{"id":705,"date":"2017-04-04T19:02:34","date_gmt":"2017-04-04T23:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/?p=705"},"modified":"2017-04-04T19:02:34","modified_gmt":"2017-04-04T23:02:34","slug":"the-purpose-of-illustration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/uncategorized\/the-purpose-of-illustration\/","title":{"rendered":"The Purpose of Illustration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I usually think of illustrations in books as meant to depict the action in the story through a visual representation of what is being read. They add to the story by showing the reader exactly what the words on the page are describing. However, Edward Gorey subverts this convention through\u00a0<em>The Curious Sofa<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/tumblr_nshd3gm5ey1uw3584o1_1280.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-706\" src=\"http:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/tumblr_nshd3gm5ey1uw3584o1_1280-294x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"294\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/tumblr_nshd3gm5ey1uw3584o1_1280-294x300.jpg 294w, https:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/tumblr_nshd3gm5ey1uw3584o1_1280-768x783.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/tumblr_nshd3gm5ey1uw3584o1_1280-1004x1024.jpg 1004w, https:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/tumblr_nshd3gm5ey1uw3584o1_1280.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 294px) 100vw, 294px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Rather than\u00a0having his pictures show what the sentences underneath describe, he leaves the main action hidden from the reader, only accessible to the characters themselves. For example, the guests in the picture above get to see what is being acted out in charades while\u00a0we do not.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/19459151.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-707\" src=\"http:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/19459151-300x293.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"293\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/19459151-300x293.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/19459151.jpg 538w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Gorey further makes clear his deliberate\u00a0severance of the reader from the action with panels like the one above, which shows Gerald cut off from our view with part of his arm outside the frame and Elsie not visible at all. What do you think\u00a0Gorey&#8217;s intention is in\u00a0using his illustrations to cut the reader off from the action rather than to give a clearer picture of what is going on? Is he trying to leave more room for the imagination or is there another explanation?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I usually think of illustrations in books as meant to depict the action in the story through a visual representation of what is being read. They add to the story by showing the reader exactly what the words on the page are describing. However, Edward Gorey subverts this convention through\u00a0The Curious Sofa. Rather than\u00a0having his &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/uncategorized\/the-purpose-of-illustration\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Purpose of Illustration&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":708,"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705\/revisions\/708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncs.org\/lit220\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}