Special Exits opens with pages the color of red clay I have often seen lining the rural roads in southern California, outside LA. The cover is gray with black text, and a strip of green runs along the brownish-red spine. The images of the two elderly people on the cover coupled with this earthy color scheme referenced they way some believe our bodies get buried and become fertilizer for lush green growth.
I’m sure many of Farmer’s readers have grandparents, and have dealt with their shrinking bodies, waning appetites, and cluttered homes; however, this was not what was depicted on the first two pages. I was surprised to open to the first spread and see bulbous characters stuffed into claustrophobic frames they often overflowed out of (follow the cat’s tail that leeks into multiple frames on pages 2 & 3).
Mortality is mentioned immediately, first with Laura being attacked by the cat, and then on the last frame on page 2 where Lars pulls up his sleeve to reveal hatch-marks of cat scratches across his arm. Lars’s nonchalance about the cuts on his arm also references this indifference toward his health and his body we see throughout the text, ie. the shingles outbreak (25), ant poison (33), and his persistent resistance to see a doctor.
The time-tags in Chapter two begin to become less precise and adopt a slightly annoyed tone, for instance, “yet another week…and another…” (33), as opposed to “a week goes by…” in the previous chapter (25); the word “yet” implies that the narrator is beginning to realize this is the beginning of many weeks, even years, to come.
I think that Farmer cleverly communicates her opinion about medical personnel starting on page 134 where she depicts the receptionist at Memorial Hospital painting her nails while implying that Laura’s request is excessive by saying, “for a blister?” as if to say, “It’s just a blister and totally not a big deal.” Then the smiley secretary for the nursing home is doing a crossword puzzle while telling Laura that her mother fell and broke her hip, days ago (138). I found the frame depicting the doctor suggesting more tests be done on Lars while betting on horses was the most direct and clever jab at medical personnel (173). I say clever because all of these details are added by Farmer, in other words, there is no way she could have known what the doctor was reading on the other end of the line during that conversation.
The most haunting and explicit speculation Farmer makes throughout the novel is depicted on fifth and sixth frames after she and Lars meet with the nursing home lawyer: the lawyer is depicted on the phone saying, “home free, boss!” then he instructs the nurse to “put Mrs. Dover in this private room next to my office” (147). Since this is a memoir, all the author really knows is that she / Laura met with the lawyer and then a week later she finds Rachel in the private room next to the lawyer’s office (149). It is almost as if these speculative frames are indicative of a moment of insanity induced by anger. Farmer, or Laura, return to their senses on the bottom of 150 where Rachel is dead and the lawyer is depicted leaning over Rachel’s bed with a maniacal grin on his face. Here Laura stops speculating and attacks him by saying, “When she first fell and broke her hip, it would have been kinder if you had taken her out in the alley and SHOT HER!” (150). Here is where Laura’s anger boils over, no more speculation, no more guessing, Rachel is dead, and Laura tells everyone she blames the lawyer / nursing home.
The speculation in these frames of the disinterest in all the people outside of their family involved in Rachel’s care did not seem in-genuine or excessive. They are all reading a magazine or ignoring Rachel all the way to the end, ie. the woman at the funeral home is depicted reading “Art News” rather than letting Laura see Rachel’s body (151). I read these as moments of victory for Farmer and the reason she wrote this book in the first place.
My father has been in a nursing home before, after a nearly deadly motorcycle accident. He barely made it out of the coma he was in for a month, and when he did, we had to admit him to a nursing home. He couldn’t speak or move and spent most days lying on his back as his eyes rolled in his head. My sister had to drop out of school to move home and take care of him for months. I received constant reports of mistreatment from not bathing him, not changing his sheets, bedsores, and forgetting to feed him and administer his medication. Ultimately, my sister came to the nursing home daily and ended up bathing, feeding, and giving him his medication herself. Now with seven years of hindsight, I believe that my father would have died in that facility if it were not for her.
For personal reasons I not only trusted Farmer in these moments of speculation, but I had to refrain from jumping up from my couch and saying, “Yeah, fuck you!” to the lawyer right along with her. Special Exits is a profoundly important piece of literature and I wish it was not just required reading for our class, but also for anyone over the age of twenty-five. I realize now that the color scheme of the cover does not reference death and the way our bodies eventually make the plants grow…it is referencing they way we can learn from our mistakes and make better ones in the future…a color-scheme of self-forgiveness.
