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Other Kinds of Essayists
NMB, Florida January 3, 2002 A.H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published Now and
Then. Opinions Pro or Con Are Welcome.
OTHER KINDS OF ESSAYISTS
When I finished the last essay on Essayists I brought it in for Carol to
evaluate and then read the comics in the Miami Herald. It struck me that
each of the comic "strips" of one, three or four panels was an essay. They
tell stories economically and make you think - mostly of the absurdities
that the creator wishes to put before you.
You most likely check the political page in the newspaper to see what
pictorial stories the featured cartoonist has to tell you about the state of
the nation or the world. They are mostly one panel and have a lot of
information that is graphically represented. The best have no words but
tell you everything - sometimes in a stroke or two of the pen or pencil.
Think about portrait painting and the historical scenes artists painted and
still do. They not only capture in a single frame a whole world of meaning
but they also tell you (from the artists' viewpoint) a message that you
either accept as true or from which you are repelled. It depends on your
political orientation. The greatest of the genre are, of course, from my
point of view the ones that skewer the political right and the
self-righteous religious fanatics either here or abroad.
The graphic artist has it way over the essay writer. The artist can
caricature to distort and force you to see the warts and wrinkles in our
heroes. This is much more easily done pictorially than in the written word.
Clinton's nose was a prime target. Before September 11 Bush's ears and
gnomish appearance was pin pointed. Osama Bin Laden's stony features make
for easy remarks in portraiture about his representation as a satanic figure
or devilish emblem bearing a gun.
There are probably other kinds of essayists beyond what is in newsprint.
What comes to mind are the stories quickly and emotionally told in song.
The ranting, shouting and screaming stuff of the present can't match the
love songs and songs of unrequited passion of days gone by. In my time it
was the folksongs that were warbled essays that caught our attention.
Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.
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