400th birthday) and ends on April 24, 2028. Most of the fic takes place in 2021: Trent meets Ted again on April 23 and they reach Arden-by-the-sea somewhere in July, i.e. right about now! (Twelve years is the length of time that Prospero and Miranda spend in exile on the island in The Tempest.)

Geography

Everyone starts from London (Richmond, specifically, in Ted and Rebecca's case) but Trent meets Ted again at Mae's settlement around Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare's birthplace) and they progress north through Warwick (Jamie has diverted to Manchester by this point) and then towards the coast. Arden-by-the-sea is near Liverpool.

Music

The playlist for this fic is one of my favourites I've ever made - I'm especially proud of the In The House, In A Heartbeat/We'll Meet Again/Hopeless Wanderer transition.

Bob Dylan features a lot - I would be listening to him a great deal in the apocalypse, I reckon - both original tracks and covers, because Adaptation. Most notable of these is the Girl From The North Country version of Like A Rolling Stone, which I had envisioned Rebecca singing in the karaoke scene from quite early on, and which also contains a snippet of To Make You Feel My Love, which appears in Keeley's flashback later on.

Some songs come from other apocalypse media - Don't Think Twice, It's Alright is from Station Eleven and In The House, In A Heartbeat is from 28 Days Later.

At the time I put Hopeless Wanderer on the list, I actually had no idea that Jason Sudeikis had appeared in Mumford & Sons' music video, and that it was totally bonkers.

At least 10 of the songs were subsequently added during S3, including Spiegel im Spiegel, Everybody Knows (the Elizabeth and the Catapults cover), Bandits by Midlake, Strangers (the Feist cover - where the original by The Kinks goes "I see many people coming after me", Feist sings "I see many people looking out for me", which I think is more reflective of this AU) and of course Islands In The Stream, probably the most jarring song choice on the list, but we could not do without the Queen of Country and the Gambling Man.

If you've read all the way to the end of this ramble, I am amazed and thankful! please feel free to drop into my ask box with more questions about this fic, I will be very happy to answer them.

[rememberdamage]

“It was at this point that I reached Episode 7, where Kirsten puts on a play of Lannigan's death. Aside from her casting choices placing the three of them squarely in the center of Station Eleven the graphic novel, the very idea of a play-within-a-play is a celebrated aspect of Hamlet. Hamlet puts on the play to try to get Claudius to confess by making him emotional over the pretend death of an actor. This clearly draws the connection between Kirsten and Hamlet.

One has to wonder, what would have happened if the Red Bandana hadn't walked in? Jeevan was unable to say goodbye to Frank when his character died. Did Kirsten devise this so that Jeevan would try harder to convince Frank to leave with them? This is fascinating to me primarily because of those parallels between Hamlet and Kirsten, but also because of what we can imagine of Hamlet and Tyler in their own stories. Hamlet becoming an actor himself seems like a love letter to the core concept of Station Eleven– art is life. So what if Hamlet had turned to the arts to cope with his father’s death instead of murderous scheming? And what if Tyler had?

If you think about it, Tyler’s elaborate reconstruction of Station Eleven to tell to the Undersea kids, and his constant lying about his identity, is a play in its own right. But who is he trying to make feel guilty? Tyler’s role as the Prophet may very well be his way of punishing himself for the pain he has caused others, ensnaring children purely because their worship of him reminds him how twisted he’s become. Simultaneously ruining his life while trying to ruin the lives of the people who raised him seems pretty on-brand for the prince of Denmark.

So, these characters show us two ways Hamlet’s involvement with the arts could have gone. Either it would have served as an extension of his life, allowing him to infuse art into his reality and use it to manipulate the feelings of others, or it would have been a gateway into his madness, showing him that he can conjure up more depravity through art than he ever could murder. But when you think about it, these two outcomes are interchangeable, depending on how much you trust the actor playing them out. Here’s another theme of Station Eleven: madness vs. genius. When Tyler plans to stab Clark during the play, is that really more crazy than Kirsten using a scene with Alex to try and stop her from leaving? Who is insane, and who is an artist?

Nestled comfortably in the middle of this paradox, we find Kirsten and Tyler, the twin Hamlets.”

From my analysis of Station Eleven as a Hamlet adaptation.

[redmeet]

If you loved Station Eleven you should definitely watch the tv version, it’s a rare adaptation that’s just as good and maybe better than the source material

I truly think about it all the time

ooooh! that's some seriously high praise! I do remember vaguely seeing stuff about the show and I just googled - glad preemptively that it's a mini series! movies never cover everything and trying for a multi season show that ends up getting cancelled is always disappointing...

if I enjoy the book I'll definitely check the show out afterwards! thank you for the rec <3

[thevagueambition]

My dad was a big fan of Station Eleven ever since he watched the tv series adaptation during the pandemic lockdown.

I don't know how soon after watching the series he turned to the book. I do know that he listened to the audiobook at work. Twice.

My mom didn't watch the series with him. She was very anxious during the pandemic so a story about the aftermath of a civilisation destroying pandemic was not something she felt like watching. I don't think she ever saw it.

It was through my dad I got into science fiction. He would tell me about Station Eleven, too. There was a period of time where he did so fairly often, in fact. It was clearly occupying a lot of space in his mind and he wanted to talk about it. He did a very poor job of explaining the story in a way someone completely unfamiliar with it could understand, though. I did tell him that I was planning to watch it, but I kept forgetting to do so. I only watched it after my mom died.

I no longer remember the exact order of events during the 5 or so days my mom was struggling for her life. I don't remember which morning this was, but one morning before we went to the hospital for another day of alternating panic and emotional shutdown, my dad was watching Station Eleven.

I don't know which episode it was. I hadn't watched the show myself at that point. He didn't watch all of it, either. Just a bit, while he waited for me (and maybe my brother? I don't recall if he'd returned to the country yet) to be ready to leave.

After her death, after the funeral, once I could bear to watch anything with substance... we watched Station Eleven together, the three of us.

It understood how I felt. Obviously there's always something to when in your life you watch or read something. Storytelling is participatory, even when watching tv. Adorno may disagree, but I think regardless of medium, we always imbue stories we come across with our own feelings and experiences. It presents something, our minds respond to that something.

That something, in Station Eleven, was in many regards what I needed to hear at the time.

I put the book on my birthday wishlist this summer and got it. I didn't specify language. I usually don't have strong feelings on reading in Dansih versus Englsih when it comes to books written in English. Obviously there's a lot to be said for reading the original, unaltered text, and certainly there are cases where I would find that preferable. At the same time, sometimes words hit harder when they're in your mother tongue. And sometimes it's more relaxing to read in your native language, even when you are fluent in another one.

I'm reading the book in Danish translation now.

As is so often the case, I prefer the version of the story I was introduced to first. So far, at least. I by no means dislike the book. As others have said, I think the book and the tv show complement each other. And there are certainly things about the book that I prefer. Most changes the tv show made make sense to me as changes that engage with the book's story.

The most obvious exception is that in the book, Jeevan is in training as a paramedic while in the show, he has no medical training whatsoever. That's not a change I understand, a change that seems to only create questions and make his character less grounded.

I think I'll want to read the book in English at some point. I understand why "survival is insuffiecient" was translated the way it was, but it doesn't have the same punch to it.

After giving me the book, my dad reread it to. Or read it for the first time, rather than listening to the audiobook. He probably finished it some time ago.