I'd just like to start by saying how much I enjoyed the vegetable analogy :).
I'd like to continue by saying documentaries are not the textbooks or the vegetables of film. Well, if you're like me and you really enjoy yummy vegetables, I guess you could say they are, but in the sense of the prompt, I'd disagree.
A textbook must be read, and the reader is purposefully reading it to obtain the information within. Stereotypically, vegetables are only eaten for their nutrients, and I guess a lot of people eat them just for that purpose. In a documentary, I feel at least, the viewer absorbs information just by watching, even if they just watched for entertainment or interest purposes. I grant that there are going to be arguments like, "People read text books because they're interested in it; people eat vegetables because they like them; people know that a documentary will be informative going into it; etc," but I think that a documentary is a different kind of informative. The experience of watching a movie is much more invasive and appeals to more senses that just reading a textbook.
I'm not sure how much 150 to 300 words is, but I think that's about as concise as I can be and still feel like I've made my point....
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I'm fascinated by what you're groping toward here, Kelly -- I just want to hear more! In what sense is 'watching a movie much more invasive'? How is a documentary a 'different kind of informative'? I think you're trying to express some things that many people feel about documentaries but that are hard to articulate.
ReplyDeleteBtw, I like veggies, too. :) Of course, I obviously like documentaries, too, so maybe I'm not one to ask...
I most definitely like vegetables too. And I really like documentaries. And I don't really mind textbooks for that matter. But anyway, the point of the analogy was that those were bad things! With saying that, I definitely don't view documentaries as the textbooks and veggies of the world. I find them informative and entertaining. In my post I also commented on the fact that they force us to use more senses. I think that using more senses allows us to take in more information and keeps us more entertained. And I agree with Charles. It is hard to express what I'm trying to say about it, but I think we are going the same way with this idea.. Hmm.
ReplyDeleteI used the word 'invasive' not in a negative sense, but in the sense that watching a movie appeals to your sight, hearing, and emotional senses, not just reading and seeing pictures like in a textbook. The 'different kind of informative' was meant to say that a documentary should be seen as more fun, and a more interactive way of learning, also as opposed to just reading a textbook. I don't know, I'm always bad at fully explaining the ideas and viewpoints in my head in words....I hope that helped, but I just feel like I repeated myself....Oh well.
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