| 
| |
|
 |
|
Excerpt
from A to Annoy,
by Leslie Sutcliffe in AGNI magazine, Number 64, Fall 2006
In the fall
of 2006 Leslie Sutcliffe was the featured artist in the literary
magazine AGNI published at Boston University and edited by Sven
Birkerts. Included was the essay A to Annoy. Below is an excerpt
from that essay.
“When books combine words and pictures, our roles
as viewer and reader can conflict—as if the words were
written in one language and the images in another. Translating
back and forth can trip up even the most facile linguist. When
I become self-consciously aware of the shift from reading to
looking, I can lose the thread of what I was reading, like the
trapeze artist who thinks, This must be what it feels like
to fly, just before tumbling into the net.
A picture can be the best or only way to describe a thing. Maps
are a perfect example. I am not adept with them, but for most
people the easiest way to find a place is to consult a map.
Similarly, if you’d never seen “jodhpurs”
or “herringbone,” it would be hard to imagine them
from written descriptions. It seems, though, that charts, diagrams,
and illustrations are also included in dictionaries or encyclopedias
as a visual respite from pages of uniform text, and are otherwise
unnecessary or decidedly unhelpful. I delight in such images.”
To order a copy:
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
PLEASE
NOTE: this site is copyrighted © 2009 - All Rights Reserved
|
|
|
|