BYE-BYE THE BOOK

Perhaps it is unfortunate that Clint Eastwood had his own thoughts about the book “The Bridges of Madison County.” These probably led to the announced changes in the story in its release as a motion picture (“Clint, by Candlelight,” by Sean Mitchell, May 28).

Backers and producers of movies, who bet only on sure things and cinches, are criticized for shunning innovation and going with familiar products people are buying. Here is a book, confirms Mitchell, that sold 8 million copies. Here is an author, applauds Eastwood, who “created some sort of magic and no one really knows what that magic is.”

Yet screenwriter Richard LaGravenese, Steven Spielberg and director-star Eastwood, according to Mitchell, “pared away some of this embroidery while adding a plot shake or two.” I would think 8 million readers is an endorsement of the “magic.” Eastwood, however, refers to the book as a “guide.”

Art is a composite of an artist’s painful selection from a thousand alternatives. Moviemakers apparently want to relieve authors of that pain, and second-guess their selection.

I look forward to a new, happier film version of “Moby Dick” in which Captain Ahab is rescued by his crew and spared going down with the whale.

WILLIAM VIETINGHOFF

Thousand Oaks