Reply to Re: Fun Reading
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I'll tell you just what my art teacher tells me. *ahem*
<with a weird accent that I'm not sure what it is but it makes him draw out his vowels sometimes>"Why make art? Aaaaallison, you have these woooonderful things in your brain called dennnnndrites. When you do something that requiiiires concentration, such as reading a booooook or drawing or paaaaainting, your dendrites will grooow. They will help you think aaaand transfer signals to your braaain faster. Doing things like plaaaaying video games and watching teleeevision shorten your dennndrites. If they get toooo short, it has beeeen shown that it can lead to braaain cancer."
Now, I've never asked about seeing any scientific reports that prove this. But personally, I'd believe it. No, you're not going to be able to build a rocket ship after reading Huck Finn, but maybe you'll learn a little something about racism or look at something from a different angle. The arts (by this I mean literature, visual art, theater, music, all those wonderful things) do help you develop both mentally and as a person in general.
As for seeing the movie, I don't think anybody who hasn't read the book should be allowed to see the movie.
I mean, they change so many things, and adapt things, cut things out, in the case of Shakespeare they "modernize and simplify" (a crime against all literature, I think...), that in the end it's sometimes barely even like the book at all.
So if you wanna do nothing but watch movies and get brain cancer (maybe... I still dont know if it's scientifically true... ), go for it. I'll be sitting here reading The Sword of Shannara. 
<with a weird accent that I'm not sure what it is but it makes him draw out his vowels sometimes>"Why make art? Aaaaallison, you have these woooonderful things in your brain called dennnnndrites. When you do something that requiiiires concentration, such as reading a booooook or drawing or paaaaainting, your dendrites will grooow. They will help you think aaaand transfer signals to your braaain faster. Doing things like plaaaaying video games and watching teleeevision shorten your dennndrites. If they get toooo short, it has beeeen shown that it can lead to braaain cancer."
Now, I've never asked about seeing any scientific reports that prove this. But personally, I'd believe it. No, you're not going to be able to build a rocket ship after reading Huck Finn, but maybe you'll learn a little something about racism or look at something from a different angle. The arts (by this I mean literature, visual art, theater, music, all those wonderful things) do help you develop both mentally and as a person in general.
As for seeing the movie, I don't think anybody who hasn't read the book should be allowed to see the movie.
I mean, they change so many things, and adapt things, cut things out, in the case of Shakespeare they "modernize and simplify" (a crime against all literature, I think...), that in the end it's sometimes barely even like the book at all. So if you wanna do nothing but watch movies and get brain cancer (maybe... I still dont know if it's scientifically true...
), go for it. I'll be sitting here reading The Sword of Shannara. 
