A Perfect Pair

In his book Show and Tell, Scott McCloud argues a bridge between words and pictures needs to be built. He longs for the days of the past “when to tell was to show and to show was to tell” (161 McCloud). McCloud wants images and words to be used together because he believes when words and pictures work together they produce a product better than either could have produced a lone. But what would that product look like? I have been considering the effects of an alliance between enemies, and I have come up with an idea as to what would happen or what would be made better. Words produce ideas and thoughts. Ideas and thoughts are abstract concepts. Any type of visual art consists of images. Images that can be perceived through sight which makes them concrete. Both are opposite and lack what the other has. So wouldn’t pairing them together strengthen each? Pictures could bring the ideas words produce to life. Ideas could be more tangible. Images’ hidden abstract ideas can also be explained through the aid of words. The meaning behind certain images wouldn’t be a mystery “to the average viewer” (150). This is obviously only a surface level analysis, but if seems words and pictures were unified more frequently, people would better understand each other’s unique perspective.