Kelsey Steven - Film

In all our comparing of stories being told orally or literally, where does film go in this discussion? When looked at simply, a film is a story conveyed by moving images and audio soundtrack. So, really, is it an encompassing of both the literal and the oral? I think so. Film is reminiscent of oral storytelling in that it allows us to not think but allow ourselves to be sucked into a story, such as what happens when listening to a person tell a story. However, film has an extra component that oral storytelling does not have -- a visual component. The listener can not only listen to a story, but see it unfold right before their eyes, which is characteristic of a literate style of storytelling. A movie watcher can allow him or herself to be sucked into the story, but he or she can simultaneously analyze the visual aspects of the film like he or she would in reading a novel. Perhaps, then, what a film is, in regards to the orality versus literacy debate, a bridge that allows people to use it as an escape into another world (like listening to an oral story) or as a text that can be studied and discussed (like one would in reading a novel).