Here's a Halloween read that I'd bet you don't have on your list, and yet, you absolutely should, must, will check it out. Because it embodies the heart and soul of the season's spirit. A ghost story, a supernatural thriller, with no gore, no horror fest over-the-top violence (actually almost no violence at all), and yet it creeps into your heart, stirs your senses more violently than a pitcherful of tequila shots (if they're even drunk in pitchers, as if I'd know) and does to you what only the finest fiction aspires to achieve: it leaves you moved almost to the point of tears, and so satisfied, you turn the last page immensely sad, and yet immensely content.
Now, let's talk about M. Night Shyamalan.
If M. Night Shyamalan ever makes a sequel to The Sixth Sense, he should seriously consider adapting Lost Boys. The very fact that Lost Boys was first published way back in 1992, years before Shyamalan made his dazzling debut that shot to the top of the biggest all-time grossers in Hollywood history, makes me wonder for a moment. Could it be that the talented young Indian American director (his first name is 'Manoj' and he was born in Chennai, formerly called Madras) actually read Lost Boys in its first publication? Because, if he didn't, then the 'twist in the tale' of both The Sixth Sense and Lost Boys is more than amazing; it's close to supernatural!
Well, Shyamalan is certainly talented enough to have come up with his zinger of a 'twist' entirely on his own, and his stately, sedate pacing, masterful direction, and superbly nuanced screenplay certainly made The Sixth Sense way more than a clever-idea film. But it's hard to believe that Lost Boys essayed an eeirily similar plot device, and did so years before Shyamalan's movie, and had no influence at all upon that standout film.
Since I certainly don't know what did or didn't influence Shyamalan--for all I know, he's never even read an Orson Scott Card book in his life, I can only muse on that a moment, and then move on. Because it's enough to know that Lost Boys existed before The Sixth Sense and that it exists even now, in a reissued paperback edition along with a number of Orson Scott Card's other highly readable backlist novels.
Article comments
1 - LAWoman
Sounds boring.
2 - Ashok K. Banker
:~)
I guess you could call it that, in the sense that it's slow-paced and takes its time getting to that wallop in the gut at the end, which it delivers like a Tyson on speed.
Actually, come to think of it, even Sixth Sense is like that, slow, and methodically building. If you could call Sixth Sense boring, probably so is Lost Boys.
3 - Measure
Don't let Shyamalan off so easy. Orson Scott Card sure doesn't...
here
Hey, "Good artists create, Great artists steal", eh?
4 - Measure
I forgot to mention, there are some spoilers about the book "Lost Boys" at the URL I included. Probably should stay away if you haven't read it.
5 - Ashok K. Banker
Hey, that's a very interesting link. Yup, Card openly accuses Shyamalan of cogging his Lost Boys as well as another novel by another author for his last film The Village. Who'd have thought it? Anyway, thanks for the link--it's Card's official web site and he has a lot of interesting reviews and essays too.
6 - DrPat
Okay, Ashok, now you've done it! Made me add Card to my list of prolific writers whose works I must read, at a time when I barely have time to tie my shoes in the morning!
7 - Ashok K. Banker
Hey, Pat, glad you liked the review--hope you like the book as much! Suggestion: Don't put all of Card's books on your list, 'cause he has written a lot, and not all may be to your taste, but definitely add Lost Boys and check out his Alvin Maker series, short stories, and Hot Sleep if you get a hold of them. His 'Shadow' and 'Ender' series are huge hits, so those are easy enough to find too, but only if you're into SF.
8 - Measure
"Hot Sleep" is being serialized right now at www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com. So you can get the novel and a smattering of short stories by various authors for $2.50
Of course, it's all in e-form, but there's no DRM in sight, so you can put the text on paper or any PDA you want.
Sorry for the almost-spam. But I'm a OSC junkie.
9 - Ashok K. Banker
Thanks for the heads up. I might catch Hot Sleep on The Intergalactic Medicine Show too. It looks like an interesting SF zine, and some of the other stories seem worth a look too. I guess it's edited and published by OSC himself? I hope it does really well for him, he's definitely one of my favourite authors.
10 - Vern Halen
ach.... I love almost everything of Orson Scott Card's, but Lost Boys was... just so depressing. I wouldn't read it again or recommend it. Whatever he was working out of his system..... OK, you know how depressing Stephen King's Pet Sematary or Roadwork are, or Lou Reed's Berlin? This is right up there - maybe more so. Read Card's Ender/Bean series instead - or A Series of Unfortunante Events, or Wuthering Heights for that matter - much happier text.
11 - Apikores
A pitcherful of tequila would be more than enough to send any human being who is not a serious, long-term alcoholic to either the hospital or the morgue, depending on their size. Tequila is (usually) consumed from shot glasses, often as part of a ritual that involves licking salt off one's hand and biting on a lime. Hence the term "tequila shot."
As for this book, it astonishes me that Card would attempt to claim that Sixth Sense was modeled after it. Sure, there are some superficial similarities--a troubled kid who communes with dead people...and that's basically it. But there are so many differences--the movie doesn't touch on child molesting, has the kid able to see dead people of all ages, doesn't have any imaginary friends, the main character is a troubled psychologist rather than a Mormon computer programmer (Mary Sue much?)....I could go on. Card's justification for not aggressively prosecuting this heinous act of alleged plagiarism? "Enough was changed so that a lawsuit would be frivolous." One could make this argument about any novel--"Oh, Pulp Fiction is just a ripoff of my original screenplay. But they changed enough so that I can't sue." Where is "enough"? When does a piece stop becoming a plagiarism of another piece and start becoming a tribute, or a unique piece of its own that draws inspiration from the first piece? Why does Card get to decide? With no offense intended to him, how does he know Shyamalan had ever even HEARD of Lost Boys before producing Sixth Sense? It is not exactly the most widespread book in America. All creative work is drawn from a limited well and there is bound to be crossover occasionally. While Shyamalan is not the most original or greatest director/screenwriter in the world and I am certainly not a fan of his work other than Sixth Sense and maybe Unbreakable, it seems a little self-obsessed of Card to accuse him of plagiarism, especially when the similarities between the two pieces are strictly superficial.
12 - Ranee
I don't know how I came across Card's Lost Boys but I know that I have had the book for several years now and it has remained one of my all time favorite books. It's not a happy book and it makes me cry every time I read it but I can't help but like the book. I love the values that the family has and instills in their children. While it isn't a happily ever after, there is peace (I won't give anything away) and it's enough to make me come back to the book and read it again and again. I haven't read anything else by Card but I do read this book once a year and it continues to stay at the top of my list of favorite books.