This week's reading was a lot more enjoyable than i expected. I did like McCloud a lot and i like the idea of using pictures and words to work together. Maybe it is because this piece was actually dealing with comics, but i felt this was a thousand times easier to understand the way he had written it than if someone wrote it in the normal essay form. Like i said, it may be because he was actually dealing with the idea of comics, words, and pictures...but part of me wishes that Grant-Davie and all the other people we have read this semester could write exactly the way McCloud does. Its enjoyable and easier to understand. Now i am not saying i understood everything. Chapter 2 was a little fuzzy for me...i'm not real sure i grasp what he is saying about us being able to relate easier to cartoons. That theory may need to be explained a little more.
I did find how much thought goes into the comics intriguing. And not even intentional thought. I think some people just draw the way they want to draw and then others see something special and different in it. Like the way McCloud was describing how the style of comics came about. Did the people think "I'm going to do something entirely new and get rid of the 'word box' and put the words right in with the pictures." Or did they just do it because thats the way they saw it in their minds without even questioning the "newness" of it. Or like how different people did different things to portray movement. I just found it all very interesting. I also think that whoever analyzes this stuff really puts a lot of thought into it...like McCloud.
I also found the Thompson article to be interesting, especially the part about how he was able to explain Obama's plan to everyone better in picture form. I never saw myself as a really visual learner, but now i am starting to think that most of us just might have an inclination to visual learning. And i think we should take advantage of it more.
Good point, Randi. Regardless of whether or not we are aware of it, I'd say almost everyone from our generation is a visual learner. We've been exposed to more images than any other generation in history, especially during our youth. Our minds are driven visually because they were taught to be by a technologically progressive culture. Whether this is a good or bad thing seems to be a constant source of debate. I believe we need to accept this fact, and integrate it further into our educational system, in order to, as you said, take advantage of the powers inherent in visual communication.
ReplyDelete