What the Font!?

The varying typographic treatments in “Mother’s Urn: Memoir Dust” let us hear from the voices of the daughter of an abusive father, two delinquent teens, a lucid narrator, and a lost child. These voices are communicated through font color, treatment, and location. In “Mother’s Urn: Memoir Dust” Kalamity I and Antonina Gribnidova left no typographic stone unturned.

“Christmas Myth” is written in swirling red letters reminiscent of the sort of type you might expect “The Night Before Christmas” to be written in; however, we soon realize the content is more reminiscent of “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” The swirly type slithers across the page saying, “Who would have thought,” on the first page (2). Then the type becomes thin in the paragraph, threatening to get devoured by the surrounding black page. Kalamity and Gribnidova struggled to clarify that this page is supposed to communicate “Happy” times by placing that word in larger bold type alone on the bottom of the page. The way the word “Happy” is emphasized makes it read like a misplaced title. The slithering type returns at the bottom of the opposing page, but this time signifying the passing of time, “Dozen months flew by” (3).

The leading capital “G” on page 5 signifies the beginning of a new section or poem. Then another section begins with the word “Honeymoon” located at the top left corner of the page. The flow stops with the thick dark, “U” that begins the sentence, “Until the parties stopped” (11). This sentence is placed in the visual center of the page, which makes it static, forcing the reader to exist in this moment of stopping.

We are transitioned into the next section with a big swooping “S” (12). Here the “S” almost looks playful as it interacts with the other letters around it, like a slide at a playground, which compliments the line it begins, “School started.” The text flows as expected for the next four pages until the leading “P” in “Poverty” (16). The convention of the leading capital letter is disrupted by starting the last sentence with a broken Christmas ornament representing the letter “O” (18). The ornament is also red like the text, the color we now understand does not represent the holiday spirit, but rather the blood shed throughout this section.

The blunt white text of “No refills on the photo album,” along with the lack of capitalization in the title, sets us up for the lethargic adolescent voice we will experience in this section. The dialogue between the sister and brother is written in a font that is reminiscent of handwriting on a chalkboard. The blunt, boxy edges of the letters look barbaric and uneducated. It is not surprising that the characters are discussing drinking beer instead of going to school.

The words “lying family prints mom. I think of her” are highlighted in white and the text is inverted into black (23). This is a text treatment The Sex Pistols used on their album covers that is reminiscent of ransom notes. The mother is absent in this section and the characters assume she will be back because, “I’ve got a birthday coming and she forgot her Valium” (26). This highlighted text reads as a ransom note for their mother, who has been kidnapped by pills.

The text in “Somebody’s Mother” is a muted gray font consisting of smooth straightforward strokes void of convoluted swirls and blunt edges; the most readable typeface we have encountered yet. This is a script font, like the previous sections, but representing a new voice that is lucid and articulate. Furthermore, all of the images are in frames adding an element of totality and comprehensibility to this section.

The layout of this section is book-like starting with a title page (27), then a subtitle page (28), and four pages of continuous text that follow (30-33). The font, framed images, and book-like organization of this chapter let us hear from a composed narrator for the first time.

It is not surprising that we see blue text that rolls like waves in “New Lesson” since it takes place at the beach. I found the orphaned words to be a clever textual treatment throughout this chapter. For instance, the word “Mom” is isolated from the rest of the text by the climbing child and crab (39). The word is the same stroke weight and font size as the rest of the text which implies that it belongs on the other side of the images, among the paragraphs, with it’s family of type. The narrator is lost at the beach, looking for her mother, an orphan among the sea of families on the sand.

Margaret Seelie