Sunday, May 13, 2007A picture is worth...WOW.That was amazing. I had SO many reactions to that previous post... and just about none of them matched the words themselves. Ranging from tears to congratulations, just about everyone who called or wrote was positive that I was selling my house. Just to be absolutely clear: I am not. The sign literally showed up, by accident, in my front lawn. It was a mistake by Zip Realty. My address was similar to another house that was listed. Whups. "Zip" was apparently the amount of effort they had spent to fact check their listings. What is amazing is the power of the image. I am not an image person myself. I am pure words. I will walk into the wrong bathroom if there isn't a word posted underneath the icon of a man or woman. I loathe Mac computers because they are so "intuitive" they don't have to use words. Unfortunately, this renders them incomprehensible to the verbal types in the world, like me. An image of a For Sale sign in front of a house is so iconographic that it trumps any amount of words written beneath it. I mean, verbal or not, even I had a moment wondering if I was selling. (Which, I repeat, I am not.) So even though I was obviously messing with language and implying one thing while saying another, no one who responded to me was willing to believe that the image was false. They would prefer to doubt the language, or at least live in its ambiguity. An image of a For Sale sign is blissfully non-ambiguous. It's obvious what is going on, so the words are discounted. Even though, actually, the truth is far different from the connoted meaning. A picture is not worth 1000 words. A picture is worth all of them. # posted by Katherine Doughtie Nolan @ 11:05 PM  
Comments: *I* knew you were playing with us by posting that picture! I want credit for knowing you well enough. :) # posted by  Unknown : 6:54 AM
I'm actually kind of sorry you're NOT selling your house -- after the initial gasp, I was like, "Boy, what a bold and resourceful move! Brave and inventive use of existing resources to make a change! I'm impressed!" So now I kind of feel the way I imagine you feeling if I'd changed my mind about quitting UMG -- please and relieved that I'd still be around, but secretly sorry that someone hadn't, after all, slipped the surly bonds of earth and gone off to touch the face of God. (Yes, I know Ronald Reagan (or Peggy Noonan) used that quote, too, but that's no reason to let the terrorists win . . .) # posted by Jill B. : 11:46 AM
when did they pick the sign up ?what was their excuse? # posted by master : 4:50 AM
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