Nowadays, movies adopted from novels become much more popular than before. Thus leads to a hot discussion on the question that which one should we do first: reading the original novel or watching the movie? Some folks propose that it is better to watch the movie first before we read the original story. However, when it comes to me, I prefer to enjoy the book first and then go to the movie. My view point is based on the following reasons and examples.
To begin with, the original novel contains large amounts of detailed deion and information which the film may have no ability to express as comprehensive as words. In most cases, the author can spill lots of ink over the deion of sceneries and buildings in his fiction. Unfortunately, in the movie, these splendid depiction of the background might be concentrated into one shot and slides away in a moment. For example, in the Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling used several paragraphs to deliver gorgeous pictures of the dining hall in Hogwarts. When I was reading through the chapter in which Harry first went to his magic school, her vivid deions of those glass lamps, wood counters and roast chicken on sliver plates cast deep impression on me. Nevertheless, although the movie was also successful, due to the time limit, it was indeed very difficult to give enough shots to fully demonstrate these delicate furniture or ornaments. Without reading the original text, it is almost out of the question that audience will have a specific understanding of the dining hall's charming appearance.
Moreover, reading books can help us improve our ability of imagination, while movies can't. During the process of reading fictions, individuals, especially little kids, can develop their capacity of visualizing the deions into mental presentation. Such kind of exercise has profound positive influence on their future cognitive competence. In contrast, watching movies first will damage this visualization process.Researchers once set up an experiment to compare the difference between the impact of pictorial media and words on children's future development. The conclusion was astonishing. Kids owning lower reading frequency performed much worse in the imagination test than those who got plenty of linguistic stimulation. It was uncovered that words and sentences were essential to children's cultivation of imagination.
Admittedly, watching movies first also has some significant advantages. For kids who are too young to read complicated lines, films can serve as assistants when children want to capture the major plots, themes and figures in a masterpiece. Take Jane Eyre as an example. My mother gave this famous book to me when I was only a primary school student. To be honest, I was so young that it was a tough task for me to obtain the contents of this complicated story—it contained too much abstract deion of Jane Eyre's internal struggle. I found it hard to comprehend her reflections on self-esteem, love and future. Until I saw the corresponding movie one day, I finally made it clear that this story was about a woman who pursued a life with pride and affection. In addition, this film made it easier for me to finish its' original novel. So movies can sometimes be necessary for people to have a better understanding of its' initial story.
To sum up, it is highly recommended that original fictions should be read before people watching movies adopted from them. Such reading process can not only offer us ample details which might be ignored by the film-maker, but also help us attain ample language input and cultivate our comprehensive ability. Whereas, it is also important for us to recognize that sometimes films can also make it easier for us to get the points from abstract words in a novel, which will help eliminate certain barriers laying in our reading process.