Which do you prefer, reading a book
or watching a movie? These are one of the many forms of literature which is
highly popular and demanding with the people today, especially the teenagers
like me. The number of books published and the movies made are continuously
growing each year. Why is a movie and a
book very demanding? Some People
believed that they are the source of our inspiration, a fuel that drives us to
do things that make us who we are. These are the examples of a true life being
lived by expressing to the people their emotions, feelings and ideas. They say
every book has a soul, and so does a feature film. But I believe that a book is
more expressive than a movie. We must always remember to learn to appreciate
both forms of literature.
First thing to know about a book is
that, it is a literary written work. It is written by an author to express his
ideologies on a certain concept, and at the same time, share his imaginary
works of art to entertain the readers. Back in romantic period, literary works
such as books or novels were of great importance to the society as different
ideologies flourished the minds of the readers, as well as the authors themselves
with romanticism, socialism and rationalism. Feminism novels by Jane Austen and
Romantic novels written by Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo
Emerson were very provoking unto giving sentiments the art of literature, and into
convincing the people to treasure the every piece of literary work. The
author’s written articulations on their story are so powerful and keen that it
arouses the reader’s sentimental emotions into becoming in love with the story
by having an enjoying time reading books.
Based on my point of view, a movie
is the art of giving life to a written work. It is filled with many colourful
concepts not only by imagining it, but also by actually seeing it based on the people’s
point of view. As an avid movie watcher, I find that watching a movie has this
strange exhilaration because of the effects they have put inside of it, and the
sequencing of events which are very unusual and interesting. The goal of a
movie is to tell a story using the surreal effects of motion picture as an
entertainment to the people. As part of the standard rule of the movie
production companies, a movie should only last for about 2-3 hours. That means
that the narrating or the delivery of the story would be limited.
A book and a movie have many things
in common, but also many contradictions. Both of their goals is to entertain
people and to share their ideas or beliefs to the public, at the same time
leave a lesson behind. Although, books emphasizes more on the rationale set
upon by the author while the movie emphasizes the sequence of the story to make
sure the people are well entertained. Imaginations can somehow be limited to a
book, unlike in the movie where anything you can do is possible with the
advancement in technology. You can bring ideas and creations into life in a
movie, you can show them how a certain object really looks like, or how the
events can possibly be more realistic while you can only imagine the things
through your head by reading a book. The advantage of only imagining it with
your mind is that you can create your own perception of that certain idea, it
is like being the author of the book itself where you do not follow the
standardized version of that idea. The whole sequence, events and rendition of
a book is infinite and accurate because the author is not limited into writing
his books while a movie can either explain the whole story in a short period of
time or just cut the story. The point is that there is no accuracy in the concept
delivery to the public when you based it from a written literary work, and
sometimes, they are forced to exclude the minimal but important subjects.
If you
want to watch a literary-adapted film, you should read the book first because
it is better to know the original first than the adapted one. It gives more
clarity in reading the book because word per word, there is the idea being
carefully expressed. It is true that a movie has more delivery of emotions than
the book because of its visual movements, but as I said, it is not as accurate
as the one in the book and the events shown in the movie will just show up
sometimes without further explaining it. In the book, it is freely and fully
delivered: the character background, intentions, expressions and articulations.
However, it is always up to each person if he or she is entertained in reading
books more than watching a movie or vice versa. One thing that should not pass
by is that they have appreciated the works of these established writers!