I have to say, reading Asterios Polyp was a lot of fun, and I’m certain I would need to read it several times in order to understand it completely. There’s just so much going on in terms of the philosophical ideas that are expressed by words and images and sometimes it seems the ideas are only expressed in one format and other times in a combination of the two.
My favorite idea expressed is the difference between people’s realities and what happens when two people come together. The narrator brings up this idea most clearly for me when Asterios first meets Hana in 1984. The party is full of a variety of people and each of those individuals is drawn using a completely different format: large lines with simple detail; shaded lines and all outline; triangular shadows; letters; circles connected by straight lines. What’s so incredibly interesting to me, and this does not actually strike me as a novel idea, but I really love the way it’s executed, is how the different styles for Asterios and Hana end up intertwining as they start talking. Asterios is drawn in blue lines and he looks hollow and made of shapes artists use when first drawing the form of a person. Hana, on the other hand, is drawn using a very detailed red line that seems to be primarily shading. In terms of the colors, red and blue are on opposite sides of the spectrum, but reinforcing this opposite idea is how these two things compliment each other. For instance, the form-style (I’m not sure what else to call it) of Asterios is perhaps the first thing that an artist would draw, but the shading is just as important and is essential to making objects seem more real. When Hana’s shading meets Asterios’ form, the portrait is complete.
Later on, when Hana and Asterios are fighting (we actually see the final panel of when Hana says, “what makes you think you’re always right?” at the end of the fourth chapter later on when Hana and Asterios are breaking up, but from a different angle) the original styles that we were introduced to when they met come up again and are drawn out. It seems that as they fight each individual returns to his or her original individual reality, or perspective (?) by returning to the original style used to introduce them. Hana is the red shading and Asterios is the hollow blue form.
This links to another idea in the graphic novel about dichotomies that Asterios claims are natural and that it seems eventually he learns are not necessary. I’m not entirely sure why Mazzucchelli does not use the same styles when Asterios and Hana meet again for the last time at the end of the novel, but I do think it has to do with a certain abandonment on Asterios and Hana’s part. I think by this point they are no longer forcing their original individual realities / perspectives on each other and they are no longer defined by them.
You know Lindsay, I hate it when people give a good analysis into a work that I didn’t notice; it forces me to open the book and go back to review what I apparently missed…and we all know how precious time is. lol, I think you are absolutely right, I don’t know how I did not notice Hana’s shading in the introduction (I knew something was different betwee Asterios and Hana just couldn’t figure it out) as it countered Asterios’ solid forming line. Hana always seems to be in the tone of passion (red) while the cool (supercool) Asterios lives in the blue hues in her presence. I love it.
Lindsay, we were both definitely drawn to the same thing, regarding Hana and (or versus) Asterios. I also saw them as being visually shown as opposites, but I hadn’t thought of blue and red as complimentary colors. Nice observation, which I had to talk about in my post on color as well. While you talked about how they are drawn (in the same panel I was drawn to) I expanded this to look at Asterios heavy pages versus the few we see almost strictly about Hana which are saturated in red versus Asterios’ white heavy pages.
Lindsay,
I love that you pointed out not only the red/blue intermingling of Asterios and Hana, but also the style mixing that occurs between them (though I do spite you for already having written about what I wanted to write about…). That said, I think there are a few other times this coming together/breaking apart occurs between Asterios and Hana, in ways that accentuate how they feel about each other and the “health” of their relationship at that moment. One is the scene when Asterios tells Hana about the cameras that he has installed all over his house, and the moment he does so, their colors and style immediately change to their original difference. I like that Mazzucchelli uses a normal narrative device in Hana’s immediate covering of herself with the sheet to portray how violated she feels, while also drawing the scene entirely different to show that suddenly she feels fundamentally betrayed and different from Asterios. Then, as she comes to an understanding about his reasons their styles settle down.
Later, around the very end of the narrative, is another example of their styles blending, though this time in a different way. When Asterios and Hana are on the couch talking about how life is so stressful and then all of a sudden simultaneously say “rest in peace” (jinks!), there is an overlapping of their word bubbles. Mazzucchelli could have simply drawn two bubbles and two sets of words, but instead overlaid the bubbles suggesting more than just a jinksing, but a fusing of the two people by way of their shared words. I think it is at this moment that Asterios and Hana finally come to terms with each other, and are finally “at peace” with each other. In some ways, I think this conversation, and that final uniting of words and ideas is why Mazzucchelli chose to kill them at the end. It was (literally) the final act in the long history of their love.