How do words and images convey messages, and how do they complicate and extend meaning when juxtaposed with one another? How do the various roles between the reader/viewer, the text, and author interact when reading multimodal texts? These were the two main questions I was left asking myself after reading Wysocki’s chapter 37 in The Handbook of Research on Writing. I’m an avid supporter of exploring the relationship of written words and images in texts. I’m also campaign for multimodality and of arts-based ways of knowing, living, experiencing, and doing. But I have to admit sometimes I don’t want to deal with the relationship of written words and images. Sometimes I just like to experiences these two modes of understanding individually and experience what they do to me. I really enjoy the distinct experiences I have just through words or just through images. Since this blog’s function is to serve as a document of my insights, reactions, and evolution around issues associated with writing, I wanted to use this week’s entry like last week’s as a space for poetry. For me the poem below, which is by Anne Sexton, speaks to and about so many of the themes and issues raised in our course thus far. Enjoy!
Words
By Anne Sexton
Be careful of words,
even the miraculous ones.
For the miraculous we do our best,
sometimes they swarm like insects
and leave not a sting but a kiss.
They can be as good as fingers.
They can be as trusty as the rock
you stick your bottom on.
But they can be both daisies and bruises.
Yet I am in love with words.
They are doves falling out of the ceiling.
They are six holy oranges sitting in my lap.
They are the trees, the legs of summer,
and the sun, its passionate face.
Yet often they fail me.
I have so much I want to say,
so many stories, images, proverbs, etc.
But the words aren't good enough,
the wrong ones kiss me.
Sometimes I fly like an eagle
but with the wings of a wren.
But I try to take care
and be gentle to them.
Words and eggs must be handled with care.
Once broken they are impossible
things to repair.
Jen, this is a great entry. Makes me think of a couple of things. First off, we must choose our words carefully if we are to convey our thoughts in a way that the reader understands what we are trying to say. Secondly, to me, poetry is a distillation of writing, words that boil down to the essence of emotion. As is evidenced by my response, I am neither flowery nor verbose in my writing, hence my opinion of poetry.
ReplyDeleteJen I read the same chapter, and of course I thought of you. This idea of the relationship between visual images and print text was one I also noted. I took from the chapter that visual images are often used simply to enhance a meaning in print, although I think it was acknowledged that images really can be text in their own right and very easily convey their own meaning.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading I thought about all those people who are appalled that a dissertation could be represented with art - art only, with no print text attached. Perhaps more than anything this resistance is about how we've been taught to think about images, as merely back-up for print text, and not as text in their own right.
Kathy - love your point about poetry being a "distillation of writing" and that it gets at "the essence of emotion"! I couldn’t agree with you more. =)
ReplyDeleteRach - I find your last point both powerful and thought provoking. The idea that people are not taught to think of images by themselves but merely as back up to print-based text…there could be some truth to this. I read a book over break called "The Alphabet Verses The Goddess" by Leonard Shlain. Shlain, who is a surgeon, argues that alphabetic literacy – i.e. reading the writing - reconfigured how our brains function. While his main argument is around the issues of masculine and feminine, he has made a fascinating point that the development of alphabetic literacy pushed cultures toward linear left-brained mode of thinking and communicating rather than the holistic right-brained ways of thinking and communicating -visual art being an example he discussed. Perhaps those who resists purely visual ways of knowing, doing, and understanding, are a result of being part of a culture that is left-brain dominate?
Jen
ReplyDeleteI love your design. I like the phrase, "Once broken they are impossible things to repair." When I read this phrase I immediately thought about sticks and stones . . . Words are powerful, but the right words can also heal. I have read many entries from my students where parents have used the wrong words or students have called them names that damage their self-esteem. As teachers, we must show our students that words can healed by speaking the right words at the right time. Sometimes, I wish the art teacher and I could teach poetry with words and images just to see what would happen if we allow our students the freedom to express themselves not only in words, but in art as well.