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A picture paints a deeper story

An old saying is that a "picture paints a thousand words." Anyone who has had the luck to see the work of Shaun Tan will agree, art can be used to tell intricate visual stories. His picture books such as ‘The Red Tree’ and ‘ Rules of Summer’ are visual masterpieces that speak more than the few small words that accompany them.

Often in society today we still privilege the written word to the exclusion of all else. I think it would be interesting to discuss the use of symbolism, allegory and imagery in "silent" graphic novels and picture books to tell a wordless story that is much deeper than any written version could have been. It might be nice to have a discussion of various picture books, graphic novels or even full size mural art pieces that are designed to tell a visual (wordless) story, and what this means for the viewer.

  • This could be absorbed into your Adult Picture Books topic suggestion, but I still like it so thumbs up from me :) – Amyus 6 years ago
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  • @Amyus, I agree, I did write this one and then thought about it and wrote the other. I think there is a lot to discuss so it could easily be two separate pieces, but it absolutely could be incorporated into the other. I suppose one of the elements here could be to discuss the "universal/international" interpretations of these silent books and how different cultures would interpret the visual cues? – SaraiMW 6 years ago
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  • Fair point, Sarai. I stand corrected. :) – Amyus 6 years ago
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