Apollian and Dionysian

In Asterios Polyp, there is a juxtaposition of Apollian and Dionysian tendencies.While Asterios tends to be more Apollian, Hana is defenitely Dinoysian. I found a quick article about the two views of Apollo and dionysus on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_and_Dionysus

Weekly roundup Swallow Me Whole

It was interesting to see the presentations this week on Swallow Me Whole. It really helped me to see the deeper meanings of the story because it was personally really confusing. I especially liked the ideas of the step-father and his absence and his insignificance making him very significant to the story. The music in the story was also intriguing because I was interested in how the music affected the novel and what it brought to the story. I think it was also interesting to see the different interpretations of the white pill creature that was eating the bugs. The class seemed to have many different interpretations of what it meant and how it was related to the story. Though we did not reach a class consensus, I think everyone thought differently about the story and the creature and brought a new dimension to the story.  The class seemed to have a lot of interpretations of the ending and the ideas of the bugs in general and of the relationships between the parents and the kids or lack of a relationship. Also we briefly discussed the title of the book because it had multiple meanings throughout the story and helped to show the different parts of the story and how it all flowed together.

Literature and Funhome

It seems interesting that Funhome includes a number of allusions to different works of literature, most notably so far, Albert Camus’s work and f Marcel Proust and F. Scott Fitzgerald. These stories all help to show the different things that are occurring throughout the story. I think that Alison Bechdel uses this very well because it helps to show a connection and reverence to other works of literature but also how they affect other people. Her dad was distant and cold most of the time but held a special reverence for the books and authors that he wrote. The authors seem to have a place for the Dad that is comforting and can be something that he seems content with. He identifies with the characters and the authors themselves when he writes to his future wife and is seen reading a different book each time that he is presented in a scene. I think too that some of the stories themselves have a special connection to Alison who saw her father through eh lens of the novels and not necessarily through what he was really like.  The use of books and literature help to show how the power of words and a good story can help explain things in our lives that we can’t explain ourselves. The discussion about Camus and absurdity and death/suicide is especially interesting because it develops from one story to another and to another medium through the graphic novel.  It is also somewhat engaging when they reference something in literature that I have read but frustrating when they mention works I haven’t read but it makes the reader  connect and identify characters within the graphic novel memoir to the other literary works.

Meta-narration and Maus

I also thought that the meta moments in mouse were important in telling the story. It relates more to the reader and allows the reader to know the overall story of the Holocaust, and that Vladak would survive it.  The importance of the meta narrations is that it shows that the characters are self aware the they are going through this tragedy or at least Art Spiegelman the artist and son of a Holocaust survivor. this is important in telling a story that he knows but acknowledging the fact that hearing it and retelling it in your own way are much more difficult than he thought. However he does a good job of trying to get the audience involved with their own visions of his meta narrations of Art Spiegelman and the different things he includes such as when he goes to the house of his doctor and he says in the comic that it would be weird to mention that doctor has a cat as a pet. this entry into the inner views of the characters also is enlightening to show that they as characters are somewhat trapped in a situation that they understand is happening but cant be real. This attitude is similar to peoples reactions to things as horrible as the Holocaust because it truly happened but it is almost stranger than fiction and a tragedy because of that. The breaking the fourth wall is away to show the complexities of portraying the Holocaust in a way that is new but at the same time helps the reader try to understand one survivors story.

Weekly Roundup Feb 15-17

This week I think the most intriguing thing that happened this week was the debate on whether Nat Turner could be viewed as a hero or not and in what context do we see Nat Turner as a hero or not. I think there was a lot of good discussion about it in the groups and I think that we generally came to the consensus that the story of Nat Turner, showed both heroic and unheroic attributes. While some of us agreed that being heroic meant that you were supposed to stand up for your beliefs and your values, the way that Nat incorporated his vision of fighting back was to murder many people. In the end we decided that it was more  of a gray area between naming Nat Turner a true hero due to the violence to which he inflicted on people, including others that who were not directly involved in Nat’s slavery situation, such as the children. It seemed that to Nat, the ends justified the means, but even though he did not fully realize his revolt, the institution of slavery did end later though there were a lot of backlash against slaves after the Nat Turner rebellion. However, it is more of a question of how we perceive the issue of slavery and how we feel that it should have been eradicated. We know from history that eventually slavery came to an end with the Emancipation Proclamation but it was only because of the Northerners victory from the Civil War which was the bloodiest war fought on American soil. Therefore we can see how the issue of slavery and revolt against it would be seen as a gray area in the sense of how you fight back against it. The story of Nat Turner is something that is even shaded today as some textbooks, specifically in Virginia seem to pass over or ignore the story of the rebellion. However, with the re-imagining of this history in a graphic novel, the old issues controversies still arise as to whether Nat Turner was a hero or not.

God’s Man

God’s Man was interesting to read because of its lack of words. It really asked the question that if there are no words, is it still reading a comic or just a series of connecting pictures that come together in a chronological order. Also the fact that there were no words forces the reader to connect the story through each frame while at the same time identifying the characters and the settings which the pictures do a nice job of showing. This was nice to read as a companion to the McCloud Chapter 4 where he discusses the issue of time and how comics can portray time. It helped to read God’s Man after because it gave me a sense of how the reader tries to fill in the space between the frames while at the same time connecting the story. also the fact that it was a It  While the story is divided into parts, there is no clear beginning which makes the reading a little more challenging while at the same time ties themes well because it allows for an open start where the reader can interpret or play into their own views of the back story. The style of the artwork is compelling because it fits with the themes of the story and keeps the characters well defined through their portrayals and helps to show their basic characteristics and the relation to the protagonist. The characters that were “evil” were more distinctive in their facial features and were generally portrayed as darker whereas the protagonist and the “good” characters were portrayed with softer features and were generally seen as having more white which conveyed their “goodness” qualities.