Irish novelist Joseph O’Connor once made a comment on reading:”Readers want to know what it is like to be

from Dead Poets Society

someone else for a moment, so that they know in some profound sense what it is like to be themselves.”

My interpretation of this comment is that reading helps you have a better understanding of yourself. To certain extent, all the artistic activities take you close to yourself. So does watching movies.

We want to be a dedicated fighter, a smart scientist or a brave adventurer from time to time. What if our country was defeated? What if aliens visit my home? What if the doomsday comes? What an actor gives is an experience held and shaped. He is in a slum, he is in a desert, and he is on another planet; he is in Jonesburg, he is in Iraq, and he is on Mars. That’s the joy of being an actor and we, viewers, share it. When we watch a film, we are both here and there. Our imagination takes us to whenever we want. And an ideal way to fulfill the imagination is to watch a film. Compared with reading, it is less time-consuming and monotonous.