A Thousand Words is Worth One Picture
Been flipping through blogs, as you do, and have been overwhelmed by the number of grainy pictures, obviously stills from YouTube movies, with right-facing arrows in the center of them.
The world isn’t becoming flat – it’s becoming visual. It’s as round as it ever was, it’s just turning into one giant watery eyeball.
My biggest concern with this increasing preoccupation with what can be seen is not a personal one, because I like everyone else loves to watch movies because they are fundamentally powerful and expressive (not to say “moving”) and can affect the mind so much more intensely than writing can, for whatever that’s worth.
And it’s not a creative one, because I’ve made some short movies myself, and know how entertaining they are to make, not just to watch. And really, I’d rather see the next Indiana Jones movie than read its novelization. And what form expression takes, so be that.
And it’s not a really a cultural one either, because movies brought so many of our American predecessors together, literally, in enormous movie palaces, and bridged the chasms that existed if only because of the spoken and written language I find so important.
That’s the key. My biggest concern with all this is professional. Hard to be a novelist when there’s no market for it. Hard to write the novel that brings people together when no one’s on the same page. My books may well have a good long shelf life – but that’s only laudable in perishables. I want those books to see the light of day, or bedside lamp, and on their insides, too. Well illuminated throughout.
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