Imagination

4-2-10

I like books. I like movies. However, I prefer to read the book before I watch the movie, if the book existed before the movie. Why?

So I can imagine what the characters look like and how the action plays out for myself, thank you. Having the images just passively flash at a person will just weaken that person's imagination. Maybe in the smallest increment, but the pictures we see forever imprint on our minds. Even though I read Lord of the Rings before the movies even came out, I see the movie versions in my head now, when I read. Same goes for the Harry Potter franchise--I forever see Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, no matter what my original imagination of Harry was.

It's not necessarily a bad thing; it's definitely my preference--and if the books came after the movie, it's usually good to have the movie as a visual reference anyway. For example, in any novelization of any of the Star Wars movies. Those books automatically assume that the reader already knows what the main characters look like (Leia, Han, Luke, Anakin, those characters) and spend more time describing the newer characters that do not exist in the movies. Maybe that's bad writing, but that's what I've noticed.

And, sometimes, the movie can be better than the book. I'm sure you can think of some examples.

What do you think? Books before movies? Movies before books? Some combination of the two?

~Ashlee