Reading Response #4 (McCloud)

Before You Read:
My favorite cartoon character when I was younger (and probably now, as well) was Belle from Beauty and the Beast. I think that I liked her so much because I definitely could relate to her. I loved to read, just like she did, and I remember that when I was younger I thought that we were basically the same person because we both had brown hair and brown eyes (I apparently didn't realize at the time that this is very common).

In my room alone, I see many objects that seem to have faces. The wood on my closet door is stained in just a way so that it looks like a face is smiling back at me. I have a chair that looks like it has one eye and is frowning at me. Before I did this activity, I could look at these things without seeing faces, but I feel like now I'll see the faces all the time.

Summary:
In his comic, "Vocabulary of Comics," Scott McCloud tries to illustrate to the reader how every time we see an image, we somehow relate it to ourselves. McCloud also shows that we have the tendency to see faces and emotions in random shapes and objects, and that they are a projection of how we see ourselves and how we feel at the time.

QDJ
1. I think adults enjoy the simplicity of cartoons because it reminds them of a time earlier in their lives, when they were a child, and could see themselves simply without getting into detail. I don't think there is ever a time when one should stop reading comics or watching cartoons, although McCloud might disagree. I believe he thinks that you should grow as a person and start seeing yourself in full detail instead of simply.

2. McCloud chose to write this way because he knew people would relate to it more easily rather than if he had just written it. If he had just written this, I would have immediately dismissed him as another boring intellectual trying to tell me how I should read things.

AEI
1. Maybe it's because I'm right-brained and a very visual person, but I think many students would benefit from more visual imagery. It teaches how to look rather than just listen, to pay more attention to detail where it is necessary.

3. Adults "grow out" of watching cartoons because they believe that part of growing up is leaving things you did as a child behind. You don't grow out of comics and cartoons. And, as McCloud shows, you will always see yourself in images throughout the rest of your life, be it in a comic or in a totally random stain on the sidewalk.

Thoughts:
I really liked this piece. I read another comic like this by Scott McCloud my junior year of high school, and enjoyed it as well. This piece appeals to me because it gives me something to look at along with what I'm reading, and that helps me understand the idea more clearly. This piece relates to others we've read in that McCloud gives us yet another way to look at the world around us, although instead of doing it in reading, he applies it to walking down the street and paying attention to what you see.