Books and movies are two completely different countries.
In one you read by yourself (unless you’re in a group-grope book club), the other you see and hear — and the two supposedly connect when the book is made into a movie.
Rare, though, when the movie comes direct off the page.

Movies can also alter the spirit of a story to achieve broader appeal.
Think of everything you found charming about the movie Forrest Gump: the feather floating over the opening credits, the signature line that “life is like a box of chocolates,” or Tom Hanks’s graceful innocence as the title character.
You won’t find any of that in the original novel.
Winston Groom’s Gump is cynical, abrasive and swears like a marine.

(Illustration found here).

Not having read the book, the difference then must be is no, they’re not relations.

Yesterday, ‘Forrest Gump,’ the movie, along with 24 others, were installed by the the Library of Congress into its National Film Registry, a repository of motion pictures judged to be culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.
Forrest joins a killer/cannibal, a cute deer, a nasty alcoholic and a guitar-case carrying assassin, among others, in the new list, which now totals 575 movies.

“These films are selected because of their enduring significance to American culture,” said Library of Congress James Billington.
“Our film heritage must be protected because these cinematic treasures document our history and culture and reflect our hopes and dreams.”

Those so-called ‘hopes and dreams,’ though, live only in a darkened movie theater, not much in real life — reelly?

Out in the cold of Iowa there’s a shitload of GOP presidential contenders walking around, shaking hands and trying like the dickens to cuddle the hearts of those who will participate in the first big dump of the 2012 political year — the Iowa caucuses, due next Tuesday.
None of those clowns — including one clownette — is nowhere near Mr. Gump’s intelligence level.
The field is so shitty, there’s no clear front-runner.
Via CNN:

“It’s completely unprecedented to have a field and a cycle that has been this unpredictable, this turbulent late in the process,” Iowa Republican Party Chairman Matt Strawn told CNN.
Tim Albrecht, the Twitter-active spokesman for Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, is also surprised.
“I have never seen this level of undecided voters this late in the process. It’s a crazy year in that regard,” Albrecht said.

When Newt Gingrich couldn’t qualify for the the Virginia primary, he likened it to Pearl Harbor — remember he’s a historian.
Mitt Romney tweeted in response: “I think it’s more like Lucille Ball at the chocolate factory,” Romney said…
Fighting among losers.

In October, MSNBC’s Martin Bashir figured Rick Perry was a lot like Forrest Gump, except Forrest won a medal of honor: “I guess it’s a case of desperate man, desperate measures, as candidate Rick Perry finds himself floundering at the wrong end of the latest poll.”

Maybe Perry’s just running scared: “Now you wouldn’t believe me if I told you, but I could run like the wind blows. From that day on, if I was going somewhere, I was running!”

Tomorrow’s another…