IrishOboe

Oddly enough, there's too much truth to that. Television and movie images burn themselves indelibly into our brains and wash out those of our own imaginations, as anyone knows who has had his own images, generated when reading a book, erased after watching the movie. I doubt anyone nowadays understands the debate that was common when I was a child: Do we dream in black and white or in color? Only a generation for whom television images were presented in greyscale could think that way.

True. A big reason why I do not like to watch TV and movies is because those imagines and words really stick in my mind and usually that's not a good thing. What really struck me about this quote is that this person must have grown up with television even though he/she was not young. I can remember imagining all kinds of wonderful things as a kid, and I still do. We take what we know then build on it according to information or descriptions we read or hear. I can picture a mountain, then add to it in size and color and shape and whatever else and then I have a whole new mountain that I've never seen before. I can zoom in and imagine animals or other details, then I can watch the exciting adventures they have etc. etc. Imagination is very important. We need good imaginations to understand what the Bible says. We need to be able to take what we know about love, mercy, goodness and let it be transformed by the image of Christ. Without imaginations to picture something other than what the world has to offer we are surely damned to live in imitation of the world.

Just for interest' sake, I disagree somewhat. While memories of movies might have less deterioration over time, I find that reading a story results in a much more "real" experience--a stronger feeling of having actually been part of the action. North by Northwest was entertaining, but didn't make me feel personally hunted the way 39 Steps did (actually, bad example; 39 Steps is pretty much pure entertainment). A case in point is when I was unable to find certain episodes of my favorite TV shows; in order to keep the plot continuity, I went online and read transcripts of the episode. Which episodes do I remember the most distinctly? The ones I read.

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