The imagination in full flight

CEBU, Philippines - Some say that cinema is limiting, because the audience’s experience is somewhat limited to what is shown on the screen and what they hear from the soundtrack. They prefer “audio only” storytelling, like the radio dramas, because it gives them the freedom to create in their imagination the visuals to go with the sound. Yet, still, the experience offered by “audio only” dramas does not set off the imagination into full flight, because everything is limited within the scope of the sound provided.

Of the various vehicles the imagination may take to fly, perhaps reading a book gives a much fuller experience. Well, true, the reader is limited within the story put forth and the words used in telling it, very much like how the screenwriter describes a scene in the screenplay and the radio scriptwriter uses words to make the listeners ‘see’ the story. But with a book, the reader assumes the power to decide more fully what to make of the writer’s ‘suggestions’ on the pages.

From what is written on the pages of a book, the reader actively participates in the storytelling – by providing both the pictures and the sounds to the story. There have been, for example, movies made from stories originally published in books, and the movies mostly pale in comparison with the appeal of the books they were based on. Often, the audience still wants to go back to the book versions.

This is not to downplay the values of cinema and the radio drama. Of course, these two storytelling forms also have their own staunch followings, either of which would swear to the great advantage of their preferred form. Which is good as it is, and they may remain with the form that they enjoy the most.

The human being’s love for story starts very early. Very small children who are yet beginning to comprehend spoken language are easily fascinated when told a story. Well, yes, the voice that relates the story is a big factor in the fascination, too.

Pictures then added to the appeal of the story. The advent of motion pictures was initially viewed as the ultimate story experience. People liked the movies so much because “it left little to the imagination.”

True, if all that one wants is casual entertainment, then radio dramas or the movies are just right. They’re relatively light, in the sense that the person can still keep a certain ‘distance’ from the story. To a good extent, the person remains aware that he is only an audience.

It’s something else with books, storybooks in particular. The engagement that the reading process brings is quite immersive. The reader is placed right in the middle of the story.

The reader, thus, is more affected by the story he is reading. He is either more sympathetic or more repulsed by the characters, because, often, he gets a good backstory of each one. Generally, he gets a whiff of each character’s motivations and intentions.

Notwithstanding the variety of writing styles, authors tend to give their readers a sense of omnipotence – to track each character’s actions, to have a notion of the characters’ plans, and a sustaining idea of where everything will lead up to. The reader keeps on, in great anticipation, feeling like he has a firm grasp of what’s going on.

In reading a storybook, one is taken into the personal lives and thoughts of the characters that inhabit the pages. The reader becomes this character at one time, and that character at another. Ultimately, it can feel like the reader is all of the characters, all at the same time, because he has come too close to them all.

The plot of each story is definite; it’s been set beforehand by the author. The reader knows this, and yet he feels like he has a hand in how the story will eventually turn out to be. The very act of reading seems to set off his imagination into full flight, making him not just an audience but an active participant in the story. 

And authors understand fully well the power of books. In the words of bestselling author Alane Adams: “[It] is the reason I write long into the night when I should be doing other things like sleeping. I long to create that connection, that visceral reaction, that kinetic relationship with my reader that makes him want to turn the page. I write and rewrite, read and reread, always hoping that the words committed to page will reach into the mind of the reader and twist his heart in the fist of my words, holding him in my grasp until the last page is turned.” (FREEMAN)