With the passage of time, Science has developed to a great stage. We can now watch in the movies what we used to watch on the stages or read in the novels. Moreover, for many people with no interest in reading, this has certainly been a great world to be in – I don’t find Shakespeare interesting to read but I found Macbeth in the movie an amazing character. Isn’t it a contradiction?

Reading vs Watching is a classic debate, not in the terms of age but in the terms of applied logic. It is more like, in a negative way of inducing, the argument that text has no meaning and telling it via text only. Well, without getting any further height of complexity, the major business here is our debate – what is more useful – reading or watching?

Reading may be useful for the students, teachers, university dons and critical readers who want to understand the art of writing and find possible objectives for their readings. Moreover, watching cannot compensate what we miss in reading. For example, a person who might have watched Shakespeare’s dramas a thousand times may not write a critical explanation of a monologue that the Fool in ‘King Lear’ makes. However, a fair idea or a fair understanding of the drama can certainly be arrived by watching King Lear in the form of a movie. So, it is useful to watch the drama before reading it.

On the other hand, reading a drama, the original text, offers many things to the person who reads it. The same stands with a novel or a long poem. Nevertheless, there are certain examples where reading or watching does not make much difference. For instance, reading Pilgrim’s Progress or watching it on the screen will not be very different – simple language and a very simple plot that can be followed in the visual form as well. But still, reading a text is always useful and always more useful compared to watching a movie based on the text.

For students of English Literature, especially, reading original novels, dramas and short forms of literature is always very useful. So, never try to put it on watching the ‘text’. Always try to go through the original text only and you can easily find it these days. Many original texts are freely available on the internet.

Subhash for Novels to Read Book Blog