Books vs TV/Movies

It doesn't make very much sense to me why someone can say that they were up all night reading a great book and someone else will think that's really cool and then turn around and think it's terrible is someone stays up all night watching a TV show. It’s true that books tend to make their audience think more than TV shows and movies do, given that readers are forced to create an image in their head as they read, but I think shows and movies deserve a little more credit. There’s a reason why we binge watch shows like The X-Files and Lost on Netflix, right? It’s because of the story that is being told and how the writers and directors are telling that story. We want more and as far as I can tell, binge watching shows is practically the same thing as staying up all night reading a book that you just can’t get enough of.

There are also things that can be shown through a visual aid that can’t though words in a book.  Take Monster’s Inc for example. When Boo hugs Sully in one of the last scenes of the movie, the audience is shown Sully’s expression and reaction to the hug. There is so much emotion on both ends and it is left to the audience to interpret it and each member of that audience will interpret it differently and find the meaning that will resonate the most with themselves. If this scene was portrayed in the form of words, these emotions would be crammed into the confinements of words and their meanings and connotations to each of their readers when there is so much more to what is happening.

And yet, people are still certain that books are the peak of entertainment? I mean, I still respect books as much as the next person, most of the time, the book IS better than the movie, but just because novels are a respected form of art, doesn’t mean there isn’t any room left for television and movies.