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Book value

Print | Comments () Posted by Mark Feeney November 4, 2010 10:29 AM

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Sports Illustrated senior writer Joe Posnanski has one of the best baseball blogs out there. It's not just that he's phenomenally knowledgeable, which he is. Or that he demonstrates that rarest of blogging combinations, genuine passion and consistent geniality (which is about as unusual as catchers with speed or middle infielders with power). It's also that he brings in non-baseball stuff, too. As in his most recent post, which introduces the concept of VOOB -- as in "value over originating book." It's a way to rank movie adaptations.

Posnanski came up with the idea after watching "The Social Network," which he liked a lot more than the book it was adapted from, Ben Mezrich's "The Accidental Billionaires." On the other hand, Posnanski had found "21," the movie based on Mezrich's previous book, "Bringing Down the House," inferior to the original. So VOOB gives a ranking of how much better, or worse, the movie is than the book. He gives "Social Network" a VOOB of 29, while "21" get a -7.

VOOB is a takeoff on such useful (if often esoteric) Sabermetric categories as UZR, VORP, and WAR. Those baseball concepts are all based on exacting statistical criteria, whereas VOOB, as Posnanski is well aware, is wholly -- and happily -- subjective. Which makes using it kind of irresistible. Think of "The Godfather," for example. One of the handful of greatest movies ever made, right? Right. What about Mario Puzo's novel? It's not exactly literature, but for what it is it's extremely well done. That makes coming up with a VOOB a bit tricky. "No Country for Old Men"? Coen brothers fans would likely give it a much higher VOOB than Cormac McCarthy fans would -- even if both liked the movie just as much.

The highest VOOB of all time? It would be a very competitive race. The field's headed by "Vertigo," "Doctor Strangelove," and "Raging Bull," all based on not exactly distinguished works of literature. And those are just for starters. Lowest VOOB would be a runaway. Posnanski says he originally thought of "Bonfire of the Vanities," then a reader pointed out "The Great Gatsby." (Speaking of "The Godfather," you do know that Francis Ford Coppola did the screenplay for the 1974 version? Or that John Gregory Dunne once said it was the best script he ever read? There have also been silent and TV versions.) Those definitely deserve votes, but the winner has to be Joseph Strick's 1967 version of "Ulysses." What, you say, you didn't know there was a movie version of Joyce's novel? Well, there's a reason for that. It does have the great Fionnula Flanagan (Eloise Hawking, on "Lost") as Gerty MacDowell.

Of course, the really interesting question about VOOB isn't highest or lowest score. It's what would qualify as its Mendoza Line.