Reading Fiction Hits Different
Since posting about wanting to read more, I decided to take my own advice and read things that I enjoy, rather than what I should be reading, and I have no regrets.
Last week, I finished reading Percy Jackson & The Olympians for the second time. And just a week before that, I binge-watched the last 2 seasons of Money Heist in 2 days, and I thought it would be interesting to talk about some of the differences I noticed in the after-effects of binging a show versus a book. Basically, I wanted an excuse to talk about these two, high-quality sources of entertainment.
Imagination vs. Reality
There’s something different about finishing a book series from finishing a show. With a show, my immediate instinct is to watch interviews, behind the scenes, any extra content where I can glimpse the actors behind the characters, to give solace to myself for any character deaths, to rid any tensions between people by seeing villains laugh and giggle during filming, or hearing the completely different accent of an actor compared to his character. I did this for Peaky Blinders, I did it for Money Heist, and it gives you a sort of peace. A feeling that everything that happened was truly a story. It lets your brain find peace from running around, endlessly pondering the characters we attach ourselves to. It lets you treat it as a creation, something that didn’t actually happen, and it gives you ease. I’ve yet to watch Money Heist: The Phenomenon, but I went through my fair share of interviews with the cast, to ease anything that might not have sat well with me. I found out the actor who plays Helsinki can speak English pretty fluently, and it’s almost soothing to listen to. I perused Reddit for theories about Season 5, and about a day later I was emotionally recovered.
With a book, however, there’s none of that. You find yourself even more emotionally attached, longing for more. There’s no real-life Percy or Annabeth, Thalia or Luke, Silena or Beckendorf. They all exist in our heads, their existence and lives intertwined with our imaginations, and the mere thought that it isn’t real isn’t enough to separate ourselves from the characters. They become part of us. Their stories live on in our memories, and it’s a surreal feeling. I COULD read a fanfic (which I almost did at a point), but that’s like watching a fan-made trailer. It’s not the same. Of course, I’ll be continuing to read the next series, so the characters will only grow, especially in House of Hades, but there’s an uneasiness and longing that’s harder to detach yourself from. You wish, you crave, you want so badly to have more, to read more, to feel the characters again.
You are the Director
I also love how personalized a reading experience is. Our perception of things in the book are based on our own experiences and knowledge, paired with the extent of our imaginations. Each of us has our own baggage coming into the book, so we react to things differently. We have an idealized version of the book to our own desires and needs. That’s why some people would rather a show or movie adaptation never be attempted because it’ll taint the sacred and pure image of the characters they already have in their heads. It’s an intrusion of privacy in a way. The way you interpret a book is as if you’re the director, shaping the content to fit the models you have in your head. The settings are influenced by your own life, the places you’ve been, the things you’ve seen. It was interesting to reread the series for this reason because I remembered certain scenes and the exact mental image I had of them as when I first read it in middle school. Places in Boston and Fairfield found their way into my experience and it was a lot more nostalgic than I expected.
A movie or show is nothing but a director imposing his own interpretation and experience onto a show. There’s layers to it. It’s beyond just the words in the book being repeated by an actor. The choice of actor, the subtleties of nonverbal expression, the setting. There are so many other layers present that enhance and modify a story, either to the benefit or dismay of the reader. There are even elements that can’t be conveyed through a book. The soundtrack, for one, adds emotion, suspense, and intrigue that isn’t being played in your head when you read. The color grading affects the mood, dramatically shifting the emotions felt by the observer. All of these elements, that we can’t experience in a book, are compensated through our own imaginations, experiences, and stories. A quote I came across, relating our individual human experience to that of humanity as a whole, describes this effect beautifully. - ^^These stories amount to something like the larger fabric into which we weave the thread of our own biographies^^
We’re weaving our own biographies into the narrative presented to us by the author, and that’s where we become the directors.
That’s all for this week. You’ll notice there’s a spot on the bottom of the main page to sign up for a Newsletter. It’s something that I’m working on now, and I hope to launch in the next month. I’ll give it a better explanation in the next post, but if you’re with the journey, sign up!