A Thousand Words

A Thousand Words

Some time ago our culture realized that our eyes are much quicker at

processing images than they do words. This realization has saved many

from countless hours of paying attention to words and to then having

to interpret such words. After all, “a picture is worth a thousand

words” (Arlen, 1067-1). Some time ago the film industries realized

that if they could take a thousand words and turn it into a single

picture, perhaps even a motion picture, and distribute it on a massive

scale, countless individuals would tune in to view it. And so it

began, “The Tyranny of the Visual”, as Michael J. Arlen so delicately

put it. It seems people are no longer interested in the long,

romantic soliloquies of the Shakespearian era, but rather they want

fun, adventure, pretty lights, bright colours, dark villains

(preferably with horns), etc. But, most importantly, no one wants to

think when they sit down to be entertained; they don’t want to

interpret and rate the believability of any one picture, thus, the

assumption is made that the work must be accurate with history,

literature, or just life in general. And so, it is these assumptions

that are responsible for the intellectual depletion of recent culture

Though visual effects began as an intriguing new medium, it has

somehow monopolized into a culture with little or no verbal

intellect. It is so easy to be dazzled by flashy images, which either

take us to a happier place or remind us that our own lives are not all

that bad, that we rarely bother to weigh the quality of the

information being conveyed. Take for instance the film, Zoolander,

...

... middle of paper ...

...s for

people’s poor taste; after all, if there was no audience for a film,

then that film would most likely not have been developed. So, even

though visual effects aid and abet the deterioration of cultural

intellect, if people would show some form of discretion the damage

could surely be minimized. Furthermore, although it may seem easy to

turn words into images, a great deal is often lost in the

translation. Words tend to bring with them an influx of new ideas,

but a film is generally the idea, it offers few discourses or channels

of thought. In essence, while visual effects tend to nourish

aesthetic values, words are intended to nourish verbal intellect.

Works Cited

Arlen, Michael J. “The Tyranny of the Visual.” The Norton Reader:

AANP. Ed. Arthur M. Eastman, et al. New York: Norton 2000. 1067-1074