Any book is literature, not just the good ones. TV and movies are ruining the art of fine literature these days because each year every show and film has less depth and more hype.
TV and movies aren't necessarily bad, but they just aren't able to convey anything like a book can. Take, for instance, "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The book spent more time focusing on Aleksei Fyodorovich than any other character, but the 1958 movie was about the murder itself; Aleksei (played by William Shatner, better known as Captain James T Kirk from Star Trek) was replaced with his oldest brother Dmitry Fyodorovich as the film's main character. Sure, the movie was true to the book in terms of actual events, but it cut out a lot of the underlying philosophy Dostoevsky intended to have in the story.
There used to be a lot of really good movies being produced by Hollywood. Movies weren't all about women in skimpy outfits and constant, mindless action. Characters were involved in drama that was often well thought out and executed, whereas today drama is what happens in a scene where something isn't being blown up or the protagonist is getting it on with some woman; drama is only a plot device, whereas years ago drama was the plot. There are times, however, when a perfectly good movie is made these days that doesn't have a shallow plot and mindless destruction, but these movies don't come by too often. My theory is that over the past 30 years, the movie producers studied what kind of films would bring in the most crowds, and they discovered that most people prefer style over substance.
TV shows have steadily dropped over the years, especially following the advent of cable. Networks like MTV, Comedy Central, and FOX have taken away decent shows and replaced them with stupidity, and other networks follow suit. CBS, for example, has a number of sitcoms deeply involved in sex during prime time. 95% of the jokes involve something of a sexual nature, and the other 5% are women joking about men. Sitcoms these days are only funny if it involves sex; there's very little depth to them. There have been shows that were meant to convey some sort of message or have some philosophical meaning to them, but they either range to highly conservative (Touched by an Angel) or to what most people would consider quite nerdy (any Star Trek series). Reality TV is also a cesspool of stupidity; it pretty much involves watching other people do stupid stuff to win some money or seeing how where-are-they-now celebrities live. What's so good about that?
|