So! I started reading A Song of Ice and Fire early May and have progressed to the fifth book in the meantime. Since I started reading this series, I haven't read a newspaper or a comic. It's All ASoIaF, All The Time XD. Yep, it's that engrossing. On the tram. In the train. In my bath. On the toilet. At the table. Even in the street on my way home from work, I'm reading. *sigh* My life is at a standstill because of the Starks, the Lannisters, the Tyrells, the Greyjoys and their ilk. This is really why I don't read a lot of novels anymore: if I don't like them, I can't finish them. But if I do like them, they swallow me whole.
"Why do you even read the books? Watch the tv series!", I have been told. But you see, a tv series can never be as engrossing as a book. I never fall in love with characters from tv. I cherish and adore characters from books. On tv, a character always gets an existing face. Tom Hiddleston. Benedict Cumberbatch. Alan Rickman. Sean Bean. Oh yes, they are excellent actors and they take me along for a fun ride. But they are real people in costumes. And much though I love Hiddleston's Loki, Cumberbatch's Sherlock, expect to love Sean Bean's Eddard Stark, and did, um, not love Rickman's Snape, I will never feel compelled to draw actors. I mean, there's no need. Turn the tv on and you can see them. They are already presenting an image of a character; there is no need for me to add to that. To be sure, I can be perfectly content with a tv series and enjoy it (a lot). I loved Boardwalk Empire. It was great! But do I feel the need to draw Nucky, one of the most enticing characters I have seen on tv lately? No.
Is 'wanting to draw' a quality measure? No! But if I want to draw something, that means my imagination has been engaged. I have been inspired to create something. Books engage my imagination far, far more than any film or tv series ever does. If a series or film is good, I do come away with a sense of something, with certain feelings that may inspire me. But I never live with characters from films like I do with book characters. Because I cannot make them mine. They are the actor's, the production designer's, the director's. And you cannot look into their heads. They are too much action and too little thought. And the best thing about books, for me, is that they allow you to look into people's heads. Plus, you get to give them a face all your own.
So, why read thousands and thousands of pages instead of watching tens of episodes? Because reading, and imagining, is so much more fun. And inspiration is such a wonderful feeling.
Now, forgive me, I have to end this post and continue reading...
2 comments:
In my childhood, I've been frequently induced to draw scenes/characters from movies or TV series. My long-lasting fascination with Quo Vadis began with the movie, not the book, and I've drawn characters from animated series till I was more or less seventeen. But later on, I did experiece a certain restraint from drawing real actors in their role, and - coming to the matter at hand - I would never become an ASOIAF fan because of the TV series.
I still experience a fascination with other people's drawings, though - for example Jane Burden Morris. I certainly wish to draw her because of Rossetti's paintings...
Ha! I have that with photos of Oscar Wilde - I like drawing him (though it's been a while now). As you know, I don't find him handsome at all, but I do think he has an interesting face...
I started drawing 'for real' (as opposed to when I was a little child and drew pictures like all the other little children) because I wanted to put my own characters on the page. Somehow, I have never been interested in drawing what is there. I think that's one of the reasons why I don't get really good: I'm not sufficiently interested in studying reality ^_^;...
I'm currently watching the ASoIaF tv series and enjoying it, but ... there's no way to delve deeper into characters than with a book.
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