Novels vs. Graphic Novels

I think graphic novels are great.  The boys have tons of them and they read and re-read them.  They check them out from the school library. They read over each other's shoulders and get into fights about it.  I even have a few of my own.  So I would cringe when I heard a mother say that their kids weren't allowed to read comics or now I cringe when I hear the kid say it.  And I bite my tongue to keep from saying, "Wow, you get to live in a fun house!"  Ok, I actually said it out loud once but the kid didn't get it and said 'thank you'.  He'll probably turn out to be a merit scholar so I should probably shut-up but whatever.

Anyway, I love comics and I never understood why you would ever discourage your kid from reading.  That just seemed silly.  The school librarian in Arizona agreed and she could even explain the science behind it which is awesome because as soon as you say something like 'brain' all the morons lemmings folks pay attention and don't even bother to check if what they're being told it actually true. (People are so easy to manipulate is really surprising there aren't more evil geniuses in the world. You should try it.  It's fun.)    Anyway...

Here's what she explained to me and I was all like "Yeah, what she said!" When you read a novel, the author writes down all the words needed to describe a scene to the reader.  What the character looks like, where he's standing, what's hanging on the walls, whether it's cold or hot, all that stuff.  The reader takes the words and forms a picture in his head of all that description.  That's one way the brain processes information.

When you read a graphic novel, the picture is drawn for you and you are given a few lines of dialogue.  Now the reader has to look at the picture and figure out the words. What's going on?  Who is this guy? where is he? is he cold? is he angry? who is he talking to? The reader takes the picture and forms all the words in his head, and his brain is working in the complete opposite way.

Now you have an awesome superpower.  You can walk through a door and read the room.  You can look around, pay attention for a bit and figure out, okay, he thinks he's in charge but she really is,  that one's an asshole and the guy over there is playing angry birds on his phone.  Are you always right? No, but even then you've learned something new to use next time.  Pretty soon your only big decision is whether to use your powers for good or evil.

John and I are amazing at this game.  We can peg all the douche bags at Starbucks in under 3 minutes.  Of course, that's kinda a gimme so never mind.