~Margaret Seelie~
Showing posts with label travel pants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel pants. Show all posts
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Sunday, March 10, 2013
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
“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
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Who's This Chris Ware Guy?
Hey All,
If you read The New Inquiry piece about Bechdel and don't know who Chris Ware is I found this article on KQED about his new book. The article also talks about how short our attention spans have become, which is a topic that is purposefully kept at bay in our classes. So if you want to take a look at his style or satiate your ADD conversation cravings, have a look.
Best,
Margaret Seelie
If you read The New Inquiry piece about Bechdel and don't know who Chris Ware is I found this article on KQED about his new book. The article also talks about how short our attention spans have become, which is a topic that is purposefully kept at bay in our classes. So if you want to take a look at his style or satiate your ADD conversation cravings, have a look.
Best,
Margaret Seelie
Sunday, March 3, 2013
The Legitimate Truth
It seems that Bechdel’s novel Are You My Mother? is about getting to the truth. She uses a myriad of devices to legitimize herself as a reliable narrator, and to validate her experiences as a child. The two techniques I plan to focus on are her treatment of dialogue and her use of outside sources like Donald Winnicott and Virginia Woolf.
Some critics say the moment dialogue enters a piece of non-fiction; it becomes fiction because it is impossible to remember every conversation you’ve ever had. Bechdel uses a variety of techniques to prove to the reader she is telling the truth, the entire truth. For instance, she legitimizes all her dialogue with her mother by showing herself transcribing their phone conversations. She explains, “I must confess that I have taken to transcribing what she says. I don’t think she knows I’m doing it, which makes it a bit unethical” (11). In a way, Bechdel is aligning herself with the reader here by telling us that she is going behind her mother’s back to get the truth.
Bechdel also avoids loosing legitimacy by using little to no dialogue in her flashbacks. There is one line of dialogue in the flashback of Alison leaving for college: “See ya!” (219). The flashback of her mother in the theater has dialogue bubbles of her singing and reciting lines, which also avoids the issue of trying to recall the exact conversation (218). I thought Bechdel’s treatment of the dialogue when her mother is recalling the beginning of her arachnophobia was interesting because the text is in information boxes with quotes around the words her mother is saying in the present (276). It isn’t until the third to last page that Bechdel finally feels confident enough with the reader to admit, “I don’t remember the particulars of our play. I’m inventing this dialogue wholesale” (287).
I felt the Gestalt of Are You My Mother? was not so much a recollection of her relationship with her mother, but a journey through her struggle to see things, “from both sides of the couch – just what it is that psychoanalysts do for their patients” (21). Although she studies Jung, Freud, and Miller, she chooses to focus on Donald Winnicott, a British psychoanalyst pediatrician. Bechdel goes through Winnicott’s theories while unpacking her past relationships depicting how they relate to one another. Winnicott’s theory of The Good-enough Mother is depicted as the focal point of pages 60-61 because it stands out as the only solid colored frame, consists only of text, and is placed in ‘confrontational’ center when applied to the rule of thirds. Around this text block are images of Alison as a baby, her mother, her father, and Winnicott with his therapist. It is as if these images and text are thrown into a blender on this page, mixing Bechdel’s story with Winnicott’s (60-61).
Bechdel blends her family with the Ramsays from Virginia Woolf’s novel, The Lighthouse (256). Here she melds the two families together by talking about the Ramsey’s in the information blocks of text, and filling the rest of the frames with a flashback of Alison’s parents fighting. However, she keeps the narratives separate by writing the text from Woolf in script and not integrating it into the image frames. Here Woolf is given her own page of text, and there are no depictions of herself or the Ramseys, unlike the previous page spread I referenced above where Winnicott is depicted twice (60-61).
