Reading Response to Jim Steranko's Narrative Theory

I wrote my response in outline form so that, rather than trying to compile my thoughts after concluding the reading, I could dictate my thoughts as I thought them.

• Point on page 2 that “Literature requires only a visual sense to read the text, which in itself is antivisual.” Disagree – in some ways literature offers the most freedom in terms of visuals because they are created wholly by the reader. This makes it a more intellectually challenging experience because, unlike film, the reader must create their own imagery. This is similar to the gutter effect in comics

• Like his discussion on extrinsic perception – intrinsic perception is fairly easy but creating imagery that subtly implies a variety of things (like the bank robbers growing notoriety through newspapers proclaiming his higher bounty) is much harder

• Ludicrous amount of name dropping

• Steranko talks about “beginning a ruthless deconstruction” of the plot points that he has created, “hoping to eliminate weaknesses, finding other ways to tell the story, and discovering new new narrative configurations.” How does this affect the original story that the comic was trying to tell? Is he taking too much artistic liberty just so that he can tell his own visual story?

• Discussion of shots and viewpoints was generally informative

• Character lighting – made me think of Batman: The Dark Knight. Spoilers: I loved how they kept Harvey Dent's face hidden – you could only barely see how horribly deformed it was, letting your imagination make the unknown far more hideous than the cheesy-looking CG that they ultimately revealed. Had they maintained this mysterious, unnerving character lighting, I think the film would have been much more successful in portraying Dent's change of character.

• Not sure what to think on his discussion of listening to music while working – I've heard some professionals say that it distracts your mind too much and that you will see a significant improvement in your work once you stop listening to music, while others claim that it helps them focus on their work and, as Steranko suggests, focus on a specific atmosphere or time period. Personally, I prefer not to listen to music because I end up just focusing on the songs I like.

• Not sure how helpful his panel by panel discussion was, particularly because of how he organized the the comic way before the started discussing each panel. I had to keep flashing back and forth between the panel and the text, making it hard to gain anything from the writing.