Just wanted to highlight and/or revisit this idea from Faulkner’s brain in relation to Bayou. I think the notion that we talked about in class, as the past being a constantly hanging thing, always present and reoccurring, influencing the present and the future is a pretty truthful and complex idea. The fact that a comic in the 2000’s can revisit the planes of the past and make them bright again is a baffling kind of idea to think about. This occurrence of the old rekindling in the form of the new seems to back up Faulkner’s words pretty seamlessly. By taking the recent past (recency depending upon perspective) and shaping something new, “the past is never dead, it’s not even past” holds true. But I’m rambling right now. What I mean is, this notion of creating new from old ideas, ways, existences etc. in terms of time backs up Faulkner’s words in a metaphorical sense: that is, it’s not even past as the “past” representative of time or an idea of time as humans know it. However, if we read Faulkner’s statement more literally, time becomes less important. If we read: “it’s not even past” as “it’s not even itself,” now this statement suggests something about the past being something else entirely, or not entirely.
So if the past is not the past as we know it in terms of just what happened before now, the wtf is it? Your guess is as good as mine. But I guess that maybe it is Bayou that is this “otherly” sort of past. The past is never dead. Yeah okay, we understand, Maus brings back Holocaust, Fun home brings back Bechdels childhood, Bayou brings back the racist South. But do they really bring them back? Or are they bringing back something else? Maybe, I dunno, whatevs. poop
Tag: Weekly Roundup
Swallow Me Whole
I found the most interesting discussions in class this week to be covered within the graphic novel, Swallow Me Whole. At first, I was very reluctant to begin to read this book because every page involved so much detail and what I believed to be “hidden” messages. However, after reading the piece I found that the extremely detail oriented and hidden meanings within the entirety of this graphic novel is what captured and sustained my attention the most. I love how the book gives us so much room as readers to develop our own beliefs and thoughts. How each page allows for us to sit and talk for moments on end was very intriguing and actually fun. I loved how many ideas were thrown out into discussion throughout class. There were so many differing and thought provoking ideas that I found myself fascinated by how much we all came up with individually for each page of the novel. I especially loved the end of the book where Ruth is literally swallowed up and taken away by her schizophrenic hallucinations. I have no idea why the thought of the early Bible stories of the plague broke out in my mind, but probably because of not only the locusts and frogs, but also because of how these creatures seemed to engulf Ruth’s entire being and sweep her away without her being able to put up a fight any more. Ruth gives in to her hallucinations and is literally swallowed whole. This book is truly one of my favorites this semester. I love how much we as readers are able to allow our minds to be swallowed up by this novel’s illustrated hallucinations and how much it affects us to the point that we ourselves might even sound a little crazy.