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God's Harmful Rays.

Whilst running errands in Sheffield City Centre I was approached by a pleasant enough looking young man who handed me some reading material. I always take leaflets or pamphlets when they are proferred, for two reasons. Firstly, I think turning them down is confrontational and I like an easy life. Secondly, you never know what you might find out and there is no such thing as too much information (unless your best friend is trying to tell you the best way to clean obscure parts of the human body with a moist towelette after running, that is).


What I was handed was a 16 page lesson in how to (or more specifically, how not to) use graphics to illustrate your point, disguised as a guide on how not to go to hell. Now, my writing partner, Chella Quint here, and I know a little something about this, having recently produced a spoof research paper on forming the perfect pub quiz team (search 'The Venns' on Facebook), which includes many illustrations and graphs showing the internal workings of quizzes. Its a tough skill and illustrations (be they pictoral or graphical) should be treated with the utmost respect.

I will say this. This is a hard hitting pamphlet, as far as pamphlets go (man, I love the word 'pamphlet'). On page 5, 'Gospel Tracts International' come right at you with the illustration shown here:

"Your sins have separated you from God." Nice try, but that isn't what this image illustrates. THIS is what this image illustrates:

Surely this graphic is making the point that, when organising a trip to the beach, you should take a big hat, sunscreen and sin. It's the only way to be truly safe this summer.
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  1. AnonymousSeptember 17, 2010 at 11:47 AM

    Gosh, I'm quite fair. I may need extra sin. Possibly SPF (sin protection factor?) 50.

    What a helpful pamphlet. Thanks, Jow.

    -Chella

    ReplyDelete

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