Are You My Mother? and The Imposter’s Daughter were about legitimizing the main character’s experiences as children; Sandell did this by researching her father’s past and Bechdel used Winnicott’s psychoanalytic theories. Ultimately, both characters are able to let their mother / father go; Bechdel, “destroyed my mother, and she has survived my destruction” (285). Sandell got healthy herself, which enabled her to let go of her father. Bechdel took us on her journey of legitimization that lead her to the realization that, “She (her mother) has given me a way out” (289). Bechdel’s quest for the truth through dialogue, flashbacks, psychoanalytic texts, and Woolf’s writing was confusing at times, but ultimately enlightening.
~Margaret~
Some critics say the moment dialogue enters a piece of non-fiction; it becomes fiction because it is impossible to remember every conversation you’ve ever had. Bechdel uses a variety of techniques to prove to the reader she is telling the truth, the entire truth. For instance, she legitimizes all her dialogue with her mother by showing herself transcribing their phone conversations. She explains, “I must confess that I have taken to transcribing what she says. I don’t think she knows I’m doing it, which makes it a bit unethical” (11). In a way, Bechdel is aligning herself with the reader here by telling us that she is going behind her mother’s back to get the truth.
Bechdel also avoids loosing legitimacy by using little to no dialogue in her flashbacks. There is one line of dialogue in the flashback of Alison leaving for college: “See ya!” (219). The flashback of her mother in the theater has dialogue bubbles of her singing and reciting lines, which also avoids the issue of trying to recall the exact conversation (218). I thought Bechdel’s treatment of the dialogue when her mother is recalling the beginning of her arachnophobia was interesting because the text is in information boxes with quotes around the words her mother is saying in the present (276). It isn’t until the third to last page that Bechdel finally feels confident enough with the reader to admit, “I don’t remember the particulars of our play. I’m inventing this dialogue wholesale” (287).
I felt the Gestalt of Are You My Mother? was not so much a recollection of her relationship with her mother, but a journey through her struggle to see things, “from both sides of the couch – just what it is that psychoanalysts do for their patients” (21). Although she studies Jung, Freud, and Miller, she chooses to focus on Donald Winnicott, a British psychoanalyst pediatrician. Bechdel goes through Winnicott’s theories while unpacking her past relationships depicting how they relate to one another. Winnicott’s theory of The Good-enough Mother is depicted as the focal point of pages 60-61 because it stands out as the only solid colored frame, consists only of text, and is placed in ‘confrontational’ center when applied to the rule of thirds. Around this text block are images of Alison as a baby, her mother, her father, and Winnicott with his therapist. It is as if these images and text are thrown into a blender on this page, mixing Bechdel’s story with Winnicott’s (60-61).
Bechdel blends her family with the Ramsays from Virginia Woolf’s novel, The Lighthouse (256). Here she melds the two families together by talking about the Ramsey’s in the information blocks of text, and filling the rest of the frames with a flashback of Alison’s parents fighting. However, she keeps the narratives separate by writing the text from Woolf in script and not integrating it into the image frames. Here Woolf is given her own page of text, and there are no depictions of herself or the Ramseys, unlike the previous page spread I referenced above where Winnicott is depicted twice (60-61).
Are You My Mother? and The Imposter’s Daughter were about legitimizing the main character’s experiences as children; Sandell did this by researching her father’s past and Bechdel used Winnicott’s psychoanalytic theories. Ultimately, both characters are able to let their mother / father go; Bechdel, “destroyed my mother, and she has survived my destruction” (285). Sandell got healthy herself, which enabled her to let go of her father. Bechdel took us on her journey of legitimization that lead her to the realization that, “She (her mother) has given me a way out” (289). Bechdel’s quest for the truth through dialogue, flashbacks, psychoanalytic texts, and Woolf’s writing was confusing at times, but ultimately enlightening.
