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Author here, would be interested to hear people's take on the addition of illustrations (illustration is being generous, I know). Do you find them distracting o
by codecurve 11y ago
Author here, would be interested to hear people's take on the addition of illustrations (illustration is being generous, I know). Do you find them distracting or do they help break up the text?
- davexunit 11y agoI think they are nice. I think you made the basic ideas behind Lisp accessible and fun. Good job!
- calibraxis 11y agoI agree! Lucid approach. The illustrations work for me. I like the approach of using eval immediately, without ceremony. (Disclaimer: I’m used to Lisp so I’m not really the audience whose opinion matters. But I’m sure I would’ve benefited from reading this earlier. Skimmed it, and am now halfway through a more careful read.)
- mordocai 11y agoI like the illustrations, but I love Land of Lisp which is filled with them so... I think I'm already predisposed toward illustrations in text.
- kaoD 11y agoI didn't even realize there were illustrations until I read this comment. Had to go back and check.
- codecurve 11y agoHaha, that's a pretty clear case for them not being distracting!
- archimedespi 11y agoOr maybe they were using a reader program which didn't display images, or they were reading HN on Lynx :)
- SamBoogieNYC 11y agoCool post! I'm curious - where did you get the turtles illustration idea? I've seen it in a funny, obscure book and am wondering if you've read it too.
- Rmilb 11y agoIt's a reference to this : Turtles all the way down https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- jfaucett 11y agoHi sounds like you'd like some constructive criticism so here's MHO. Images can be great aids in understanding text and making abstract concepts concrete. Also, in many cases the usual metaphor/simile rules apply. For instance, in the phrase he's "fast as a bolt of lightning" we can imagine the speed of the runner and it helps us envision how he "flashes" by opponents. In this case both concepts are known i.e. lighting and fast, but new descriptive meaning is created through the use of simile. Similarly, metaphor takes two known concepts and combines them to reveal a new concept. An example of metaphor, would be "he's an emotional rollercoaster", we know what emotional is and how a rollercoaster behaves, this gives us new insight into the persons high and low spiraling personality. Essentially, I think good images interact just like simile and metaphor with a text, enhancing, extending, and clarifying concepts. If you go back now and look at your images, I think you'll see that they actually reflect rather verbatim what the text contains, only minimally extend or clarify the text, and at times might make it more confusing (how do turtles enhance our understanding of expressions?). So for these reasons, I found them to be distracting and not helpful, as nice as they actually appear graphically :) Nice post btw :)
- jaywunder 11y agoThe car illustration was both funny, and helped to show your point in a really concise way. So I'd say +1 to illustrations!