Monday, November 7, 2011

In its silence, a book is a challenge: it can't lull you with surging music or deafen you with screeching laugh tracks or fire gunshots in your living room; you have to listen to it in your head. A book won't move your eyes for you the way images on a screen do. It won't do the work for you. To read a story well is to follow it, to act it, to become it -  everything short of writing it, in fact. Reading is not 'interactive' with a set of rules or options, as games are; reading is actual collaboration with the writer's mind. No wonder not everybody is up to it.
Ursula K. Le Guin

4 comments:

Sam (Tiny Library) said...

I do think this is true, reading is an active process rather than passive. Maybe that's why so many choose TV or films over books?

Beth said...

Yes! Yes! Yes! Which is why I prefer books to movies.

Ana S. said...

I love Le Guin and I think she's spot on about reading, but I do also think other media are sometimes not given enough credit for being challenging and inviting the audience's active participation.

Trish said...

Le Guin has a very succinct way of putting it, doesn't she?

I also think there's a place for other media. Some nights are just perfect for curling up with family to watch a movie together. I love that. There just seems to be more noise than challenge associated with movies and tv. With a little bit of searching and selection, though, there is some quality out there to be found.