~Margaret~
Monday, February 25, 2013
Breaking Boundaries (Frames)
the author breaks the conventional framing techniques we've see thus far by not boxing each frame in with a black line. he frames images by putting backgrounds in yellow, pink, orange, purple, and red. the watercolor pane of color behind the character grounds them or makes them look like they are standing in front of a wall. blocks of text also appear in these colorful rectangles with rounded edges. the colorful text blocks invite the reader in rather than creating a jail-like environment with black ls, ts, and Is streaking the page against a white background like bars on a jail cell.
he pushes the boundaries of conventional faming techniques further by simply not having a frame at all! these bleed frames imply a continuation. for instance, the second frame on the second page is an open frame of the two girls walking together as children. had LaValle added a blue sky this scene would look complete and the reader would see it as a moment in time, but by not adding that element of completion we are able to imagine the girls walking right off into the next frame and continuing to stroll through this flashback.
the author also creates this bleed frame by having the image run off the page. the most successful rendition of this is the top two frames on the last page; here, the field runs into two frames and the author communicates two ideas, "no suspectes," and, "the police gave up the search and live mostly returned to normal." again, we get a similar momentum to the bleed frame of the two girls walking. by bleeding the image of the field into two frames we, as readers, are left with the sense that that field, and the search, will continue to stretch into frame after frame after frame, even if we don't see them.
the last frame is hauntingly complete and engaging. it has everything: a light source, perspective, shadowing, thick and thin line variation, the character looking straight out at the reader. this frame would be less haunting if the wall of black trees were not creeping in like shadow monsters. a happy ending, or abduction, would be implied if the soft purple starry sky stretched out behind her. instead we imagine her wandering off into the dark woods alone where real serial killers can find her. the ought oh face on the moon doesn't help ease my anxiety.
a few other thoughts...
when looking at the author's characters in this short, the word "dopey" comes to mind. starting with the guy in the green hoodie with the hunched over shoulders and dishevled hair, then moving to the next frame showing four characters with rounded shoulders. the woman in purple, who I suspect is the main character, always seems to have her shoulders drawn up to her ears, as if she is shrugging, which makes me feel tense. she looks like she is in the midst of questioning something, saying, "I don't know," which, it turns out, is what she is doing. she is questioning the existance of extraterrestrials and the dissapearance of her friend and her friend's mother. The two frames on the bottom of the first page give us a glimpse into what she is really questioning, and the underlying question at hand...did her friend's mother really get abducted or did she run off with a younger man?
the second row of frames on the last page depicts the character sitting in the same position at different times in her life showing us how the character has grown up, but stayed the same.
this clip seems to be more about the abandonment of her friend by her parents than alien abductions. the author cleverly uses the fictional element of abduction to help the reader understand how the redheaded girl felt as a child when her mom was abducted or dissappeared from her life. through the abduction divice, the reader also learns what it feels like to mysteriously loose a friend and perhaps blame herself for her disappearance.
Thanks for reading. MargaretS.
he pushes the boundaries of conventional faming techniques further by simply not having a frame at all! these bleed frames imply a continuation. for instance, the second frame on the second page is an open frame of the two girls walking together as children. had LaValle added a blue sky this scene would look complete and the reader would see it as a moment in time, but by not adding that element of completion we are able to imagine the girls walking right off into the next frame and continuing to stroll through this flashback.
the author also creates this bleed frame by having the image run off the page. the most successful rendition of this is the top two frames on the last page; here, the field runs into two frames and the author communicates two ideas, "no suspectes," and, "the police gave up the search and live mostly returned to normal." again, we get a similar momentum to the bleed frame of the two girls walking. by bleeding the image of the field into two frames we, as readers, are left with the sense that that field, and the search, will continue to stretch into frame after frame after frame, even if we don't see them.
the last frame is hauntingly complete and engaging. it has everything: a light source, perspective, shadowing, thick and thin line variation, the character looking straight out at the reader. this frame would be less haunting if the wall of black trees were not creeping in like shadow monsters. a happy ending, or abduction, would be implied if the soft purple starry sky stretched out behind her. instead we imagine her wandering off into the dark woods alone where real serial killers can find her. the ought oh face on the moon doesn't help ease my anxiety.
a few other thoughts...
when looking at the author's characters in this short, the word "dopey" comes to mind. starting with the guy in the green hoodie with the hunched over shoulders and dishevled hair, then moving to the next frame showing four characters with rounded shoulders. the woman in purple, who I suspect is the main character, always seems to have her shoulders drawn up to her ears, as if she is shrugging, which makes me feel tense. she looks like she is in the midst of questioning something, saying, "I don't know," which, it turns out, is what she is doing. she is questioning the existance of extraterrestrials and the dissapearance of her friend and her friend's mother. The two frames on the bottom of the first page give us a glimpse into what she is really questioning, and the underlying question at hand...did her friend's mother really get abducted or did she run off with a younger man?
