Gudday-
Change is the order of nature, and culture is no exception to the rule; yet it saddens me that books have found themselves replaced in our world of gadgets and games. Games can do things that books never could, they can provide us with powerful forms of interactive entertainment and allow us to explore entire new universes from our own perspective. But we aren't here to talk about games, we need to discover the place of the humble paperback novel (or in some cases the e-book) in our new world of tangible un-realities.
In my opinion books are just as interactive as any game - except a book requires you to indulge the imagination in order to visualise the story. You might say that that games are to books what contemporary movies are to black and white stop motion cinema. Nowadays books just don't compare to the stunning visuals and audio that games can provide, and the effort we need to put in to start up our imagination we would much rather just put into playing a game.
So when a picture says a thousand words, where does that leave books?
Well for starters book are the link to our past in the same sense that we need them in order to relate to the way we are now. For example, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor D is a stunning psychological crime thriller that is a direct reflection of the state of St Petersburg at the time. Without the books of that era all we have are facts and histories, but through the books we can live the time and place. Games can try but they came from our society, any historical comment by a game can only be authentic as a retrospective view of those events or places.
Can I just say - I've read The Divine Comedy: Inferno by Dante and I was not amused at the crude interpretation into the game Dante. If you're going to develop a game influenced by a book at least do it in the spirit the book was written in (so to speak).
Today however books must compete with interactive and visual media for a place in our future. And it seems as though fewer people care to pick up a book and indulge their imaginations in worlds painted by words alone. I sometimes fear that book are becoming a niche culture, reserved only for those who are hardcore enough to concentrate past the opening paragraph where books should be openly enjoyed by everyone. Maybe the art of reading books is being lost...
The art of reading is like the art of gaming - no one is good at first. But is is easy to see why some people get frustrated at reading because it is deceptively hard; I mean what could be easier than reading words off a page? Well in the world of reading nothing is given, everything is there to be interpreted by the reader and the best experience is founds by delving for the meanings behind the words (yes I know this all reminds you of studying Shakespeare in school). But that is all just fun, the really hard part is slowing down your mind to the pace of reading.
We live in a world where information comes thick and fast, and by fast I mean break-neck speed. In order to read a book we need to be able to divorce ourselves from this, stop, and smell the roses offered by the books. And this, in my opinion is the way of the future; it's why we need books in our lives.
Games are great, but no one want to sit around for hours playing a slow paced game with no excitement. Books here do something that games can't do, they provide us with a way to be entertained as a pace that just requires a little relaxation. It's the meditation of the future, it allows us to step outside our busy lives and take some time to exercise our imagination and flush out all that unnecessary information that plagues us for most waking hours.
But I think now I've written far too much and you've all probably gotten bored with me. But for those of you who love the art of reading, I hope I've given you some food for thought.
-Sam
Change is the order of nature, and culture is no exception to the rule; yet it saddens me that books have found themselves replaced in our world of gadgets and games. Games can do things that books never could, they can provide us with powerful forms of interactive entertainment and allow us to explore entire new universes from our own perspective. But we aren't here to talk about games, we need to discover the place of the humble paperback novel (or in some cases the e-book) in our new world of tangible un-realities.
In my opinion books are just as interactive as any game - except a book requires you to indulge the imagination in order to visualise the story. You might say that that games are to books what contemporary movies are to black and white stop motion cinema. Nowadays books just don't compare to the stunning visuals and audio that games can provide, and the effort we need to put in to start up our imagination we would much rather just put into playing a game.
So when a picture says a thousand words, where does that leave books?
Well for starters book are the link to our past in the same sense that we need them in order to relate to the way we are now. For example, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor D is a stunning psychological crime thriller that is a direct reflection of the state of St Petersburg at the time. Without the books of that era all we have are facts and histories, but through the books we can live the time and place. Games can try but they came from our society, any historical comment by a game can only be authentic as a retrospective view of those events or places.
Can I just say - I've read The Divine Comedy: Inferno by Dante and I was not amused at the crude interpretation into the game Dante. If you're going to develop a game influenced by a book at least do it in the spirit the book was written in (so to speak).
Today however books must compete with interactive and visual media for a place in our future. And it seems as though fewer people care to pick up a book and indulge their imaginations in worlds painted by words alone. I sometimes fear that book are becoming a niche culture, reserved only for those who are hardcore enough to concentrate past the opening paragraph where books should be openly enjoyed by everyone. Maybe the art of reading books is being lost...
The art of reading is like the art of gaming - no one is good at first. But is is easy to see why some people get frustrated at reading because it is deceptively hard; I mean what could be easier than reading words off a page? Well in the world of reading nothing is given, everything is there to be interpreted by the reader and the best experience is founds by delving for the meanings behind the words (yes I know this all reminds you of studying Shakespeare in school). But that is all just fun, the really hard part is slowing down your mind to the pace of reading.
We live in a world where information comes thick and fast, and by fast I mean break-neck speed. In order to read a book we need to be able to divorce ourselves from this, stop, and smell the roses offered by the books. And this, in my opinion is the way of the future; it's why we need books in our lives.
Games are great, but no one want to sit around for hours playing a slow paced game with no excitement. Books here do something that games can't do, they provide us with a way to be entertained as a pace that just requires a little relaxation. It's the meditation of the future, it allows us to step outside our busy lives and take some time to exercise our imagination and flush out all that unnecessary information that plagues us for most waking hours.
But I think now I've written far too much and you've all probably gotten bored with me. But for those of you who love the art of reading, I hope I've given you some food for thought.
-Sam
