flitting on fiction

So … we talked about audibooks last time - and it seems that not only do most of us find them useful, but also that we all have some experience with reading books out loud.

I find reading out loud to be the best way to actually ~get~ what I am reading. Anything that I have actually read out loud, like Omeros, for example, tends to stick with me a lot longer than the stuff I just read. It is awfully time consuming though! 

Reading my own work out loud is also really helpful when it comes to editing, I find…. it allows me to find my errors, or the places that might look okay on the page but trip a reader up when read. I keep encouraging my students to read their essays out loud before they submit them; most of them don’t though, unfortunately.

It is also very useful when I’m writing fiction. I especially love doing readings for groups of people; quite often, when I do that, I will find myself changing things up on the fly …. after a reading, I go back and edit the work accordingly.

Thinking about reading out loud reminds me of how much I used to enjoy reading to my kids. I used to change things up on the fly then too … half the fun, for the kids, was in catching me changing the words.

So….since we all seem to prefer actual books rather than movies, tv or games, to get our feed o’ fiction…. what do you think of audiobooks?

Do they work for you?

I have used them - usually in the car on long commutes - it was a good way to get through some of the classics I needed to read for some of my courses.

Sure don’t enjoy them as much as I do reading it myself -  but the material definitely seemed to stick better in  some cases. Months later, the books that I both listened to and read - like Aristotle’s Poetics, and the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, are both ’still there’ if you know what I mean… far moreso than some of the other books I read for my courses.

If you are interested in finding some free audiobooks, there are hundreds at Librivox. They are limited to those within the public domain, i.e. older stuff that the copyright has expired on - but still lots of good ‘reading’ there.

What about movies and fiction?

Does watching a movie provide the same sort of experience as reading a novel, for example?

 It certainly does not work for me; I find it ever so much more enjoyable to read than to watch movies. Mostly, I think, because when I read, I control the pace. If it’s going too slow for me, I can skim to wherever … or walk away and go back to it later. Movies have their own pace, and it is rarely on target for what I need to maintain my attention.

My husband loves movies though …  and he tends to see all sorts of things in them that I miss (because, he says, I never truly ‘pay ATTENTION’)

If there is a choice between watching a movie and reading a book, I will always opt for the latter. What about you?

Can video games deliver an experience of fiction?

Most of them don’t, I think. But I do think that there are some role play games that DO in fact provide a rich experience of fiction - and that they probably have the same sort of impact on the user.

I am thinking of the Final Fantasy games in particular…and Zelda… and there are a bunch of others that I played years ago …. they start with a story… and as you work through the game, learning skills and beating up bad guys, the story continues.

I would be willing to allow that those sorts of rich role play games might well work in much the same way as fiction does - in terms of the reader’s response.

It would be an interesting area to do research in…I wonder if anyone is doing that? Perhaps once my wrists heal (they’re broked ) I shall have a look in the online databases and journal to see.

As I have been doing the research for my psychology paper (which is almost done, thank goodness) I have come across a number of mentions of alternative formats for fiction: video games, television, movies.

There are some interesting tidbits in how one’s experience of fiction varies between formats - but rather than just write about those, I thought first I would ask you what you think.

What do you prefer - books, movies, television or video games? Do you have a preference?

Do you consider one as more acceptable, productive, educational, interesting, ….. whatever…. over another?

Do they provide comparable experiences?

And if you have adolescents, do you prefer that they spend more/less time on any of the options than others?