the second row of frames on the last page depicts the character sitting in the same position at different times in her life showing us how the character has grown up, but stayed the same.
this clip seems to be more about the abandonment of her friend by her parents than alien abductions. the author cleverly uses the fictional element of abduction to help the reader understand how the redheaded girl felt as a child when her mom was abducted or dissappeared from her life. through the abduction divice, the reader also learns what it feels like to mysteriously loose a friend and perhaps blame herself for her disappearance.
Thanks for reading. MargaretS.
Monday, February 18, 2013
The Multifarious Jobs of Black
Chapter 1: The Dark Figures.
On page 12 the father’s silhouette becomes a solid black figure trapping Alison in the bottom right corner of the frame. In contrast, Bechdel uses the silhouette during one of the few tender moments between Alison and her father. Depicting him in silhouette as both a monster (pg. 12) and kind father (pg. 21) references the complexity of the father being both these things to the main character. (side note: do you think it is Bechdel’s OCD or coincidence that these numbers mirror one another? 12-21? Just sayin’)
Chapter 2: The Black T-shirt
Toward the middle of the chapter, we see Alison in her early teens on page 42 and she appears in a black t-shirt for the first time. As the only solid black image on page 42, Alison’s t-shirt anchors the page and draws the reader’s attention to her. I continued to follow the black t-shirt to the top of page 44 when, also for the first time, Alison is a solo silhouette. With the corpse in the background this frame has monster like qualities and we see Alison watching her dad work, perhaps teaching her his ways. Looking ahead, page 145 offers a rare occasion where the father is wearing the black t-shirt while planting a tree as the young Alison stands next to him, which could be taken metaphorically. The last silhouette of Alison in chapter 2 is shown pushing a vacuum out of the frame on page 50 into a room labeled "private."
Chapter 3: Nowhere To Go.
The frame on the top of page 66 is weighted on the right and left by blackness and the mother is stuck in the middle. She is heading toward the dark staircase, which implies she has nowhere to go, and cannot escape her husband who is shown hitting on a young boy. Three pages later (69) a flashback begins of when the parents met as young thespians. These frames are set against a black background, again, offering no escape.
The black window on page 67 behind the scene of Alison as a child in the kitchen with her family works in contrast to the window on 76. On 76 stack of books titled, “Out of the Closets & Into the Streets, The Gay Report, and Homosexuality” butt up to a clear window with snow falling outside, suggesting that these books offer Alison, who is in the background, a way out.
Chapter 4: Ladies and Gentleman
Silhouettes appear again in chapter 4 on page 104 where Alison is looking over her shoulder at what appears to be the figure of a woman with long curly hair. Her brother looks the opposite direction at the outline of a man with a beard. On 107 an older Alison is depicted in the foreground with people dancing in the background, perhaps referencing the previous party scene she is in on page 104 as a child.
Chapter 5: Sunsets
Chapter 5 is bookended by sunsets; the first is the depiction of Alison’s dream after her father has passed. Although Alison and her father’s similarities have been depicted in a myriad of ways before page 124, I feel the silhouette of them against the rolling blue hills explicitly depicts their similarities. The reappearance of their silhouettes on the last page reiterates this point, while also bringing it out of Alison’s dream and into reality.
Chapter 6:
Blackness plays an interesting roll in chapter 6. It surrounds the father’s car on pages 161 and 175, which is fitting because the family is dealing with his sex scandal in this chapter. It is also fitting that the mother is depicted with jet-black hair by the end of the chapter, worried perhaps (185)?
Chapter 7: Same, Same?
The frame on the bottom right of page 189 depicts a big moment where Alison and her father stare straight at the reader and the text reads, “But this time, at age fifteen, I saw the neighborhood in a new light,” as if to say, the same way my father sees it. On page 198 Alison is not only wearing jean shorts like her father, she is shown lounging while reading and making some sarcastic comment, depicting a full transformation. Alison’s black bathing suit anchors us on the last frame on page 232. (another side note: 189-198? Coincidence or OCD?)
