I found this interesting interview with Mike Carey on Blogtown where he talks about the Unwritten. The interview touches on many things we discussed in class and which is why I chose to share this interview instead of some of the other ones out there. Carey talks about the different forms of media that was used in the book. In class we talked about how Thomas Taylor is the name of the illustrator of the Harry Potter books, well in this interview Carey says who the character Pullman is named after(you’re going to have to read the interview to find out who). In the interview Carey also discloses that Harry Potter wasn’t the starting point of the book and that Tommy Taylor’s character is actually based on Christopher Milne (the son of the author of Winnie the Pooh books). This interview gives a lot of insight into the different parts of the book that we discussed in class.
Author: ibahabib
Weekly Roundup for Asterios Polyp
What I liked the most about this week’s discussion was how each of the different Greek myths and references in the book were addressed. When I first read Asterios Polyp I had no idea that the myths mentioned reflected so much of what was occurring in the novel. I don’t know much about Greek myths but I was able to appreciate the use of them in the novel only after our discussions because we clearly tied how each myth related back to what was happening in the book. For example someone mentioned that Asterios’ last name was probably Polyphemus and that in Greek mythology Polyphemus was a cyclops. This helped explain the significance of Asterios loosing his eye near the end of the novel. Since Asterios Polyp is such a dense book made of little things that seem insignificant in the beginning but make sense at the end of the book, I was glad that we took the time to allow everyone to explain some of the different parts of the book that did this because it helped explain some things in the book that some of us didn’t realize were intentional. For example on Thursday we discussed the scene after Asterios has built the tree house and how Asterios doesn’t smack the fly that’s on his cheek. I’m sure many of us didn’t realize that this was referring to Francis of Assisi or that Mazzuchelli used this scene to show that Asterios was changing as a person.
There’s More To This Love Story Than Boy Meets Girl
One of the things that surprised me while reading Exit Wounds was how good of a job Rutu Modan did in capturing modern day Israel. Even though this book turns out to be a love story the author excellently portrays the political turmoil in Israel. In very subtle ways she hints at some of the political issues in Israel. She shows how desensitized and accustomed Israelis have become to violence. Pages 46-50 are an excellent example of this nonchalant attitude towards death and the suicide bombings. Another example would be when Numi mentions that Koby’s father might have died in one of the attacks and Koby isn’t even sure of which one she’s talking about. In Exit Wounds, Modan also hints at illegal immigrant workers in Israel and the troubles that they have. The way that the owner of the stationary shop talks about the Filipino cleaning lady, Del, speaks volumes about the issues of immigrant workers. He says that Del probably didn’t even bother going to the hospital after the bombing because of her fear of the immigration police. Its quite disturbing how easily the Filipino cleaning woman switches with another and goes undetected. Another place in the book where Israeli political issues are brought up is when Numi and Koby visit Koby’s mother’s grave. The separation of the graves of Jews and non-Jews in the book speaks to the larger issue of segregation of Jews and non-Jews that can still be seen in Israeli society today. In the very back of the book there is an interview with Rutu Modan where she speaks of how she attempted to capture the reality of this separation between the Jews in Israel and the non-Jews. In my opinion her attempt was a success.
Maus in Context With Global Events
I found this really neat timeline that overlaps the main events that occurred in Maus with global events and Art Spiegelman and his family’s life. In a way I think it kind of puts the story of Maus in a different globalized context. This time line interested me because even though I am aware of the fact that Maus is a biography seeing this time line made me realize that Maus isn’t just some story. Its someone’s life. I like that the fact that this time line contains links to some of Spiegelman’s different works. The rest of the website also contains links to some useful resources about Maus and Art Spiegelman.
A Bumpy Ride Through Gotham City
My first reaction to Batman: the Dark Knight Returns was that there were too many words. I felt as though I couldn’t pay enough attention to the images in each panel, especially when the text was located in the white areas outside of the panels. The text was too distracting and I found myself paying too much attention to the text and skimming over the pictures. The best comparison I can give of my reading experience of Batman is to that of reading a picture book because generally when reading a picture book I read the text and expect the pictures to just reinforce what the text is saying instead of providing additional information. Also the text is mainly what’s needed in order to understand the story. The narrative in Batman seemed overwhelming to me and I believe that there is no way I would have been able to follow the storyline if the words were removed. I think that compared to God’s man the images used in Batman contained less information and narrative even though artistically the images weren’t any less detailed. My reading experience felt choppy but I don’t think that only had to do with the fact that there were too many words. I think that the extreme changes in the format and sizes of the panels between each page caused some of the incongruity. Some pages had 6 panels while others had sixteen. Some panels overlapped while others had large gaps between them. Then there were some pages that were filled with what might amount to paragraphs of texts and others that only contained 2 words. Although there may have been many hiccups during my reading I realize that this situation may be a storytelling technique used by the author. For example the author might have purposefully started the novel off on such disjointed way in order to depict Bruce Wayne’s struggle with the revival of Batman. Or maybe I’m just not used to the style of American graphic novels and this feeling of incongruity comes from that fact.