50 years from now only the books will matter...

[2DaveWixon]

Tom Jones, Dr. No, Irma La Douce -- heck, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was on television only two weeks ago.

Ben Hur (not the new version, of course), The Quiet Man, Cleopatra (either of the two versions I've watched relatively recently)...

Mary Poppins and Sound of Music.

 

[Dave]

I'm not sure that you can extrapolate the comparative value of video/movies vs. the books of the same story based on the past. We are moving into a more and more visual world. And a world where the visual has staying power. My own opinion is that the jury is very much out on what will be remembered 50 years from now. It might well be the visual rather than the literary interpretation.

As a would-be historian this is an interesting point about sources. There is another thread on Chronicles about how books are finished. I doubt books are finished as they have been around so long, but they certainly have some competition. It is true that old films are still shown on TV, but not all old films, and rarely for old TV series. When was the last time you saw any 1950's western TV series or the Adventures of Robin Hood or the Republic Flash Gordon serial? In addition, you have the problem of different formats for recordings which constantly change. Books can always be read (though handwriting and language do change and print does fade.) A celluloid film decomposes after 100 years. It would need to have been converted to modern film, then to video, then stored on a CD, and into whatever else we will use in the future, otherwise it will be lost. There are individual people and archives that are doing this for these media, just like there is a wayback machine for the internet. However, what they record for posterity is decided by them. Most old Doctor Who series only survive by accident, because someone thought it was worth recording and then forgot they had it. There was no plan. Popularity will be important though, so more popular things will be more likely to be copied. Also, storage space is not the limiting factor that it once was. Once you needed vast Alexandria style libraries to keep every book printed. The Doctor Who episodes were re-recorded over because there was no space for keeping them. Now computer memory costs peanuts.

To answer you question, I agree with Parson. The jury is out, but very likely that we will find visual sources more accessible than written sources. It seems to me then, very important that keeping records of these visual recordings is much better planned and that everything is recorded, not just the popular.

 

[ArstenWhitebeard]

Dial M For Murder, Rope, Odd Couple, Plaza Suite, North By North-West, North-West Frontier, Great Escape, Went The Day Well, Vertigo, Stagecoach, Rio Bravo, The Man Shot Liberty Valence, The Adventures Of Robin Hood, Captain Blood, 39 Steps, Its A Wonderful Life... I could go on. And on...

Are you making some of these up? you're making some of these up. I literally haven't heard of most of these films.

but granted it is much easier to commit 2 hours to rewatch an old movie that you love than to commit several hours to re-read a book. but the Game of Thrones series is going to be pushing 70-80 hours. Not so easy to take an afternoon and rewatch that. My favourite show is LOST, and I have watched that show beginning to end only twice and both times it took a few weeks, since I don't spend all my time watching tv, but I have re-read the aSoIaF series 3 times, commiting far more hours to it. And maybe its just me but I have always been more willing to read old books than I was to watch old movies. Sure I had a phase where I was into old Vincent price movies, but I got over that.

I just think 50 years down the road it is more likely for teens and adults to read a book than watch an outdated TV show. You can get Shakespear on Kindle so it's not like it actually has to be a REAL book.

 

[Narkalui]

I assure you Arsten, none of those are made up, I'm just a big fan of classic film

 

[2DaveWixon]

I assure you Arsten, none of those are made up, I'm just a big fan of classic film

I'll vouch for your naming of films -- except that it stings, just a little, that you call them "classic"...when there are seven of them that I saw first run in the theaters...

 

[Narkalui]

Sorry...

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

Without doubt they will be:-

Spot the Dog.
Janet and John.
The Night before Christmas.

 

[2DaveWixon]

Sorry...