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I hardly ever read graphic novels. I don't read graphic novels often because they don't seem like real "novels" to me. I like my books wordy, real wordy. Lines upon lines of text please and thank you.

However, I enjoyed Logicomix overall. The images were striking and not as bad as a distraction from the words as I had originally thought. I didn't really look directly at the images while going from one speech blurb to the next but I found vague images in my mind anyway. Every so often I found myself stopping to just look at the pictures to try to glean some more information. I kept thinking - where's the waldo in these pictures? Is there symbolism in the bushes in the corner?

... somewhere when writing this I caught a new train of thought...ish....

Logicomix is mostly dialogue so I guess we are supposed to get a lot out of the images (Russell's wife's faces...changes in light, etc.). It was just so strange to have the scene or the emotions depicted in such a literal way. I guess I am used to a scene subtly created through a few choice words. I feel that literal representation in the scenes in Logicomix, as background for the words, are just that, backgrounds for words, and not really part of the story. I prefer, I think, to have a dreary afternoon be suggested and clarified by an umbrella by the door and the description of a draft coming through the old window panes then a image. I think that because the images of a graphic novel are so immutable they are less vivid in my mind, despite the super-high-quality toner the printer used. When I read a novel, I just read and the words create the story and it just flows. I felt like I was searching for the story, getting somewhat befuddled with the speech blurbs and irritated with the matter of fact, absolute scenery.

Because more is left to the imagination(this is definitely part of it) in real novels, I "see" the story. Even if I do not have the book anywhere nearby I can just have the image of a passage in my head and it's beautiful or strange or ghastly but definitely there. It's intriguing just how much the medium a story is told in affects the reader's perceptions, obvious but something I'm interested in. I didn't really realize it before.

I wonder if there will be a trend towards more graphic novels  - will books like Logicomix be ubiquitous in the future?

p.s I couldn't find the research on existing evidence of crime and violence causing more crime but I think this paper on the concept of street efficacy is also very interesting, especially considering our discussion of the Parable of the Sower and now individual change over time (as it relates to societal change and local cultures (and subcultures) and much more I suppose)

asr.sagepub.com/content/71/5/826.abstract