The “movies” make their appeal through the rapidity with which the plot
of the story is carried along, and the exaggerated emphasis with which
the different points are brought out. It is a primary or kindergarten
for the schooling of those people into the region of emotional
experiences. By co-operating with the “movies” the Library in time
might be able to grade the work so that a brief and simple love-story
might be heard or read with understanding. The repetition of the visual
presentation of the idea possible in a moving picture would help to
make its meaning clear.
Take a novel as an example: in this case Ethel M. Dell’s “The Keeper
of the Door.” The chief character is the doctor or surgeon, who makes
every endeavour to retain life in the human body, he being the keeper
of the door, not allowing the spirit to depart. There is something
really beautiful as this picture is portrayed: the vigilance of the
doctor, and the kindness and patience of the nurse; yet in spite of all
this attention the activity of the patient is slowly waning, and then
the last breath is taken and human life ceases to be.
Other features create interest--the surroundings, the way the
characters play their part, and the emblematical representations
all create a longing to read the book. In reading, the whole scenes
return as witnessed; greater interest is created, and one cannot
imagine a person losing his place of reading, or the inability to fit
the characters in their places, even after some considerable time has
elapsed.