The People of Paper HBO Miniseries

I think that Salvador Plascencia’s The People of Paper could be really interesting if remixed into a miniseries.  The novel uses magical realism and unique text layouts, often offering perspective from multiple characters in different columns on the same page.  The story revolves around a small town of migrant farmers in Southern California.  The protagonist of the story, Federico de la Fe, begins to wage an impossible war against Saturn, who readers later find out is the real-life author of the book.  As the story progresses, Federico, his daughter, some of the townspeople, and even Saturn continually break the fourth wall and ultimately call into question their very existence as plot devices.

Although the novel relies heavily on visual aspects of the text, these could translate to the screen in interesting ways.  For example, characters in the novel who learn to maintain their privacy by blocking out text with black squares could, in the miniseries, learn to put themselves on mute, or scramble the audio of scenes they are in.  Where the fourth wall is broken, the series could use movies like The Truman Show or Cabin in the Woods as a model.  I feel that this would be better remixed as a miniseries than a movie for a few reasons.  First, there’s quite a bit that needs to happen; probably too much to squeeze into the length of a film.  Throughout the book, we also meet several characters who appear for a few pages and are never seen again.  These one-off characters, a baby who can see the future, an “origami surgeon,” and a woman made of literal paper, although they don’t necessarily add to the story itself, are important in helping build the universe, and wouldn’t be allowed their time to shine if presented in a movie.