Are movies and books competitors?

I'm a book geek, no doubt about it. I love learning new things and getting new points. Often they come from books. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just that I have started to develop this quality common to many book enthusiasts: I criticize movies and TV, and sometimes my arguments rest on a level of "I think most of it is just crap." Even I know that's not an argument, that's stupidity! All this got me thinking that maybe I just don't get it right. I've always felt that books and movies are somehow each others' competitors or replacements. Are they?

If we stick to fiction for a while, a book is a story with the structure attached, but the details missing. So, one ends up filling in the details and picturing the landscapes on the go. This makes it easier (at least for me) to mentally transport myself into the story and hop into a character's shoes. That way, I learn better and can learn easier to the emotions of a character. Due to the relative freedom of imagination in visualizing the book, I can always imagine myself into the story.

With movies, the situation is quite different. What's written in the script is played on the screen, and there's no way of denying that the story is situated in the Rocky Mountains, if that's what one sees on the screen. I have to enjoy a movie as it is, whereas a book I can enjoy more just as an idea creator.

That was the familiar part, me displaying movies as somehow "worse" than books. I shall now dive into the part how they are also "better".

I've been to many movies, which I've enjoyed thoroughly. The best ones have been always been able to create a wave of emotion at some point. I even remember crying, or at least almost, in some movies. The wave of emotion is something I've never been able to achieve with books. Books can be exciting, to the point that I spend a night reading instead of sleeping. But at best, they stimulate my intellectual brain parts.

Also, not many books make me laugh like a maniac. That's why I love comedy so much. A good episode of the Simpsons is really all I need to get over a bad day. It would be almost comedy just to video me watching the episode alone, laughing like I'm crazy. How often does that happen with books? Quite rarely. So it's not just about the deep messages. Hear what Mike Royko said:

“I never went to a John Wayne movie to find a philosophy to live by or to absorb a profound message. I went for the simple pleasure of spending a couple of hours seeing the bad guys lose.”

All in all, I guess I have to admit that these two forms of entertainment are not from the same sphere. Both tell stories but with a different focus. And they both have their uses. Seems like reality bested my literature-biased sense once again. Maybe, one day, I'll write a book about it!

Entertainment for the masses

We're living in a very normative world, have you noticed that? Just look at the society: everybody wears the same clothes, reads the same news, watches the same TV programs. It took me a long time to realize it, but this autumn has really revealed how bad the situation is.

Take almost any TV series, and you'll quickly note a couple of things. Firstly, the show is probably made in USA. It's probably comedy. And it probably lacks any real meaning. Yes, I like Friends as well, but can you really claim that it has any deeper meaning, that it really teaches anything? I can't. Or how about reality-tv? The same bullshit, but with a reduced level of fun. Watching people I've never heard of before getting wasted, taking a shower, embarrassing themselves on stage or whatever does sound pretty stupid, when you think of it. Isn't it a bit cheap to laugh at other's mistakes, because we're really all the same! I do stupid things as well when I'm drunk, I shower, I make a fool of myself - it's all the same! But suddenly, when you're doing the 'acting', it ain't that fun anymore...

The world is a mystery, and the human nature is that we want to make sense of that mystery. Have you ever seen a 5-year-old asking all the time "Why, mother?". Have you ever wondered, why we lose that ability? I blame it on society. Our daily life is filled with TV soap operas, magazines telling stories nobody really cares about, all that stuff - I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. They all create a steady stream of information that our brain keeps processing, thus eliminating the possibility of actual creative thinking in our everyday life. It's easy, and it ensures the survival of the status quo. It's all just bullshit that keeps our brains running on low capacity, so we won't start questioning anything.

I'm really not a conspiracy theorist; I don't think that it's an evil governmental ploy to keep us in line. It is a cage we have built for ourselves; I really believe that it hinders our capacity to look beyond, to see what's going on in the world. Why live the relationships in soap operas as a bystander instead of getting out and having a life of your own? Why care so much of the characters inside that big box (or even a flatscreen) and so little of yourself?

Despite all of the above, I don't think TV or even TV series are all just crap. There are some good ones, that actually have a message to tell. They can even be funny! I can't tell which series to watch, because it all depends on the person. If you like history, watch a historical show and pick up a few little details on the French revolution. If you like ethical dilemmas, watch House and try to see the moral guidelines behind the decisions. But more importantly, change the way you watch TV. Don't just let your brain doze off! Keep asking "why?" even when watching TV. Try to see the reasons behind the characters' actions, learn a new expression in a foreign language, whatever suits you. But please, don't become another mentally mummified victim of the entertainment industry.