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Ruminating on visual media
Jan. 14th, 2019 03:20 pmA while back I did that James D Nicoll meme about 98 books and stuff... And that got me thinking about the media I respond to and why, Much of the material I hadn't read was image heavy (for example, Anime) -- there might have been a bias towards older stuff, but I checked my recent reading list and that isn't reflected there. So...
I grew up in a household where words were king. We were members of 2 libraries (12 books a week as a child, read cover to cover each week before replacing them) but we didn't have a TV and if we had a radio it was never on during the day -- Dad worked nights and Mum knew better than to disturb him when he wanted to sleep (let's not talk yelling and bruises). Dad died when I was 10 and a half, and Mum very quickly got a TV (all hail Patrick Troughton) -- plus I remember that suddenly we had a Dansette record player (eldest teenage sister in her early twenties) and a radio (at least I remember vividly all of us -- my mother and her five daughters -- dancing with gay abandon to Norman Greenbaum Spirit in the Sky -- so 1969/1970?)
But... I never imprinted on pictures or video. Apologies to those who went to the pictures with me and wondered why I wasn't blown away but: Star Trek (Original)? Too long, too repetitive, added nothing to the original. Star Wars? Dear to my heart because I saw it with my favourite niece aged 13 in 1977 but... how long have you got -- avoid the plot holes -- sigh. I haven't watched a film since circa 1980 and haven't missed it.
I have - occasionally -- enjoyed 'comics' but only when the ratio of words to images is high, or it's possible to extract the meaning without parsing ever little detail of the accompanying images (Digger -- enjoy). I've failed miserably when the image style is pre-pubescent female (pick the anime of your choce), or quasi faux-elf.
I no longer have a TV or go to the cinema (physically impossible); I may occasionally watch a catch-up documentary via my PC -- if I can get through it without shouting at the screen about historical accuracy.
In short, I don't 'do' images or videos -- unless words dominate.
Which is a worry, when I consider the dominant media these days...
I grew up in a household where words were king. We were members of 2 libraries (12 books a week as a child, read cover to cover each week before replacing them) but we didn't have a TV and if we had a radio it was never on during the day -- Dad worked nights and Mum knew better than to disturb him when he wanted to sleep (let's not talk yelling and bruises). Dad died when I was 10 and a half, and Mum very quickly got a TV (all hail Patrick Troughton) -- plus I remember that suddenly we had a Dansette record player (eldest teenage sister in her early twenties) and a radio (at least I remember vividly all of us -- my mother and her five daughters -- dancing with gay abandon to Norman Greenbaum Spirit in the Sky -- so 1969/1970?)
But... I never imprinted on pictures or video. Apologies to those who went to the pictures with me and wondered why I wasn't blown away but: Star Trek (Original)? Too long, too repetitive, added nothing to the original. Star Wars? Dear to my heart because I saw it with my favourite niece aged 13 in 1977 but... how long have you got -- avoid the plot holes -- sigh. I haven't watched a film since circa 1980 and haven't missed it.
I have - occasionally -- enjoyed 'comics' but only when the ratio of words to images is high, or it's possible to extract the meaning without parsing ever little detail of the accompanying images (Digger -- enjoy). I've failed miserably when the image style is pre-pubescent female (pick the anime of your choce), or quasi faux-elf.
I no longer have a TV or go to the cinema (physically impossible); I may occasionally watch a catch-up documentary via my PC -- if I can get through it without shouting at the screen about historical accuracy.
In short, I don't 'do' images or videos -- unless words dominate.
Which is a worry, when I consider the dominant media these days...
