Anais Nin does enjoy taking in the occasional film, but in this entry of her Diary, she says, "I find a danger in watching films. It is like passive dreaming. It requires no participation, no effort. It induces passivity. It is baby food; no need to masticate, no need to carve. There is no need to learn to play an instrument, to learn to read a book. People stretch on specially inclined chairs and receive the images in utter, infantile passivity."
I have a similar wish when either watching a film or reading a book - that it moves me emotionally, whether it inspires me, makes me mad, makes me laugh, makes me cry, makes me think, or teaches me something. I feel that when a film or book does this for me, it has achieved what I wanted it to achieve. I view film and literature as equal, although a book tends to take longer to read than a film to watch.
Which does more for you - film or literature?
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