Book or Movie?

Hello, again! 🥰 How have you been? I’m well! 😉☺️

Today, I thought I’d bring up the topic of movies…and, of course, since I apparently can’t not talk about books, those too. 🤣 The two together—or rather, opposed. 👀

I’ll say it right out; though I love both movies and books, none of you will be surprised to hear that I believe books are superior. 😂 People often ask “Why read the book, you could just watch the movie?”, and I honestly believe that that sort of thinking is so detrimental. 😶 It’s selling yourself short, implying that easier is better, and that the two forms of storytelling are even the same thing…

…Which they’re not. 😂

The first reason they are not the same and that books are, in most ways, superior is the characters. Though there are absolutely many wonderful on-screen characters, they really can’t compare to the characters you find on the page. The written ones are deeper, far more real. You have a lot more time and insights to get to know them with—insights such as more closely observing the way they speak, getting to hear far more about their pasts, and even getting in on their literal thoughts! ☺️ You can’t honestly tell me you know, say, movie or show Jo March better than book Jo March, can you? 😅

Another reason, and to my mind one of the greatest, is the narrator. In so many books you get to hear their voices, come to know them throughout their different works, and often come to love them. ☺️ But take them to the screen, and it’s going to be a lot harder to bring the author along. Their story might be there, but the spirit is rarely caught.

One example of this is Disney’s adaptions of several books in The Chronicles of Narnia series, by C. S. Lewis. Lewis’s voice in the books is a unique and highly entertaining one, definitely a favorite of mine. This is, naturally, missing from the movies—you can’t have an old European Professor talking over the action scenes, it just doesn’t work. 😆 Not only that, but the movies are completely inaccurate to the books in their plot, particularly Prince Caspian, which barely resembles the original beyond it’s barest bones…and frustrates me so badly, but that’s beside the point. 👀😂 The spirit was absolutely missing.

There’s also the whole technical side of things; how much better reading is for your brain than the screen is, how much more engaged and purposeful a book forces you to be. 😉 Books allow you to slow down, take things in, and when necessary, can allow you to consider whether you should proceed. Movies simply throw it to you, or at you, and after the couple hours it’s too late to consider whether that was really something that deserved your time, or wasn’t bad for you. The written word also allows you to slow down and ponder, dwell on ideas as you go, allowing your thoughts to develop more than simply thinking back on a movie would do—though, don’t get me wrong, that’s great too! ☺️

And then there are the pictures. There are the images that stories and descriptions can paint in your mind, some of them so beautiful your left completely changed. And though, yes, there are absolutely stunning movies out there, beautiful on the technical side and in heart, it’s just never the same. They can never get inside your mind the same way that books do. 🤷🏼‍♀️ I know that I have far fewer examples of movies that just strike me than of books. 👀 Maybe that’s different for you? 🙃

Obviously this post is a very boiled-down explanation from a definitely-non-expert 😆, but I hope you can see what I mean; books are meant for the mind and heart, movies are for the eyes and emotions, and stories are for the spirit.

What do you think? 🥰 Do you prefer books, or movies? And do you disagree with any of my points? 🤔 If so, definitely tell me what you’d think, I’d really like to hear and consider! 🤗

That’s all for now! Until next time. 🥰

—SaraNoelle

P. S. I do have one thing to point out that movies have to hold over books. 😉🤭 And that’s music. I adore movie soundtracks, and it truly is a shame that every book can’t come with it’s own. 😪