Comparing Narratives

Visual VS. Written Narratives

I think whether it is in video form or the written form, they are both powerful messages.  This is a very sensitive subject in our country and something that is quite personal for me. But as far as the effect it has, it really depends on the type of learner that the audience is. I, personally am a visual, hands on type of person. For something to be able to affect me I need to be able to touch, feel, smell or hear it. The videos to me were so much more powerful because you can not only experience what they are saying by hearing the words, but you can hear the tone and emotion in their voice which allows you to fully feel what they are feeling or felt in the story they are trying to tell. You can see on their face the joy or the pain or frustration or success that they experienced.  That helps people be able to relate to them better because when you feel someone else's emotions like joy or pain, it kind of becomes your own.  Especially when it is a subject that is close to you personally.

 When you are reading, you are hearing that writers words through your own mind. You have to use your own mind to create the scenery in that story or the sounds or the things that the writer felt when they were creating their story. So, In a sense that story along with what you've created in your head can become a bit mixed or more of your own. Think about when you read a novel. you get an idea of what the characters look like, how the scenery looks, feels, smells in your head based on what the Author has detailed for you to read.  Then that novel is then made into a movie.  Which can be kind of terrifying. Because what if they ruin a great book by casting the wrong people that are not at all like the characters you have created in your own mind based on what the Author has detailed for you, the scenery is not the same. It becomes a bit flawed to you, because you were never really able to experience the full effect of what that Author wanted you to feel from their story.  Your interpretation of that story will be different from the Author, the Producer and the Directors interpretation of the story as well.  You don't get the full effect of what they are trying to show you, because you only have their words, not what their senses are experiencing and you cannot visually see that through words alone. Writers are able to detail what they experienced, which helps us understand to an extent what they experienced, but it does not bring the full effect that visual experiences do. Again, this is my personal opinion on this and people with different learning styles may experience that differently and get more from written form.  I really think how things affect us depends on so many factors, that its hard to pin down just one and say that's what it is.