Author: sbell6

Dualism: Asterios/Daisy

Dualism is what made Asterios Polyp such an interesting book for me. Mazzucchelli is a genius at expressing dualism through out the book. One of my favorite comparison was between Asterios and Daisy, during one of their confrontations. Asterios is made up of these blue geometric figures, that create the outline of his body. They mimic the general shape of his body, and reminded me of blueprints an architect would use. Daisy is drawn completely differently. She constructed to look like she was sketched with a pink colored pencil, with heavy emphasis on the cross-hatching. They create a visual contracts but to each other, but also in the way of their lives.

This is not the only difference that was displayed visually between Daisy and Asterios. Their speech bubbles reflect who they are as people. Asterios has rectangular forms around his text, showing he is precise and sharp edged. While Daisy has loose circular forms around her text, showing she is more of a free spirit. Their living spaces are also drastically different. Asterios has a sterile modern styled living quarters, completely clean with everything in its right place and the furniture is formed perfectly to reflect his manner. While Daisy’s apartment is filled with her art work, there are messes all across the room. The contract between these two charcters and the way they are displayed makes for quite the intriguing relationship to be drawn into. I think that they were a perfect compliment to each other, and I was pretty pleased with the ending.

Response to A-Jay

I agree that the ambiguity through out the novel was done on purpose in order to draw ties between the reader and the protagonists. Schizophrenia is a visual experience for the people effected by it. Being able to go into that world is something that can only be done through a visual medium.  I think that Powell did an excellent job trying to make something that is so abstract become clear(er) through a graphic novel. A-Jay mentioned the “the small illegible writing, the representation of darkness, and the things filling the gutters” Elements like these were part of trying to extract the level of insanity that people with schizophrenia/on heavy medications have to put up with in their day to day lives. I love how each page has so much substance to them. I feel like Powell has taken the most advantage of the black and white medium for a graphic novel that we have seen so far in this class. Shifting which color dominated each spread depending on the tone the novel was at, or if there was a hallucination being experienced by one of the characters. He is able to twist these two colors to evoke such powerful feelings. He also mentioned it being the more engrossing novel so far. I have to agree ten fold. After learning recently that I am in the prime age of people who start experiencing the effects of schizophrenia, this book started to hit pretty close to home in what my life could be like.

Am I Missing Something Here?

I have combed WE3 a couple of times and have noticed that the majority of this graphic novel is like an action movie.  At least three quarters of the story is focused on destruction and mayhem, while the last quarter felt like an attempt at making me care about these cyborg animals.  I am left wishing this last part was developed more.  These animals were abducted by the government and turned into killing machines.  That act is suppose to make me question the rights of animals and how far should biological engineering be pushed. However, the characters weren’t developed enough for me to actually care about them being chased down. The missing posters are there to try and make me care about them, but having never had a pet in my life it didn’t really hit home. I think they should have included scenes of the actual abductions. But instead all I have to link to the past of these animals are 3 pages written by a few 5 year olds.

Maybe the whole purpose of this story is just to show these high tech mechanized pets doing what they do best, which lead to some of the sweetest action spreads I’ve seen in awhile.  I just wish there was more depth to the characters and the story in general.  I felt cheated walking away from the story with the lessons of “if you militarize something and it messes up; just throw some money at it and move on with your life” and “pets should stay pets.”

I already commented rpaul2’s post earlier, but I am making a new post for it like everyone else did.

I think the first chapter is the most important part of the book. It lays the foundation for the whole story. I believe that Baker created ambiguity in the first chapter on purpose. The chapter is entitled Home. It is a place that is supposed to be safe, calm, and inviting– not chaotic. If you put yourself in the shoes of the people who called this place home when the slave drivers came you would be confused too. Baker captured this tension. Baker needed to give the reader something to contrast the rest of the novel with. A random group of people came to kidnap another group. We needed to see this to understand why a violent rebellion without remorse would even happen.

As for the main character… It doesn’t matter who Nat Turner is. They are all drawn similar for a reason. The graphic novel might be called Nat Turner but I don’t see the book as being a narrative about him as much as I see it about slavery in general. It is about how far these people were abused to the point where they said enough is enough. When they were safe on their home land there was no need for a heroin to raise, everyone was an equal there. But when one of your people gets shot in the face, then the rest enslaved; it is only a matter of time until someone steps up to lob heads off with an ax in return.