Graphic Memoir. I suppose it is.
I was a bit concerned after reading the prologue- Yamashita talks about some kind of experimental sociological journey she set out on... in search of something, and it's very clear that Circle K Cycles is going to be the sum of her work on said journey. Already put off by the amount of text, I was worried that I was embarking on an annoying social justice path. Maybe that's not the right word for it, but it was the first to come to mind. I mean, you know what I mean... binders handed to you in the street with statistics designating problems. I was worried that maybe the book was going to be some kind of traditional report.
Well. It did kind of like a report, though it's a completely different way of reporting. Not traditional. Not annoying. Informative and informal. Memoir? The memoir of a group of people. A set of people. Graphic Memoir? In a way. Maybe not in the pictorial sense, eh?
Merriam-Webster offers these alternate descriptions for what is denominated as "usually graphic:"
a: marked by clear lifelike or vividly realistic description
b: vividly or plainly shown or described
Perhaps Yamashita was teetering on the edge between pictorial graphic and usually graphic.
The May chapter offers vivid descriptions (okay, maybe not descriptions, but they ain't pictures either) of pictorial things. Pop culture and ephemera pieced together and meant to be read together, offering a range of cultural queues and idiosyncrasies Reading pop culture- the new history.
While the May chapter gives a usually graphic depiction of pictorial graphics, the black-paged chapter leans heavy on the usually graphic. We circle around the one sided dialogue of three simultaneous phone calls, with intermittent flashes of intel feed, that reads like a Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego episode. The vivid description lays within the rapidly circling conversations, or maybe it would be better to say that it's the set of conversations and the tense ease, the smoothness, of Maria Madalena Shinbashi's bounce from conversation to conversation- it's like watching someone circle a room, constantly changing hats. Which, I imagine, isn't far from circling around a foreign place, in search of something familiar. Moreover, as she bounces between conversations, we read as she bounces herself around the world.
It becomes clear in the May chapter that three cultures are being represented- the obvious two being Japanese and Brazilian. The third is muted, that of American culture. All three are represented throughout, in different ways. A bulk of the work is presented in English, though both Japanese and Brazilian Portuguese is represented. And while the locations are predominately related to the dekasegi community and therefore are Japan and Brazil, America plays a distant 'big-picture' role. Something to do with that line on page 20 "a copy of a copy of a copy." Obviously, it could be said the product being produced by this labor force will have American involvement at some point. In the July chapter, titled Circle K: Rules, depicts the rules of the three groups, listed separately from the rest of the text. These text boxes function as pictorial graphics- these are some of the panels in our graphic memoir.
Is it memoir?
Is it graphic memoir?
Sure
Why not
Por que não
ないのはなぜ
I love the idea that "we circle around the one sided dialogue of three simultaneous phone calls, with intermittent flashes of intel feed, that reads like a Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego episode." Very Carmen San Diego! At moments I felt the circles were separate circles, not touching but through most of the text I found that the circles read as a 3 circle Venn Diagram. Loved the end of your post.
ReplyDeleteCarmen Sandiego is a nice approach the the May chapter. I appreciated being able to figure out the relationships between characters through the one-sided phone calls. On the other hand, I kept asking myself who would repeatedly put people on hold like that. Also, who would allow herself to be put on hold for so long? I felt annoyed for Alice and annoyed by her, even though her presence in this chapter is slight and silent.
ReplyDeletepoor alice
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Nice Monica--we are part of your recognition and i appreciate your clarity about your apprehensions. I am curious about your (plural) need to have the book adhere to a definition. Why do we need that? Can we create the definition on the body of work, rather than the other way around? In any case, the work you did with the May chapter is lively and crisp and i feel like that story is still circling.
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E-
ReplyDeleteI guess I felt the need to lean on definition because there was so much question as to whether or not this was graphic memoir. I turned to the most basic form of definition- the dictionary. Because I knew already that while the idea of graphic memoir was rooted in a pictorial way- I kept hearing my mom saying "god that movie was so graphic!"- which led me to the dictionary- what exactly does graphic mean?!? Anyway, that's why.
I really like your description of the "rapidly circling conversations...constantly changing hats." It gives the whole chapter kind of a picture quality, going round and round and round. I had the same initial reaction about the amount of text. But, like you say, graphic can also be "vividly shown or described," which makes perfect sense... it was just different to think about a graphic memoir in those terms, because as you describe it it's normally rooted in a pictorial way. If there were no pictures at all in the book, I think it would still be a graphic memoir by virtue of Yamashita's way of "circling around a foreign place."
ReplyDeleteMonica,
ReplyDeleteThat's why i said you, plural, everyone is looking for a way to classify this work. Not just you. I appreciate your response and your investigation.
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In the car my fourteen year old son says, " That doesn't look very graphic!" And compared with the manga he reads, I can see how he would find this book text heavy and tedious. On the other hand, I don't even really want to talk about whether it is or isn't a graphic memoir. It's like a tomato being a fruit. Well, oKaaaay. If you insist!
ReplyDelete