Ghost in the Brain

I am stoned right now, and just finished watching the 'Ghost in the Shell' (GITS) anime, and thought I should write down some of my current thoughts on the different forms of artistic expression (for the moment, I will call these 'media' for want of a better word) that I am most familiar with - Books (by that i mean the written word) , Manga, Movies, Music and Anime.

Books are the most suited to rereading passages, ie. a way of revisiting complex ideas without fundamentally breaking the continuity. The same is not true for movies or music, because if you feel like you missed something in a movie or missed a crucial beat in a song, there is no way of going back, watching/listening to that piece, and returning immediately to where you originally were without hampering the message. Although this is made somewhat easier today with DVD/CDs instead of the old VHS tapes, it still involves considerable physical effort for you to go back and forth in a movie all the time.

Now Manga offers this, but where it lacks is in making complex ideas flow into each other seamlessly. The panel-to-panel reading makes it an inherently 'discrete' medium, thus losing the important aesthetic appeal of music or movies. While reading 'words' is also discrete, in my case (and this may not be so with people who have been reading comics all their lives) the words flow into each other much more easily than still panelled pictures. The advantage, though is in exactly that - the medium allows you to just stop and stare at a particular panel feeling the beauty and artistry of it. This is not true for words - noone would catch themselves staring at a sentence entranced in its beauty (you'd have to be pretty far gone for that to start happening). Although I must say that the art work of things like Ronin/Sandman, and the writings of Oscar Wilde/Wodehouse make me wonder how much of that is in the hands of the artist.

Now Music is a totally different kettle of fish - it is the only form I've listed which does not require sight. That in itself makes it pretty special in my opinion - you can literally feel it in your veins, whereas all the other mediums are essentially external (ie. you are only observing the beauty but you are not a creative part of the process). Music, therefore, is exciting because it makes you feel strangely productive and at the same time relaxed. Unfortunately, such a personal process as listening to music is also /impossible/ to share with people. This isn't strictly true, but one has to admit that it is hard to define in words what you feel for a tune although that is probably a limitation of one's vocabulary and of spoken language. Also music, like movies, are linear and so .. (read the para on books).

Movies have the fundamental draw back of being on TV - the boob tube. As many eminent film-makers have proved - one can have a really big hit in the box-office for something that is completely devoid of any artistic brilliance (an idea parodied in the South Park movie). However, it can also have a very immediate impact on the viewer. Music and books can move you, but it typically takes longer for the message to filter to the brain simply because only one sense organ is in play. Movies tap into both sight and hearing, and so it is much easier to crack a joke, for instance, an act which may involve physical actions, words and a facial expression for the message to go across completely (think Monty Python). And how many times have you walked out of a movie-theatre in a daze because of the recent information overload?

The last one I tackle is Anime. Having just watched GITS, I feel like I am in a good position to evaluate what I think. Anime has all the benefits of both Manga and Movies. A well-made anime movie typically stands still on important and artistic scenes, thus achieving (to some extent) what ordinary Manga achieves and at the same time allows the dialog to deliver a 'situational'* message to the viewer (Again, this might be typical of me, but whenever I watch Anime, I am much more prone to look out for the subtle images and sounds than in ordinary movies) (See how I used ordinary for both Manga and Movies but not for Anime? Aren't I exceptionally clever? :) Unfortunately, I do also frequently feel overwhelmed by Anime. I feel like I am trying to 'read' the comic and watch the movie at the same time - which is very hard to do, and I often find myself straying from the conversation looking at all the beautiful scenery. Although this is not necessarily a bad thing, I do have to go back re-watch GITS now!

PS : There is another medium I thought of - that of Plays or Live Theatre, but although I have seen and done the odd play, I still feel somewhat out of my depth describing the expressive power of the medium because I don't think I have seen or done a single /great/ play. So do forgive my reticence on this matter.

PS2: While I realise I am breaking down these media rather haphazardly and making a mash of things, I hope that it will at least have a shred of sense in it when I read it tomorrow. That would be nice.

* The word 'situational' here is meant to describe a message telling the viewer where in the storyline he/she is, whereas the pictures/music give the more subliminal 'situational' messages ( ... must break out of self-referential loop).