Steve Martin said that and sometimes, reading the critiques of these memoirists, I want to say this on an author's behalf...
I thought Drinking at the Movies was funny, and I recommended it to my sister who is currently navigating similar territory. The back cover attempts to turn trauma seekers away, "This isn't the typical redemptive coming-of-age tale of a young woman and her glorious triumph over tragedy or any such nonsense." But, sigh, we keep looking for it.
On page 139, on top of everything, Julia steps in dog shit. In comic hands this becomes bumper sticker: LIFE...WHAT A BUMMER! The hyperbole (and unfunny unclever teeshirt design) is funnier on top of an already hyperbolic narrator. It pokes fun at the way we tend to heap shit on ourselves, when "SHIT HAPPENS!".
Perhaps it is the simply drawn girl narrator character that reminds me of Nancy, and Little Lulu and even, (blurg) Cathy ("ACK!") but Julia seems the most "girl comic" of all the graphic memoir narrators. Her eyes are her most expressive feature. She also sweats anxiety and spits coffee, but in general Wertz's inability (?) to draw characters in motion lends itself well to the story of a passive narrator.
Flip through the book and see the hilarious gallery of limp noodle bendy parts that Julia and her assorted friends use to propel themselves through New York. (Mostly we see Julia from the waist up - phew! that saves a lot of work!)
A few sort of obvious things occur to me as I start to appreciate what graphic memoir alone can do:
Allow narrator to talk to "herself", step out of scene to narrate as she does on the fourth panel of (p.13):
"So I chalked it up to the convenient "youthful indiscretion""; and just beneath in text bubble:
"Also determination, stubbornness and often just plain idiocy."
As well as many instances of speaking and thinking at the same time.
Seamlessly interrupt forward momentum with commentary, such as "The Great Debate" (pp.26-27) and digression and confession (p. 83): "I Kinda Like Airports" and pulling the curtain aside during discussions to reveal the mini framed self conscious narrator as in The Way We Are (p.162)
"See"in the dark: (p. 30), where Wertz draws "darkness" in her room and Julia lying awake.
Personify her brain, have it become its own character and draw it running out of her body. ( p.94)
Visualize herself as part of a Freelance Factory, *literally* thinking inside box. (p.112)
Describe a scene with multiple speakers, as in: "Work at Tommy's was insanely busy." (p.130) In one panel, which pictures Julia holding two full trays of food and drinks, we hear from five customers without seeing any of them.
Manipulation of space and scale. The panel expands from six square panels to full page to suddenly reveal the detail within an apartment, or in equal space, an entire block of flats, or a blueprint for the interiors. Zooming in and zooming out.
Not earth shattering, these observations, but reveals comic playfulness that suits a lightly told story, and how quickly the visual language communicates things that would not translate to text only (Mystery Theater anyone?).
I'd like to take some time now to discuss white privilege and how most Americans only devote 3.5 seconds feeling ------
Ooooh, sugar-free meatball bubble gum with coconut flavor crystals shaped like ice cubes in a plastic test tube for $5!!
GAh! Gotta go, bye
Thanks for this post Kristin. I find great irony in the fact that as you said, Julia's depiction of herself in this memoir is the most ""girl comic" of all the graphic memoir narrators," particularly when we take into consideration her pretty consistent rejection of proscribed "girly" behaviours. I wonder if this choice is a self-reflexive/intentional attempt to mess with gender norms. I also think this rendition of herself in comic form serves to communicate the way in which she both struggles against but mostly clings to a juvenile approach to life in the text.
ReplyDeletere: juvenilia, It IS "A Fart Party Production"
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I appreciate your tracking of the humor, Kristin and how you notice on a craft level her irreverence even when something is serious (like drinking or cancer).
ReplyDeleteIn other countries, bags of potato chips have pictures of what their flavor is--a steak, a cow, a chicken...meatball gum, I get it :)
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Thank you for mentioning Wertz's humor craft in her work, as well as her ever-so-gently placed remark about white privilege. Do you think that humor works its way into the illustrative quality of the memoir as well as the text of the memoir? How do you feel her humor counteracts serious issues? Keep it all in mind for tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteLucille