Proclaimer Blog
Silence is not so golden
So, The Artist is the best film of last year. Not so sure myself, but then they didn't ask me (*). This represents the final nail in the coffin for visual over audio, apparently. The twentieth century is the one that marked our transition from audio experiences (the spoken word, especially) to the visual. TV and movies obviously contributed to that change. So it is interesting that we have come full circle to the place where a silent movie has won the Oscar. Picture is king (**).
That's also the end of sermons then, unless we can make them visual – hoorah for PowerPoint?
No. I don't deny the power of visual. But I do deny that words are powerless, or even that words cannot be visual themselves. This was brought home to me last Saturday. I was speaking at an evangelistic event in Essex and so was only able to watch the first half of England-Wales rugby (***). That meant I had to listen to one of the most exciting internationals for years on the car radio. And you know what? I loved it. It was breathtaking, exciting, visual – all this and more. That was due in part to the excellent commentator (Ian Robertson), but the spoken word need not be dead or dull, boring or irrelevant. It was – dare I say it? – more engrossing that the TV version…..
And of course, The Artist is not a silent film. It has a soundtrack; it's just that the soundtrack is not speech. So, ra-ra-ra for audio and hoorah for radio commentary and three cheers for sermons. Don't let anybody tell you their time has gone. The Sony radio awards do not get the same airtime that the Oscars or BAFTAs do. But they should. And sermons must not be despised. Dull sermons are hard to forgive. But sexing up with video/visual is a wrong reaction to incompetence. The word is still king.
* I'm not bitter about this – just a little disappointed. After all, apparently Denzel Washington's wife gets a vote. Well, he does, but he's too busy so he let's her vote on his behalf according to a newspaper article this weekend. I'm up for voting, if they need help.
** Not everyone can handle silent movies apparently. The official trailer on IMDB has overdubbed speech on The Artist print for John Goodman's character and the dog. See here.
*** For American readers, rugby is a game with an oval ball but without helmets. It's good. Like American football but for real men.