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            When considering the power of images verses words, I really feel that it is all about the attitude taken when considering an image or a written work. If a person takes a rigid approach to analyzing a work, visual or literary, they are limited to a strictly defined composition, content, construction etcetera.  While this extremely precise evaluation may be useful for scientific observations, this emotionless consideration of words and images is difficult for humans who base their knowledge on life experiences. When emotions, memories, and imaginations are allowed free range with an image or a written work the potential reactions from the reader are endless. The thing that hinders my decision about which is more powerful is the fact that they are so complementary. Words draw illustrations in the mind, but at the same time an image can inspire a story. But if concretely considering the division between words and images, there is still ambiguity in my mind because aren’t letters themselves images? I find Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese letters (characters) and words beautiful. Perhaps the emotions inspired from an unknown written language are similar to the connections created from listening to an unfamiliar language.             

When considering the power of words, I think that titles for papers can allow the author to create a hierarchy of the ideas in the paper, but also a title can simply act as a reference. I think it was Amanda who brought up the idea that titles are more similar to names. I imagined getting rid of the titles of all novels, articles, textbooks, etcetera. It would be terribly confusing! The only reference we could use would be the author and maybe the subject of the writing, but then describer is the one in control of creating the hierarchy of the ideas based on the details they chose to highlight.             

The idea that The Book of Salt is extremely progressive because it focuses on Bin as a person rather than an object of his sexuality makes me wonder if the creation of this work is a reflection on the progressiveness of the author or the society. The creation of the novel its self seems to be a reflection on the author, while the response to the novel is a reflection on the society.