Text and Image Again

[http://users.livejournal.com/_debbiechan_/]

In grade school, the process seems natural--write a little story, draw a little picture. Later this is split into art classes and English. and then you go to art openings (wine and cheese) and poetry readings (skimpy on the cheese) . Your brain has officially divided into right and left with no meaningful crossover. Of course, there are the ones who buck the system and draw jokey pictures in the back of their notebook and these guys go into the competitive world of comic-booking. Unless you're unfortunate enough to end up with a teacher who assigns Derrida and that wacky postmodern hybridization of forms and genres, you don't think about the difference between image and text until you encounter a person who says "I prefer the anime version. I need to see it."

I had to learn to read manga. A westerner who didn't read American comics much and discovered manga as an adult, I was more than a little confused on every page as to what was happening. Then I learned some of the manga "language"--sweatdrops are big to let you know that a character is nervous, chibis are deformed because they're being ridiculous, a flower surrounded by sprinkles means sex because you've got a book in your hands that's not meant to be read by anyone over thirteen.

Fights? Forget it. I had no clue what all those lines and slashes and sound effects meant. I'd have to look a one page a good half minute to figure out what had just happened. And damn these Japanese with their subtle somewhat self-referencing but mostly WTF lines like "a bird in my hand eats the dragon in your ponytail."

Anyway, what I wanted to get to here was that I'm seeing Bleach readers who fall into the "I interpret expressions and movement " category and those who need something in letters to make it true. Are there different stories being told here (you post-structuralists shut up)?

I know some folk who don't believe something is true until they see it with their own eyes. And there are other people who won't believe anything until they read about it in some respected publication with appropriate references.

I know, I know, we all do a little of both , but where are you? I'll admit it, I look at the pictures. It's like that time before one could read--you understood everything fine, or else you misunderstood in a way that was highly entertaining.

And I'm wondering what the story is Bleach image readers are reading that's different from the Bleach text readers or if there's any significant reason at all. Or if the differences are determined by other things.

*shutting up*
 

In other news, I fail at kink. Over at the bleach kink meme thingie that's entertaining everyone so much, I attempted a few prompts and they ended up becoming unfinished stories (see, I want to establish a little character first so you know it's your favorite cartoon man doing the nasty when he does and not just any ole person in a porn fic). First I broke the rules by posting non-anonymously (that was on purpose--I've got this hang-up about not being ashamed of myself) then I read that "too tame" posts would be deleted. I looked at what I'd written and went I'm so fucking vanilla.

With smutty goddess laurabryannan this morning, though, I had a revelation: It's the writing that gets me off, not the porn. I'm sitting here writing something that I would never find sexy in a million years and if it's going well, I'm smiling and squirming in my seat.

I'm a graphasexual!

Expect some bad porn soon. The IshiHime is finished too. They all suck so I won't post until I've read them each a hundred times.