by Nina Drozd

Created on: May 11, 2010

Literature vs Film. Which one will win? Well, the movies certainly seem to be taking over the stage nowadays with technologically and graphically "pimped up" movies like Avatar and Matrix. However, the books are well needed in our society and I hope that humanity doesn't forget about the intellectual development which books provide us with. You can say it's easy to learn a language with a movie or an audio recording, that may be so BUT books provide the proper grammar and phrases which enrich any language and give you an opportunity to use any foreign language or even your own mother-language to its full capability. My mother, for example, has fully learned English from reading detective books.Reading of all those books not only gave her more words and phrases to use and understand, but also provided her with some leisure time and interesting facts!

How many times have we been asked before: which is your first book? Which is your favourite book? What seems to be alarming now is people are more interested about your favourite movie and which movie you didn't like. Cinema can be a very entertaining activity indeed, but to develop the emotional and intellectual world of a person, some alone time is needed with a good book.

You can identify people by what kind of books and movies they like. So the media certainly has effect on our personality and likes and dislikes. However, the main difference between movies and books is - movies are more inclusive and books are for alone time. You certainly can't read anything together with another person, but you can discuss it later with like-minded individuals. Literature provides us with opportunity to create images in our mind. Have you ever tried reading a science-fiction book and imagining the main character and the events happening?! If compared to a movie based on that book, the graphics and images would never be as imaginative, bright and colorful as you thought of them while reading a book.

I once read a science-fiction novel written by Ray Bradbury '541 Fahrenheit'. The main plot was based among a futuristic world where individuals where not "individual"at all, instead a mass of population was created to enjoy similar things, learn to hide their emotions by speeding on a road and using auto-pilot and not to interact as such. The story is based around the life of a fireman, but he is no ordinary fireman, instead of distinguishing fires he creates them.... and removes any trace of the last books on Earth. The book is very descriptive and brings up an idea that books convey more use to us than just for leisure. They help us form our own opinions, create our own personality and be able to talk to our peers about interesting things we've read. After meeting an interesting girl, who is considered an outsider just because she has her own opinions and can enjoy the nature and a long conversation, the fireman starts to see the world differently gradually growing to hate his profession...

Overall, books are more valid to the humanity nowadays because they always have and always will contain more wisdom and experience from the authors and writers, take even the Bible - the oldest and wisest book of them all. Literature also develops your intellectual and linguistic skills, giving you a past time activity and transferring you into the world of unknown and exciting. So do enjoy the excitement of movies but don't forget that for every movie, a story and a plot were first written, making literature its immediate parent and ancestor!

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