There's still hope for our youth

[wiseheart]

Had one of my students coming over in the morning. We've watched the extended edition of FOTR together. She said, she regrets having seen the movie before reading the books, because now she'll have the movie images in her head forever, no matter how hard she tries to make her own picture of the characters and the places.

She's a nice and intelligent 13-years-old. She's reading ROTK now and waits with watching the other movies until she's read the books. Two other kids of my class are through the whole trilogy already, and another girl has just decided to read it, before seeing the movies (if ever). She's only seen sniplets so far and says the movies are too violent for her taste. But the others told her that the books aren't mainly about battle and gutting people onscreen, so she decided to give them a try.

Of course, many other kids (especially the boys) are enthusiastic about the battles and the monsters and stuff. But it's comforting to know that there are at least *some* who aren't. Who are willing to read and use their own imagination.

Comments

[rcfinch.livejournal.com]

Very interesting! The above led me to ask Valerie, almost 13, whether the movies had influenced her perception of the books. (She began by reading The Fellowship before she saw the first movie, at age 11; then she read the rest of LotR, and reread the whole story before seeing the second movie.) Her answer: "It depends. In some cases I see the movie images, but only if they're not too different from the pictures I saw in my mind while I read the books. In other cases, I only see my own images." Maybe the impact the movies have on a person depends on the strenght of that person's images? Just a guess.

Some time ago I also discussed the violence issue with Valerie. Though she did think the movies were a bit on the violent side, it didn't bother her too much. Her scariest moment was the appearance of Gollum in the Mines of Moria.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Maybe the impact the movies have on a person depends on the strenght of that person's images? Just a guess.

That is possible. However, it's also true that men (and women) are visual creatures, and visuals get a lot more easily imprinted into our brains once we have seen them.

Personally, I'm not very good with visuals, that's why I often use actors'faces to imagine my characters. Or the faces of my own family or friends. Of course, with actors I have the advantage that readers knew which face to associate to the character. It's cheating, I know, but still better than nothing.