baleanoptera (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
baleanoptera) wrote2007-07-30 07:12 pm
baleanoptera) wrote2007-07-30 07:12 pm
Entry tags:
The Wire - a visual novel?
Another link from Jason Mitchell’s blog – this time about The Wire
I especially liked this part:
For many critics, bloggers, fans, and even creator David Simon himself, The Wire is best understood not as a television series, but as a "visual novel." As a television scholar, this cross-media metaphor bristles – not because I don’t like novels, but because I love television. And I believe that television at its best shouldn’t be understood simply as emulating another older and more culturally valued medium. The Wire is a masterpiece of television, not a novel that happens to be televised, and thus should be understood, analyzed, and celebrated on its own medium’s terms.
I think it touches upon something I’ve been pondering myself. Because recently a lot of the Norwegian media have started to discover The Wire and several (so called) intellectuals and writers have gone out and said "Oh, this is more like a book than television" or "This is so much more than television". All of which has really bugged me. Mostly because of the reasons Mitchell mentions above. For The Wire’s storytelling isn’t simply done by dialogue or acting, but also in the filming, the use of location, colour and shade and in the use of music and camera panning. All of which are audio-visual tools that novels cannot use.
Granted I'm also guilty in saying that The Wire can resemble a novel, specifically in how it is plotted and thought out. Yet I feel there is a difference in saying the storytelling can resemble a novel, and saying it is a visual novel – or "more than television". (Or you know – this might be me just trying to cover my own tracks. ;D)
I suspect the attitude that The Wire is more akin to novels or more than television harkens back to television’s status as the unruly youngest child of the cultural arena.
At any rate the essay, though long, is highly recommended. But please note that the essay is a little spoilery for all four seasons.
I especially liked this part:
For many critics, bloggers, fans, and even creator David Simon himself, The Wire is best understood not as a television series, but as a "visual novel." As a television scholar, this cross-media metaphor bristles – not because I don’t like novels, but because I love television. And I believe that television at its best shouldn’t be understood simply as emulating another older and more culturally valued medium. The Wire is a masterpiece of television, not a novel that happens to be televised, and thus should be understood, analyzed, and celebrated on its own medium’s terms.
I think it touches upon something I’ve been pondering myself. Because recently a lot of the Norwegian media have started to discover The Wire and several (so called) intellectuals and writers have gone out and said "Oh, this is more like a book than television" or "This is so much more than television". All of which has really bugged me. Mostly because of the reasons Mitchell mentions above. For The Wire’s storytelling isn’t simply done by dialogue or acting, but also in the filming, the use of location, colour and shade and in the use of music and camera panning. All of which are audio-visual tools that novels cannot use.
Granted I'm also guilty in saying that The Wire can resemble a novel, specifically in how it is plotted and thought out. Yet I feel there is a difference in saying the storytelling can resemble a novel, and saying it is a visual novel – or "more than television". (Or you know – this might be me just trying to cover my own tracks. ;D)
I suspect the attitude that The Wire is more akin to novels or more than television harkens back to television’s status as the unruly youngest child of the cultural arena.
At any rate the essay, though long, is highly recommended. But please note that the essay is a little spoilery for all four seasons.