Visual media prompts reading that will return to visual media.
The YouTube algorithm is an interesting beast. There's a whole genre of videos where people take vines or tiktoks, whatever meme fodder, and make comparative compilations. So for instance, a few months ago I ended up watching a couple of videos using vines and tiktoks to essentially similize the Greek pantheon and related mythology. One of the most viewed videos along these lines currently has more than 700,000 views. They're quite popular.
So watching that video to similar videos, but instead of the Greek Pantheon it was Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series. I'd only seen the movies and I wanted to get all the book jokes being referenced so I decided to start reading the series. And so I did. I read all of Percy Jackson and the Olympians (PJO), I read all of the Kane Chronicles (KC) and I'm in the middle of Heroes of Olympus (HOO) series. I write the acronyms for these series because I maybe post about them in the future. And I have my gripes about those series and have been tweeting about them respectively, but that's not what this post is about.
I appreciate what, in this case, inspire me to read. Meme culture. Meme culture videos as suggested to me by YouTube. After I finished the PJO series I went back and I watched those videos and I got the jokes. It was satisfying. Because I read the PJO and because I'm a sucker for world-building and shared universes I've continued reading books with main characters that really annoy me as I read them.
Sometimes I've read or endeavored to read books after seeing the movie or TV show adaptation. Such was the case with Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. The adaptation was lovely and the book was a great listen. I actually might have read that one too. Conversely I've enjoyed watching adaptations where I'd already read the source materials. Neil Gaiman's Stardust was made into a really cute movie. I've only seen season one of American Gods but I hear it's onto its third.
I mean, the rise of comic movies is a dissertation in itself. In 2019, literature is especially visual.
And highly self-aware comedic content is the new wave of book recommendation.
So watching that video to similar videos, but instead of the Greek Pantheon it was Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series. I'd only seen the movies and I wanted to get all the book jokes being referenced so I decided to start reading the series. And so I did. I read all of Percy Jackson and the Olympians (PJO), I read all of the Kane Chronicles (KC) and I'm in the middle of Heroes of Olympus (HOO) series. I write the acronyms for these series because I maybe post about them in the future. And I have my gripes about those series and have been tweeting about them respectively, but that's not what this post is about.
I appreciate what, in this case, inspire me to read. Meme culture. Meme culture videos as suggested to me by YouTube. After I finished the PJO series I went back and I watched those videos and I got the jokes. It was satisfying. Because I read the PJO and because I'm a sucker for world-building and shared universes I've continued reading books with main characters that really annoy me as I read them.
Sometimes I've read or endeavored to read books after seeing the movie or TV show adaptation. Such was the case with Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. The adaptation was lovely and the book was a great listen. I actually might have read that one too. Conversely I've enjoyed watching adaptations where I'd already read the source materials. Neil Gaiman's Stardust was made into a really cute movie. I've only seen season one of American Gods but I hear it's onto its third.
I mean, the rise of comic movies is a dissertation in itself. In 2019, literature is especially visual.
And highly self-aware comedic content is the new wave of book recommendation.
Comments
Post a Comment