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Altered States: A Novel, by Paddy Chayefsky
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Altered States: A Novel
- Sales Rank: #450351 in Books
- Brand: HarperCollins
- Published on: 1978-05
- Ingredients: Example Ingredients
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 184 pages
Most helpful customer reviews
40 of 49 people found the following review helpful.
Fascinating story -- flawed storytelling
By DCM
I've always greatly enjoyed the Altered States movie. (Well, except for its preposterous ending, which I won't reveal here.)
Recently, I read Paddy Chayefsky's original novel -- which has been out-of-print for some time -- and thought I'd share my thoughts.
The following criticisms might seem harsh, so I should note that I actually did enjoy reading the novel. (Well, except, of course, for its equally preposterous ending...)
Anyway, Altered States was Chayefsky's first and last novel. He wrote it back in the late 70s after enjoying great success and acclaim as both a playwright and screenwriter. [The man won three Academy Awards!]
Unfortunately, the novel suffers from many of the same problems shared by first-time novelists. [I should know. I finished my first novel recently and made many of these same mistakes.]
(1) Dialog.
The characters are always making "speeches" -- instead of simply saying what's on their mind.
Chayefsky was originally a playwright. Unfortunately, his dialog -- both in the novel and in his subsequent screenplay -- reads like theatrical dialog. It's needlessly long-winded.
Theater is primarily a verbal medium and so audiences accept that characters on stage will indulge in lengthy oration. The dialog of novels, however, can and should be far more efficient. Screenplays, too.
Also, there are whole paragraphs worth of dialog where -- and I'm not exaggerating -- *every* single line of dialog ends in an exclamation point! Sheesh.
(2) Omniscient Narration.
Much of the story is written from the point-of-view (POV) of an omniscient narrator, rather than from the POV of individual characters.
It's usually far better to write thrillers in a character-based POV, since that allows the reader to live vicariously through the characters, making the story far more compelling.
Also, although most scenes are properly narrated as if the events are happening "now," others are oddly written as if the narrator is recalling the events of the story from some vantage point months or years later. This is confusing.
(3) Exposition.
The story is buried under a mountain of narrative exposition. At times, stretches of pure exposition -- again provided by the omniscient narrator -- run on for pages.
Stories are, of course, far more compelling when exposition is avoided, and information is instead conveyed through the dialog, thoughts and actions of the characters.
All too often, events that could easily have been presented as "live" scenes were needlessly described via omniscient narration. Moreover, thoughts that could easily have been spoken by the characters were also needlessly set forth via omniscient narration.
The result is that much of the book is simply tedious.
[To his credit, when Chayefsky wrote his screenplay for Altered States, he did an excellent job of converting much of the narrative exposition into actual scenes. One wonders why he didn't bother to do that within the novel itself.]
(4) Too Much Scientific Detail
Chayefsky spent two years researching the science behind the novel. Unfortunately, he jammed every last bit of research into the novel (again mostly via dull exposition.)
So, at times, the novel reads like an encyclopedia entry, rather than a thrilling story.
(5) Run-on Paragraphs.
Apparently, Chayefsky had trouble finding the carriage return on his typewriter. Individual paragraphs often run well over a page long.
[And that's in the hardbound edition. Within his original typed manuscript, individual paragraphs must have run on for three or four pages. I pity the editor who had to read that!]
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Anywho, despite these flaws, the underlying story is still fascinating.
It's a shame, though, that the editor didn't convince Chayefsky to rework the novel to fix these flaws. [I suspect that, given Chayefsky's great clout at the time, no one dared tell him the novel was a mess.]
Had the novel been better written, it might still be in print after all these years.
By the way, Paddy Chayefsky died in 1981 after a long and remarkable career. Rest in peace. You gave us some great stories.
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P.S. There's an interesting anecdote about the Altered States script/movie. Chayefsky had an unprecedented clause in his contract requiring that the movie be shot exactly according to his script -- scene-by-scene, line-by-line.
Ken Russell, the director, did just that. Still, Chayefsky demanded that his name be taken off the movie. The screenplay is instead credited to "Sidney Aaron."
The reason? Chayefsky apparently wanted all the long speeches of the script to be spoken very deliberately by the actors, so the audience could mull them over. He hated the fact that Russell had the actors race through the dialog.
I think, though, that Russell was right. Otherwise, the movie would simply have been too long and tedious. Russell's direction injected much-needed energy into what was a very "talky" script.
No, the main flaw in the movie was *not* the performance of the actors, *nor* the decisions of the director; the problem was that awful ending.
Did I mention I didn't like the ending?
23 of 27 people found the following review helpful.
A truly astounding trip to the unknown.
By A Customer
Altered States is the ultimate horror story-the story of one young scientist's terrifying experiment to find the origins of consciousness. Entombed in an isolation tank, fed with a powerful hallucinogenic drug, he experiences finally the supreme moment of terror that is the beginning of life. Altered States is a love story-the story of a man who learns that love is the greatest of all acts of faith. Altered States is a novel of exploration-of other states of consciousness, the unimaginable kingdoms of the mind. For the scientist, like the novelist, there are the new frontiers of truth beyond which anything can happen...
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Disappointing
By Michael P. McCullough
I was watching a movie on cable which was written / directed / starring Jeff Garlin called *Somebody to Eat Cheese With* wherein Jeff talks a lot about Paddy Chayefsky stating he was one our greatest writers, etc., and I began thinking about Paddy Chayefsky. I was familiar with his screenplays and have seen the movies made from his screenplays (including *Altered States* which I saw back when it was released); but when I looked him up on wiki and saw that he had written a single novel (this one) I made a beeline for the library.
Well - it really wasn't very good. I hate to say this but it was well conceived but poorly written. The characters don't speak in dialogue they spout manifestos. And, as one of the Amazon reviewers points out, they often speak in page long paragraphs where every sentence ends with an exclamation point.
I normally like the book a movie is based on better than the film but in this case it is the other way around: skip the book and rent the DVD.
(BTW, the aforementioned Jeff Garlin movie was pretty good, in a kooky, low budget sort of way.)
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