I someone who is really working hard to getting into reading again because I do admit that I have been caught in the easy and appealing trap of visual media like films and video games because they are instantly appealing, I realised that there is a contrast between the two types of media but both have their uses.
In my experience so far of trying to get into reading, both fiction and non-fiction, books require a lot more consistent attention-spans where the books can be finished in days or weeks if we keep on going at a consistent pace because the details tend to be longer and more comprehensive than if certain scenes are conveying to the audience in visual media.
Books tend to be more descriptive and full of comprehension which can be a very good source of information for vocabulary, language, comprehension, or simply the knowledge of the topic at hand because books can be as small or as large as they want and can pack information one after the other into concrete sentences and paragraphs, and depending on the types of words that are used, the imagination can be as little or as wide as the reader wants it to be.
In contrast, if you want to feel suspense, surprise, anger, sadness, or any kind of strong emotion, especially with using few words and letting the scenes speak for themselves, I noticed that visual media like films and video games tend to be more potent than books.
Like I said, books feel like they are more powerful as sources of knowledge and they can describe the situation with good wording but it is very dependent on the imagination of the reader and the details can be as long as the writer wants it to be.
But if the emotions need to be potent, I noticed that visual media can be a good source for this and this can be a good source of knowledge for emotional intelligence because they give the magic of the art of a combination of different things – language, cinematography, acting, music and so on.
Don't get me wrong – books can do this too and they can describe scenes as deeply as they can, depending on which words are being used.
But if the reader wants to learn how to describe a scene coherently, a book can be useful but if it is meant to be more potent, visual media can do it much better.
But if you want as much information as possible, characters, objects, histories, names, vocabulary, and all of these combined that can convey different levels of imagination, books do this much better and they can be as long or as short as the writer wants it to be
by sammyjamez
6 Comments
Books let you live inside someone else’s head in a way that’s impossible with visual media. You get all their internal monologue, their random thoughts, the stuff they’d never say out loud – that’s something movies can’t really capture without clunky voiceovers
It is not correct to say that visual media is better at suspense and tension than books. It’s just a different form of communication and for people who prefer to read, a good tense thriller could be better than a film.
It reads like you’re projecting your personal experiences and presenting them as universal truths, when they are not.
Well, different media are going to have different impacts – they just are, due to their nature. I mean, stories that are all about car chases and explosions would flop as radio. Michael Bay could not make a radio show to save his life.
However I think the strength of books is, they are theater of the mind. YOU visualize the scenes, the characters, the action. There is nothing between you and the written word, it’s your imagination that brings the story alive.
I think that’s the main reason that books made into movies are almost always “not as good as the book.” Because the book is ‘translated’ into the director’s vision, and the particular actors, etc. so you are viewing the book second- or third-hand.
You sort of have to train for any kind of media. If you’re heavily trained for videogames, but not for books, then books will not provide you with the same emotion etc. It can also work the other way around. I would say videogames have storytelling / details potential on the same level as books, but it’s rarely used well. But then, it’s a very new media.
While it’s been done in film/tv/games, I think books are generally a more effective medium for immersing yourself in a character’s stream of consciousness
Correct and natural characterization and narrative in general, visual media is so often rushed