If you’ve met me, my love of books is no secret. If you’ve read my columns, you’ll often find literary references or flat-out calls for the preservation of books. I even have a tattoo of a stack of books. Calling me a bookworm is probably an understatement.

And yet, you’ll never hear me say “books are better than movies.” It seems odd, I know, that someone like me is defending TV and the like, but here I am.

Think back to childhood. We were encouraged to read as much as we could. We had contests sponsored by libraries to see who could read the most books each summer. We were told off for watching too much TV. Video games were little better than throwing rocks at a wall. At least if we were reading, we were learning. Or, that was the assumption.

Now, we say things like, “Books are better than movies” and demonize those who “don’t read.”

TV, movies and video games are lucky if they are called art at all; They’re usually referred to as low art.

This isn’t fair. I’m not here to bring books down to other media’s level, but to bring the others up to books’.

TV plots can be just as intricate as a book’s. There can be as many symbols and themes in a season of “Bones” as in one of the Harry Potter novels. The Mass Effect series of video games is just as complex as Shakespeare’s “Henry IV.” We are watching the birth of what will be considered high art in 100 years.

It’s no secret that I revere books and that I think everyone else should, too. But I hate watching people use books and reading to slam other art forms down.

Art is almost always shamed when it’s new. Take visual art for example. When impressionists picked up their paintbrushes, they were mocked. Same with music — Jazz was pretty shocking when it first appeared on the scene. Now, they are classics, definers of genres and definers of what is slowly and surely becoming high art.

Books simply have the advantage of being around longer than other forms, but that doesn’t make them inherently better. Just because it’s new doesn’t mean it’s bad. TV, video games and movies are simply the newfangled-thing-that-the-kids-just-love-but-shouldn’t.

We’re being told these pieces of art are bubble gum when they are actually a full steak and potatoes meal.

We can recognize books as the art they are and praise them as such, but we can seem to extend it to modern mediums. We are missing out.

I am proof. I didn’t play video games for the first 20 years of my life. My parents thought they were a waste of time. I thought they were a waste of time. I thought them little better than fancy, moving board games.

My former roommate changed that for me. She introduced me to the world of console gaming — the world of intricate plotlines, amazing art work and wonderful acting. She showed me that there is just as much critical thinking that can go into analyzing a game as can go into analyzing a book.

Once I had my eyes opened to gaming, I started seeing other art forms being dismissed and denied respect they deserve. TV suddenly became social commentary, movies suddenly became full of cultural themes. My eyes were opened to how I’d been ignoring an art that was just as good as my precious books.

Sure, there will be stinkers. Books have authors like Stephenie Meyer just like movies have producers like M. Night Shyamalan. But we also have authors like John Milton and producers like Joss Whedon.

Books are great — I will never say different. But using the phrase “Go read a book!” as an insult, implying that the subject is doing something less intellectual by gaming or watching TV, hurts all artforms. It gives us bookworms a bad, snooty attitude and ignores the other, just as valid artforms out there.

It’s all art, so why can’t we just sit back and enjoy it without the bad attitudes?

Kjerstine Trooien is staff writer of The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected].