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Comment by jseliger | Hacker News Reader

I get the analogy and see the value in it, but I'll point out where the TV isn't like a book:

1. Books are obviously composed of text, and, when you read, you're also imbibing the rhythms of the language you're reading (see http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2007/12/24/071... for more on this).

2. Related to number one, many more of us need to write than need to shoot and edit videos. Reading skill is related to writing skill.

3. You'll read far more words in a given block of time than you'll hear in video. Reading is much more information dense in this sense (whether a minute of video is worth a thousand words can be debated elsewhere).

4. It's easier to quote and store text than it is video. Notice the word "easier:" I'm aware that it's possible to quote and store video. Related to this, I use the scheme Steven Berlin Johnson describes here: http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/movabletype/archives/0002... .

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Also, the cost of entry for creating a high quality book is much lower than for creating a high quality movie/tv show. This allows a wider variety of viewpoints, forms, styles, and ideas to be expressed in book form than tv.

Kind of sounds like YouTube.

Except that you can't produce longform, high quality content on YouTube for any cheaper than you can produce a tv show.

Resolution? Distribution? Length? Advertising support? Its a whole different economic (and technical) environment; costs are likely unrelated to any TV model.

I'll defend.

1. House of Cards was 13 "chapters" that have definite rhythm and flow. Every hour was a mini three act play and it would make sense considering at the end of the day, video is just scripts brought to life by an accomplished playwright, accomplished director, accomplished talent, and accomplished cast.

2. We don't live in that world anymore. We're a civilization on an escalating need for input stimulation. It's an addiction, you're either the pusher or you're user. We've transitioned on the web from merely just hypertext to multimedia and real time, like how we've transitioned from typing in boring text updates to photo updates, and how we've moved from just merely chatting to video chatting.

3. But you experience much more in a given block of time than just pages on a book. And look at the movie industry versus the print industry. And the impact of a well crafted moment in a show, I posit, is much more powerful sometimes than a page can deliver.

4. Surf Tumblr for a few hours and you'll understand how things are done these days. Kids don't just share quotes anymore, kids share GIF screen caps of their favorite moments in the movie or show they like. And there are better and better tools each season to make screencapping creation/sharing easier by the day. Look up what IntoNow is doing with their community and how they're getting people to interact in real time to individual shows.

Writing's on the wall: People don't read anymore, quoth Steve Jobs.

> And the impact of a well crafted moment in a show, I posit, is much more powerful sometimes than a page can deliver.

Depends on the writer. I've been haunted by single lines in novels for years.

> Surf Tumblr for a few hours and you'll understand how things are done these days. Kids don't just share quotes anymore, kids share GIF screen caps of their favorite moments in the movie or show they like.

In David Brin's uplift series, he posited that the "uplifted" sentient dolphins would mimic echolocation signals to beam images and short imagined movies directly into each other's heads. It's like we're becoming David Brin's dolphins. Someday, our tools will be so powerful and the interfaces so slick and efficient, we will just instantly produce little movies and beam them into each other's brains. We've already seen the effect of video on speech and syntax: "It was like..."

It's a subjective experience, sure. I don't doubt you found some amazing words and it stayed stuck in your head.

Though, which is more likely? This world of people remembering lines to Star Wars or this world remember the explicit teachings of Jesus Christ?

I've been haunted by moments in television as well, though.

The two final episodes of The Wire left me sleeplessly sitting in the garden, because of the events that transpired and the adrenaline involved.

The Body, one of the best Buffy episodes I can recall, left an impression on my young self that can still give me goosebumps when I think about it.

And the final episode of last season's Breaking Bad comes to mind, as well as the last episode so far.

I can't think of other occasions right away, but there are many more like it.

That said, on average books seem to have that effect more. Few things really topped how I felt after reading 'The Red Wedding' in A Song of Ice and Fire, for example. I think the main reason is that for television shows, the writers have to make many more concessions, because of producers, Nielsen ratings, and so on.

> I'll defend.

I wasn't attacking anything.

Numbers 1, 3, and 4 have nothing to do with what I wrote. Number 2 sort of does, and, if you think we don't live in a text-based world anymore, look at blogs, essays, this site, code as text, etc. There is a large portion of the population is aliterate, but that's a loss.

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