First and foremost, thank you for spending time reading this article of mine (with due coercion).

As usual, to make things easier for me I am going to utilize bullets in citing points I feel relevant.

1) Words are dense, can be boring, and people have to comprehend them [...]

This is true, and this is why I believe literature is the most abstract among the different media there are, which leads me to your next relevant point,

2) [...] people don’t have to think about them (scil. pictures and animation) if they don’t want to IMO.

Exactly, leading me to another point that you’ve made that,

3) [...] seeing things make obtaining that information easier as a starting point than just words.

Pictures paint a thousand words, but it does not apply conversely. As Kljigen pointed out, a thousand words may paint blather. I have a hard time explaining this, but words are merely representations of reality whereas pictures and animation are presentations of it. What does this mean? What we see in animation is a simulation of reality; words do not have this property. They cannot simulate reality, rather, they represent a piece of reality but need the mind to process this. I believe this is what you mean when you have mentioned that one has to comprehend the words first before one can comprehend the content, and this comprehension is an additional step that is arguably taxing.

(4) [...] numerous interpretations come from that [...] And I think it’s hard to formulate that opinion of what you think the words you read mean rather than having that starting point, based on what we see.

This is an additional task for the medium of literature, because meaning can be so varied for different individuals. Having a starting point of meaning and not needing to grasp it anymore is a big help, and a big load lifted off one’s mind. I guess this is both the gift and curse of literature: literature forces one to think, forces one to create his own meaning, which is rewarding if done perseveringly and diligently, but also possess a weight of more analysis and more reflection – more of the Bergsonian pensee pensee and pensee pensante has to be utilized than any other medium.

5) Because it’s harder and takes longer than just watching anime [...]

I do not think it is longer. RyanA suggests something I did not think of, that frankly the media do not really differ in the time spent, but they differ in the effort, or, as he says, in ‘time’s asphyxiation’ (a good image if I ever thought one).

6) If the same story is being told through different mediums, what you choose is based on how you work, I guess.

We agree here. In the end, it remains to be a matter of convenience.

Until soon!

Pictures and animation are more dynamic, and people don’t have to think about them if they don’t want to IMO. You can be visually stimulated and that’s all good. If you do want to think, meaning and intentions can also be obtained by thinking about it, and I think seeing things make obtaining that information easier as a starting point than just words.

At the same time the words are static, but numerous interpretations come from that, which is why looking at written to visual media transitions can be jarring as well. If I watch the Harry Potter movies, how Harry looks and sounds on screen doesn’t match what I think in my head as I read, for example. And I think it’s hard to formulate that opinion of what you think the words you read mean rather than having that starting point, based on what we see.

Because it’s harder and takes longer than just watching anime, I also notice that I’ve been watching the former rather than reading novels. Society also seems to be that way, as less works of “real substance” seem to be produced, and more things seem to be visual. So I think you could say that media really differs in terms of how you can receive and use it. If the same story is being told through different mediums, what you choose is based on how you work, I guess.

You made me think B.O.N. was a new series or something. I get it now. BAAAWWW :p

So you don’t know what B.O.N. is?

Those three letters are the first letter of three certain currently-popular Shonen Jump series.

Not enough of a clue? Death, pirates and ninjas. -_-

Frankly, faithful adaptations fare better than those more creative ones. I have mentioned the film adaptation of For Whom the Bell Tolls in my post, and because it was faithful I could sincerely say that it was good. Those who pour in too much liberty in their adaptations degrade it.

Remind me, what is B.O.N.?

The picture is awesome as it is.

It’s one of those dreaded things that some people who were diehard fans or purists of the original work. It’s also the source of ire for most anime fans, since it comes in the form that they detest most (at times), “filler episodes”. It also appears in novel-to-movie renditions, where some details left in the original work are left out or even modified in order to adapt the plot for a theatrical scene.

It’s called… “Adaptation Decay”. I think.

Well, yeah, fine. Studios can’t always completely depend on the source material that they are using, since if they did, all they will get would be a mere glorified version of the source. Nothing more, nothing less. That would elicit “seen the original, why the hell should I see this one” feeling as well. That’s why they probably take the liberty of “adapting” the source material into something else… with much varied results.

