Scott McCloud’s comic reminded me a lot of Descartes’ mind body theory, how we can never know for certain whether the world we live in isn’t some trickery played on us by a higher power; cogito ergo sum, I think therefore I am. Of course, this wasn’t necessarily the main point of the reading, but I thought I’d throw it in there.

The way in which McCloud explained the use of editing through a comic strip really helped me digest and understand the concept a lot more clearly than had it been in an essay or article style piece of text. I’d never particularly given much thought to the concept of how much we are told about a sequence without actually having seen the imagery- just how much is implied. This use of editing really is able to speed up an otherwise lengthy scene, such as a morning ‘getting ready’ routine being shown simply by having a man put on a jacket and grabbing a cup of coffee. These two actions already imply that said man has brushed his teeth, gotten out of bed, combed his hair etc.

This use of quick editing is also very relevant and prevalent in today’s films as well. With so many Hollywood films focusing on quick shots no longer than three seconds in order to keep an audience engaged, it really astounds me how much once can assume has happened or is happening outside the world of the frame.