"What Did You Expect?" by Dorothy Allison
Medium Prompt:

Dorothy Allison is an author that grew up in a southern, poor neighborhood. Her first novel, “Bastard Out of Carolina”, became a success and was eventually made into a film for Showtime. Though her successful novel came out first, her family only paid attention to the movie. While it may seem odd that her family only appears to appreciate one form of “Bastard Out of Carolina”, it is understandable. It requires a lot talent to write a novel – one must create a plot, develop characters, elaborate on the setting, and so forth. However, it is much more interesting and exciting when a work of art is made into a film. A novel is always a big deal; yet, a film is bigger. While the audience is left to imagine the setting on their own while reading a novel, the setting is always prepared for the audience in a film. On top of setting, costumes and props are added to make the scene more realistic. A movie brings a story to life. Films are also much more costly than books, they sometimes include well-known actors, and often attract a larger audience. Finally, while writing a novel is impressive, it is more impressive to have a studio create a film based on a novel. The novel must have been something extraordinary for a studio make a film on it. It is likely that her family was more interested in the film rather than the book because it was more exciting, it set up the scenery for the audience, and it is highly impressive for a studio to make a movie based on her novel.

To most people, a film is more impressive than a novel. However, in my opinion, Allison’s novel is much more remarkable than the film version. In writing the book, Allison was required to explicitly describe the characters, the setting, and the emotions. The studio, however, only had to follow Allison’s novel in order to prepare the film. The movie did not come up with any new material; rather, it was simply based off of “Bastard Out of Carolina.” Because it required deeper thinking to form the novel, I find it more impressive to write a book than to create a film based on an already existing novel.

If someone could play me in the story of my life, I would pick Kate Hudson. My personality is often described by others as silly, quirky, or cheerful. Based on the characters she plays in films, I would say that Kate Hudson could easily fit into my personality. She always characters who are not the most fashionable or beautiful girls, but always have fun in life. Also, in Almost Famous, she plays a woman obsessed with music, and in real life, she married a musician. Music in my greatest passion, and I think Kate Hudson is very suitable to portray that aspect of me. However, if the story of my life is ever told, hopefully it will be in the form of a novel first. Portraying my life in a novel would definitely be much more of a feat than just creating a movie based on it.