Thursday, July 19, 2012

Dawning of Understanding

So I am reading “Catching Fire,” the second book of “The Hunger Games” series.  I saw the movie, “The Hunger Games,” with my daughter weeks ago and then more recently read the book.  I always like seeing the movie first so that having read the book doesn’t destroy the movie experience for me.  The books are always better.  Every reader knows this.  Too many times I have read the book first before they made a movie about something and it leaves a sour taste in my mouth forever about the movie.  They did a good job on the movie of “The Hunger Games.”

As I am reading “Catching Fire” I am seeing the characters from the movie in my head act out the scenes of the book as I did when I read “The Hunger Games.”  Only now days as a writer myself I read books slower, more cognizant of what the writer is doing and how they are doing it.  I pay attention to the change in emotions and how the words the author uses, the acts the characters portray, and the things they say change the emotions, feel and pace of the piece.
As I read a particular passage where it describes the complicated reasoning and thoughts of one of the characters it dawns on me that you will miss this part in the movie.  How could they portray and communicate all this internal process of the characters analysis and thinking without straying from the actual elements of action in the book.  That’s when it hit me!

It is this moment that thing which I have known all along, that every reader knows and is such a great part of why reading is wonderful and will always outlive and surpass all other forms of media expression for entertainment.  It’s because with reading and a good author you get to read about other people’s thoughts, motivations, and desires behind the scenes of the action.  It is more interactive than any game, movie or television show could ever be.  Because you can experience what the characters feel and think.  Even if later their actions betray themselves or others, or they willingly sacrifice their own wants and desires for the benefit others.
It’s this exchange of emotions, hearing the thoughts and feelings of the characters which can’t be expressed in any other way and then snapping back without losing any time to the action at hand.  It is this special insight into the characters that breaks the rules of true life and is at the heart of setting the tone and emotions for a particular piece of writing.
I thought it was funny that it was right there in front of me.  I fully understood what was going on in the books I read, but I had never actually verbalized it or rolled it together into a cognitive thought about the process before.  Readers know why the books are always better, because we get a more infinitely clearer perception of what is truly going on from the books in a way that can’t be mimicked by other forms of media attempting to transfer stories.  Obviously television and movies are quicker and easier to digest than picking up a book and actually reading it.  Of course you miss out on tidbits of motivation and thoughts but can still get a fairly decent over view of the story.
I will take the work and wait of reading something over having it spoon fed to me anytime.  On that note I can’t wait to see “Dark Knight Rising!”
It’s a joke and yes I really want to see that movie.


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