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why do I love words?

sweetp's picture
Submitted by sweetp on Thu, 04/01/2010 - 7:02pm

Anne's point-blank question got me thinking today in class- why do I prefer words over images?  I came up with the following answers to the query: I thoroughly enjoy the work that it takes to understand language. The thrill I get out of word analysis and even further, close reading, is unlike what I feel when I look at a picture, with all the details laid out for me.  Little work is involved here: also, the room for interpretation is relatively small.  Where's the thrill in that?  I feel like drawings are like answers are given to you; hardly any effort or interpretation required!  Pictures result in immediate comprehension, while words result in a journey to understanding.  I love this journey!  

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skindeep's picture

poetry = art?

Submitted by skindeep on Sun, 04/04/2010 - 1:23pm.

this converstaion is intersting, ive always loved to write, but with that ive also always enjoyed drawing and art. to me, it seems like a picture is like a poem, you create it and it means something to you and then everyone who sees it may or may not interpret something different, and they take away from it what they want. but no matter how much time they spend musing over the intricate details, they never know what moved you to make it, the strory behind it and what you remember when you look at it.

maybe art is just another language.

Shayna S's picture

In class...

Submitted by Shayna S on Fri, 04/02/2010 - 8:03am.

Yet in class we discussed how deep pictures can really be. When we looked at specific pages in the book, it took us quite a while to unravel the significance of the visual images. Pictures may give you all their details, but it takes a certain trained mindset to truly unravel all their meaning (kinda like language?).

sgb90's picture

the case for images

Submitted by sgb90 on Sun, 04/04/2010 - 8:46pm.

I would have to agree with Shayna S' comment that it can take "a certain trained mindset to truly unravel" all the meaning of visual images. I too, feel naturally inclined towards words, but this is partly an aspect of the exposure I have had to interpreting texts most of my conscious life. There is nothing about images (at least the more complex? ambiguous? ones) that results in immediate comprehension. In my art history class, I have been taught to interpret images on many levels ranging from the traditional Panofskyan method of formal analysis, iconographical interpretation, and iconological meaning, to all forms of criticism ranging from feminist, Freudian, and Marxist…The ways of interpreting images are indeed as varied and often conflicted as that of words. Both have the potential to open up generative and inconclusive dialogue.

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