The Winner Is: Word or Image?

 

This is my late friend, the Danish poet Marianne Larsen (1951-2025), who sadly enough died in December 2025 without me getting to know anything about it until a couple of months later. A very strange, shocking and altogether unpleasant experience. Actually it was so awful, that it triggered some memories, which I more or less had forgotten. These memories were about one of our discussions about WORDS CONTRA PICTURES in communications of various art. She was convinced that the word still had the upper-hand over the picture as to communication, but I wasn't all that sure because it can't be denied that the world has changed its priorities, and that one of these is "easiness/spiritual laziness" is the most peasant to most people and thus the best . 

 

The mere image of a MAGA-cap speaks volumes of certain characteristics of the man wearing it like e.g. prejudice, stupidity, science-immunity, misogyny, arrogance and so on and on. The cap does this, all by itself, because it is nourished by non-MAGAs's political standpoints of the opposite kind. Also, as it is, people who are not MAGAs need many more words to explain what their opinions are than the man in the cap. In that respect the image, e.g. of a gesture or a symbol, has the upper-hand over the words: In the flash of a moment one is able to get the image "translated" into the full meaning of it. For instance, all of us know what it means to raise one's right hand in a straight line, looking sinister - or stupid? - and the ones who do just that don't even have to say "heil Hitler" to get the message through: They are not into Democracy, on the contrary, and it was made clear without any words to explain it.

 

That goes with flags too: Each one speaks without words, and they have a strong message for everyone who knows them and recognizes the ones that belongs to his/her native country and biography.  

This is one of the many poems by Marianne, and as is obvious it speaks in its own voice. Her command of language and imagery was impressive and something that was recognized from the very beginning of her career. However, our discussions were about COMMUNICATION as such, and that's where it - like all or most poems - may not cover her intentions. Compared to the MAGA-hat or the fully stretched right arm a poem simply doesn't come out clear with its message. The reason for that is that it covers many more symbolic layers than a hat or an arm, both of which is much more simple symbols. However, it wasn't only my discussions with Marianne that made me brood the question of what was the strongest form of communication, but also some experiences I had with some of my own books, like e.g. this one:

 

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I've had some offers from people I don't know, but who introduce themselves as publishers or film makers. Most of them are nothing but conmen, out to earn a substantial sum by cheating an author out of money to have his/her book turned into a  movie. At first it feels quite flattering, but it's anything but flattery as they wouldn't try their luck if they took you for a genius. On the contrary, they feel that an Indie author is hungry for attention and thus ready to pay to get it. As I've pubished books both as an "Indie" and with ordinary publishers I'm glad to say that I'm not a push-over for this kid of flattery. That being said, I did fall for this specific attempt to bleed me because it was very  well prepared: The one, who wrote me, "borrowed" the name, the address, etc. of a well-known Hollywood-producer, but with the help of someone who keeps an eye on all the scummy ongoings in the literary world, I found out that the man who wrote me in reality was a Philipine conman, who had targeted several authors whom he tried to bleed.

 

What I find the most interesting part of that incident is that people I know were so very interested in the possibility of the book being turned into a movie. None of them ever asked me about how the book was doing or what it was about, but they kept asking questions like "will it be on Netflix?" Or"Who is to play X?" It was very obvious that they had no intentions of reading the book, but that they would cosider watching a movie over it - This experience is why I told my friend, Marianne, the word-loving poet, that words had lost to the images and pictures ....

 

 

https://boobytrapec.blogspot.com/2026/09/words-contra-pictures-what-couple.html

https://boobytrapec.blogspot.com/2026/09/redacted-poem-by-else-cederborg-cain.html