Some time ago now, during a riot in London, it was reported
that in one area every shop had been picked clean by rioters except—the
bookstore. That one had been left untouched. I can’t imagine the same to be
true of the video store.
It’s a familiar refrain and sometimes even I get tired of
hearing it. But it does often seem that
our society’s values are a little skewed.
Sports often appear to be valued over education, infotainment over
actual news, and—yes—movies and TV over books and literacy. I generally find that when I’m reaching for an
example to illustrate some important point about writing, that a reference to a
“movie” often works best. The books I want to use as illustrations will work
only for a subset of people. The movie
will work for nearly everyone. In fact, I sometimes feel as if I watch most TV
and movies just so I’ll have something to talk about with other people and to
use as examples in my classes.
Along a similar vein, I’ve had dozens of folks over the
years find out that I’m a writer and immediately recommend that I 1) write for
the movies, 2) read screenplays as a way to improve my writing, 3) read a book about screen writing, or 4)
all of the above. This is in spite of
the fact that I, 1) don’t really find movies very interesting, 2) personally find
screenplays the most boring thing to read outside of technical manuals, 3)
don’t ever want my written prose to sound like it came from a movie, and 4) it just
plain irritates me.
Now, I have nothing against folks who like movies. I like
plenty of them myself. I also think that writers can learn something from
studying every form of writing, including screenwriting, and there are movies
that contain great dialogue, although I generally find them strongest at the “one
liner” verbalizations. But what
irritates me about people making the “movie” suggestions to me is that these
folks seem clearly to value movies more than books. It almost seems they are saying, “well yes,
write your little novels until you develop the professional skills to write for
the important markets, TV and the movies.”
Frankly, most TV and movie writing isn’t very good, and that which is
good generally comes originally from books, as with the Harry Potter movies and
Game of Thrones.
I’ll admit that I probably sometimes overstate the case
against movies, but that’s because hardly anyone else seems to question the
“movies are just worth more than books” vibe that we live with in our society. I
question it. If my TV/video system was
gone when I woke up tomorrow, my life would go on almost exactly as it did
before. When Lana is not home, our TV is
off 99% of the time. But if I woke up and all my books were gone, I’d be
devastated and would probably head for the nearest bookstore immediately to
start replenishing my shelves.
For me, and for always, books are where it's at.
----
----
