BOOK or MOVIE?

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!