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Ever read The Giver?
It seems like a normal story at first – a twelve-year-old boy living in what appears to be a perfect community. Except... you start to notice something isn't quite right. You don't even realize at first that you're reading about a world without color, without real emotions, without deep feelings of any kind. Like Jonas, you discover these gaps in his world slowly, naturally, as your own mind fills in what's missing.
Now compare that to watching the movie adaptation.
From the very first scene, it hits you over the head with black-and-white footage. It shows you exactly what this colorless world looks like. It tells you through obvious dialogue and facial expressions that these people don't feel real emotions. All the subtle revelations that made the book so haunting are laid bare on screen, reduced to simple visual effects and obvious plot points.
In the book, when Jonas first experiences snow through a transmitted memory, readers draw from their own experiences – the sharp cold on their face, the magical hush of a winter morning, that childhood wonder of catching snowflakes on their tongue.
The movie? It just shows you some white stuff falling from the sky.
All the memory transmissions in the book are deeply intimate and personal, and you, as a reader, imagine your own version of the memories being shared.
But, in the words of Variety's Justin Chang, the movie "flattens the intricate texture" of Lowry's world-building. What works as gradual, haunting revelation in prose becomes obvious and mechanical on screen. The subtle horror of the community's "sameness" loses its impact when immediately visible.
Videos and images are fantastic.
But watching a video, or looking at an image, is a completely different experience than reading.
Watching puts an exact image into your mind. You have no control over how the person looks, how they sound, the color of the sky behind them.
The videographer decides that.
Same with pictures - it's all laid out for you.
When you read, though? Your brain gets very involved. It gets personal.
Here's how Robert Collier put it:
“The mind thinks in pictures, you know. One good illustration is worth a thousand words. But one clear picture built up in the readers mind by your words is worth a thousand drawings, for the reader colors that picture with his own imagination, which is more potent than all the brushes of all the world’s artists.”
When you read - an article, a story, a website - your brain creates images of what you're reading about. And it creates images that YOU relate to, because they're based on your own experience.
That's why written content can forge such a deep, personal connection with readers. When someone reads your words, they're not just passive observers – they're active participants, bringing their own experiences and emotions to the table.
And email? It's the perfect medium for this kind of storytelling. When someone opens your email, they're giving you their undivided attention. It's just you and them, having a conversation through words. And with your words, the reader is painting their own picture in their mind.
Ecommerce brands, understandably, are highly focused on visuals. And visuals are definitely important.
But story-driven emails get your readers' imaginations working. It makes them feel something, that sticks with them long after they've finished reading - long after they've moved on to next pretty video on their Insta feed. It lets you add certain emotional richness that often can't be transmitted through visuals.
I want brands to be able to create this kind of deep, imaginative connection with their audience. My Email Infusion package to set you up for doing this successfully. For creating a written world that adds a deeper layer to your brand.
So if you want to add a new dimension to your marketing - to get imaginations running, to reach those who connect more to the written word than to images - let's talk.
Harness the power of your customers' minds,
Chavy