Those results range from the Harry Potter movies, to the current status of certain Shonen Jump anime (Hint: B.O.N.), but still, it’s there. Seeing a completely faithful (that’s 100% direct from the source) show is quite rare nowadays…

And Mike….egad. When I said that you needed to post more pics, and you said that no normal picture would fit in the mood, I sincerely didn’t expect you to use THAT picture. o_O

Literature forces us to think more in comparison to other media because of its abstract nature. With only words as the source of meaning, one is forced to analyze matters based on the words alone. As for your succeeding points, I think I have grazed upon them or have explicitly mentioned them in my replies to other people’s comments.

I would agree that many people are more fond of anime or drama than literature because the former are not as taxing on the brain as the latter is. I guess you have made concrete why people often favor anime or drama more. In the end of a long day, no one wants to do more thinking. One wants to exercise the mind, but not to tire it. I guess anime or drama sates this desire.

All in all, those points were pertinent. Thank you.

@astrobunny

1) A picture is worth a thousand words, but a thousand words (may) tell no story.

This is an excellent point. I wholeheartedly agree with this.

(2) Words paint a very vivid picture of the situation at hand, and convey much more complex ideas than a picture is capable of.

This is if the writer is a master. Otherwise, I would say no. I do, however, am an avid reader whenever there is a need to commute.

(3) Reality is more than just to behold, there is more than meets the eye.

Correct.

My 2 cents: A picture is worth a thousand words yes, but a thousand words tells no story. Words paint a very vivid picture of the situation at hand, and convey much more complex ideas than a picture is capable of. Even as an anime fan, I find myself hard-pressed to say that people prefer anime over storybooks, one of the reasons being I am also an avid reader, like many others who wait in the bus to get to work. The ideas that words convey are equally, or perhaps even more important (to human beings) than that which is presented on a coloured painting or a photograph. To us, reality is more than just to behold, there is more than meets the eye.

I believe that this is not the case. Why is literature so powerful? Why is it ranked the first out of so many media? In my opinion, this is duh to the fact that literature is the only media that allows you to think the most while going through it. As there are little or no pictures in literature, and all you are taking in are words,alot of imagination takes place and you develop the scenes in your own mind. This allows you to take part in the story more and thus more interaction between the media and the person enjoying it. Anime and drama couldn’t archieve that as everything is shown as what you will see and leave little room for imagination, thus reducing the effectiveness of said media.

However, why do some people enjoy anime or drama more? One of the reason could be since literature requires you to use your brain more to enjoy it, people could find it tiring after awhile. Anime and drama could let you just sit there like a mindless zombie and requires minimum thinking. In a scenario where someone had a stressful day and just got off for work, he would rather choose a media that requires the less thinking since his brain is already tired. This could be one of the reasons why the younger generations are enjoying anime and dramas more. It doesn’t require them to think very much.

Well, I think this comment is just OFF topic from your post but it is just what i think when you compare literature with other forms of media.

Allow me to organize my reply into bullets. It would be more fluid.

(1) ’simplified complex’ as cheap

That was not my intention. I described anime to be simplified because they are merely representations or deviations from our human lives. They do not present us in our entirety, but because we have placed something of value to their actions, (scil. meaning) they remain to be complexes.

(2) I can gain something equally as valuable, with less asphyxiation of time.

I assume this is fundamentally the same statement as my question of spending more time when one can achieve in less. Yours, however, is a more comprehensive statement. Time feels less constrained because viewing anime is a much easier task. Aside from appealing to the senses, it also appeals to thought, unlike reading which purely relies on imagination and analysis. I guess this is what proves the statement that tiredness is a mental state, not a physical one. We can spend time equally on reading a novel and watching a whole series, but it feels that we spend less on viewing the series because it is less harrowing to the mind.

(3) Equality of media

I admit, I have been an elitist once towards literature. (I think I implied this on my post, but if it has not been made obvious, I was.) When real difficulty, however, plagued me, I realized that all media are equal as long as they fulfill what they set out to do. I guess they are not apples and oranges, but fundamentally feathers of the same bird.

You know what that bird is? I believe it is the bird of humanity.