Nicole Bolla ‘20, Opinion Editor
In this world, there are many great battles of society. Pineapple on pizza, wearing socks to sleep, and of course, books versus movies. Specifically, which is the better medium to create a story? The majority of the students at SLHS are on team movie. “Movies help you to visualize a scene,” junior Morghan Roselle said. “[Books] are just…words.” Many students have a hard time visualizing the settings and characters in the books, thus reading is unenjoyable for them.
Roselle’s sentiment seems to be echoed by the majority of students “In movies, you can actually see what’s going on.” Freshman Natalie Cavazos added. It is obvious that movies are an amazing artform that can create entertaining and complete stories that hold audiences’ attention.
On the other hand, some students here at SLHS prefer novels. “Books [are] better because there is generally a lot more to the story. A movie can only have so much plot packed into two hours, but a book can be extended for as long as you want it to,” junior Brooke Ziolkowski said. Sophomore Grace Yarkosky agreed, and said, “Books just move the scene along better than a movie does.” In fact a study done by stanford university neurobiologist showed that reading for pleasure increases blood flow to the under worked regions of the brain. While movies show a character’s movement and speech, books let you jump into the mind of a character and read their thoughts and feelings within a progressive storyline. Both are undoubtedly beautiful ways to tell a story, but which one is the best?
An article by Indiana University Bloomington said, “I have realized that comparing books to their counterpart movies isn’t fair; at the end of the day, the two mediums of storytelling have different advantages and different qualifications for what makes them good.” While both mediums portray highly beloved stories, in the end, it is like comparing apples to oranges; it is unfair to compare them because of the drastic differences between them.
Movies show physical action and appearance with precision and grace and if done well, you cannot tear your eyes away from the screen for a second to risk missing a moment of the film. Books aim to describe everything so well that you feel as though you are a part of the story, either watching from a distance, or from inside a character’s mind; it takes you on an emotional rollercoaster with the characters while also leaving more to the imagination.
It really does not matter which is ‘better’ in the end because students who like movies will watch them, and students who like books will read them. Students who are literalists may prefer movies and things you can see clearly, while students that dig deeper into the stories might tend to prefer books. “They are both different and should be respected differently” english teacher, Mrs. Smithkort said. Both mediums create amazing stories that stand the test of time, so maybe instead of arguing which is better, we should just spend time enjoying them.
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
Lyon Life 