Emphasize ORAL WRITTEN VISUAL COMMUNICATION AND CHANGING BETWEEN
GENRES!
In Class Writing:
Respond to the format of “Show and Tell.”
Notes on Show and Tell
It is considered normal for children to combine words and pictures as long as they grow out of it
However, even Wednesday in class you were wishing that some people had not grown out of it,
since you wanted pictures and copies of the posters that that article on feminists were talking
about rather than just descriptions of them!
This is also true in manuals and other reference books; some managers and editors feel that
pictures make a book childish. However, they often help rather than hinder the reader.
The greatest works of literature and art are those where the two are kept separate. If not, it is
considered an advertisement and commercialism—trying to tie words to a particular logo or
picture in order to sell a product or persuade. This is not always the case.
Pictures are considered easier to read than words. Why then, can people spend years of their lives
simply analyzing the work of a particular artist?
Since we expect books with pictures to be base, they generally are. A good example of this is the
comics that are sold to children. They are expected to be for children, and therefore never try to
be anything else.
We forget that words developed out of stylized pictures, and only over time became symbols.
Some cultures did not have a “written” language at all, but still had a system of recording by
tying knots in rope (quipus) or by carving things like the volgeherd horse and making marks on
them.
When monks were copying books, often the pictures did not tie into or represent the writing in
any way, but instead decorated the page and were sketches of things the monk had seen or
complaints they had about the parchment.
Words became a way to describe the invisible treasures, senses, emotions, spirituality and
philosophy. Pictures were used to resemble the real world that could be seen in detail with light
and color.
However, there were some artists who tried to make pictures more abstract. A good example is
impressionism. However, what is your impression of impressionistic painters? Were they
geniuses or something else?
The art movements that followed were very very odd, but did they get the same sort of
recognition from ORDINARY people as did other forms of more material art? I mean heck, I’ve
seen lots of people in museums looking at these other forms of art and saying “I could paint
that!”
However, the important thing here is that art no longer was just describing reality, instead it was
trying to have some meaning of its own, which is how we view it today.
Writing also has eventually become more direct, and we value meanings that come across simply
and directly. However, this value does not travel cross culturally. In some cultures you would be
expected to make digressions or not come out with your point (to do so says that your reader is
stupid!)
Modern comics were born when art and writing were preparing to change direction. Comics
unify writing and pictures. They unify visual and written communication (few other things do so
successfully. Can you think of any?)
Art and writing are measured against different standards
New media are always judged by the standards of the old, even the internet.
Word specific combinations: see page 469 Where pictures illustrate but don’t significantly add to
the largely complete text. How might who is writing the text make a difference?
Picture specific combinations where words are a soundtrack
Due specific where they work together, how do comics use both?
Additive: words amplify or elaborate on an image
Parallel: words and pictures seem to follow very different courses, without intersecting
Mongage: where words are treated as integral parts of the picture
Interdependent: word and pictures go hand in hand to convey an idea that neither could convey
alone
They might not always be equal
One will usually take the lead so as not to step on the others toes
They support each others strengths
When to tell was to show and to show was to tell.
Find examples of the types
Notes on Road to Perdition
Ask for peoples ideas about this article, explain where you got it from
I thought this article was interesting, and should be important to you, for a few reasons. One, you
may be familiar with the movie, who has seen it? And two, because the writer talks explicitely
about changing mediums, which is part of what your next project is all about.
Next week you will start an in depth rhetorical analysis and audience analysis of a graphic novel.
Then you will be expected to change the audience, rewrite the scenes, and act them out. So you
will also have to make a medium change.
Collins discusses parts of this medium change in his article. To either be acted out or filmed
comics and graphic novels must go from a mainly written and visual medium to an oral and
visual medium, with a written script. It sounds easy to do and should be fun, but I make no
promises that it WILL be simple if well done.
Read aloud a few passages that you highlighted as being important
Explain the plot differences you saw, which were important, particularly the opening to explain
the father son relationship between the archangel of death and looney, which did not come across
as well in the graphic novel
Also talk about filling in plot holes, which the students will have to do
If there is time bring up Maus and explain its importance.