By Anu Dev
I snap my book shut; take a deep breath and struggle to extricate myself from the recliner I was crumpled-up in for the past few hours. I wander downstairs with that happy glow only reading a really good book can give you. I wonder how many persons in this hitech (read: TV) age are doing this right now. Not too many, I conclude ruefully.
My family doesn’t look at regular TV programming. But we sure take in a lot of movies – some even before they’re released in the States! With the opening of the Princess Theatres, the moral dilution to share in piracy has lessened a bit! Movies are just another way of telling stories and as with books, one’s enjoyment is heightened if the plot, characters, setting, themes and style are handled with sophistication.
However, many movies are based on books – some of which I’ve read – and these have given me an interesting insight.
No matter how accurate the casting crew tries to be, they rarely ever quite match up to the characters the way I “saw” them in the book. On the other elements of fiction, sometimes so many liberties are taken; one wonders why they still bothered to name the movie after the book.
“P. S. I love you” and “Percy Jackson” are movies that disappointed greatly after reading the books.
The point is, reading compels you to use your imagination to engage the world the writer has conjured and your apprehension through the written word makes that world yours as much as hers. It’s actually a mystery to me as to why persons deny themselves the opportunity to get lost in this act of co-creation that, (in the words of Rafiki of Lion King), makes us “look beyond what you see”.
Reading doesn’t necessarily equate with “old-fashioned” and movies, “modern”. In fact, many new devices like the Kindle and iPad are either designed for reading or have free reading apps available.
The ability to read isn’t the main hurdle in Guyana – we supposedly have a literacy rate of over 90 per cent – an extraordinarily high figure. It is the desire to read that is the problem and one which won’t be overcome unless the act of reading becomes enjoyable.
But that won’t happen if reading is something you’re forced to do for English B or if you believe that “The Chrysalids” – which I did for my CSEC – is as good as it’s going to get. There are some really amazing books out there: books that make you cry, smile or even actually laugh. The examiners of CSEC are heading in the right direction with their new guidelines for literature appreciation and apprehension.
Maybe they will now do something about the selection of texts: “The World of Prose” is as morbid as it gets.
Some of the greatest achievements of humanity are in the form of great works of literature. And narratives, over the centuries are insightful chronicles, of history in their own right: Plato said they were even superior. The author’s elaboration of a particular concept or her choice of a writing style is inevitably products of her time. In a reversal, we now even speak of the “poetics of history”. There’s a whole world out there, so take time out from vegetating in front of the TV once in a while and enter into new dimensions through reading.
Go on, take the plunge!