I apologize for the delayed blog. Thanks for reading. ~Margaret Seelie~
ps. no more ugly and confusing chunks of text...thanks Mia!
On page 12 the father’s silhouette becomes a solid black figure trapping Alison in the bottom right corner of the frame. In contrast, Bechdel uses the silhouette during one of the few tender moments between Alison and her father. Depicting him in silhouette as both a monster (pg. 12) and kind father (pg. 21) references the complexity of the father being both these things to the main character. (side note: do you think it is Bechdel’s OCD or coincidence that these numbers mirror one another? 12-21? Just sayin’)
Chapter 2: The Black T-shirt
Toward the middle of the chapter, we see Alison in her early teens on page 42 and she appears in a black t-shirt for the first time. As the only solid black image on page 42, Alison’s t-shirt anchors the page and draws the reader’s attention to her. I continued to follow the black t-shirt to the top of page 44 when, also for the first time, Alison is a solo silhouette. With the corpse in the background this frame has monster like qualities and we see Alison watching her dad work, perhaps teaching her his ways. Looking ahead, page 145 offers a rare occasion where the father is wearing the black t-shirt while planting a tree as the young Alison stands next to him, which could be taken metaphorically. The last silhouette of Alison in chapter 2 is shown pushing a vacuum out of the frame on page 50 into a room labeled "private."
Chapter 3: Nowhere To Go.
The frame on the top of page 66 is weighted on the right and left by blackness and the mother is stuck in the middle. She is heading toward the dark staircase, which implies she has nowhere to go, and cannot escape her husband who is shown hitting on a young boy. Three pages later (69) a flashback begins of when the parents met as young thespians. These frames are set against a black background, again, offering no escape.
The black window on page 67 behind the scene of Alison as a child in the kitchen with her family works in contrast to the window on 76. On 76 stack of books titled, “Out of the Closets & Into the Streets, The Gay Report, and Homosexuality” butt up to a clear window with snow falling outside, suggesting that these books offer Alison, who is in the background, a way out.
Chapter 4: Ladies and Gentleman
Silhouettes appear again in chapter 4 on page 104 where Alison is looking over her shoulder at what appears to be the figure of a woman with long curly hair. Her brother looks the opposite direction at the outline of a man with a beard. On 107 an older Alison is depicted in the foreground with people dancing in the background, perhaps referencing the previous party scene she is in on page 104 as a child.
Chapter 5: Sunsets
Chapter 5 is bookended by sunsets; the first is the depiction of Alison’s dream after her father has passed. Although Alison and her father’s similarities have been depicted in a myriad of ways before page 124, I feel the silhouette of them against the rolling blue hills explicitly depicts their similarities. The reappearance of their silhouettes on the last page reiterates this point, while also bringing it out of Alison’s dream and into reality.
Chapter 6:
Blackness plays an interesting roll in chapter 6. It surrounds the father’s car on pages 161 and 175, which is fitting because the family is dealing with his sex scandal in this chapter. It is also fitting that the mother is depicted with jet-black hair by the end of the chapter, worried perhaps (185)?
Chapter 7: Same, Same?
The frame on the bottom right of page 189 depicts a big moment where Alison and her father stare straight at the reader and the text reads, “But this time, at age fifteen, I saw the neighborhood in a new light,” as if to say, the same way my father sees it. On page 198 Alison is not only wearing jean shorts like her father, she is shown lounging while reading and making some sarcastic comment, depicting a full transformation. Alison’s black bathing suit anchors us on the last frame on page 232. (another side note: 189-198? Coincidence or OCD?)
I apologize for the delayed blog. Thanks for reading. ~Margaret Seelie~
ps. no more ugly and confusing chunks of text...thanks Mia!
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Text / Image
I could tell you all about how I've lived in houses with loads of housemates who write passive aggressive notes and my fruitless searches online for a place to rent, but I won't, instead I'd like to talk about the massive amounts of text and dialogue that filled so many of the frames in "Lucky." Somehow Belle managed to include an entire conversation between two people in one frame. For instance, the last frame on page 10 had a back and forth conversation between the main character and her future tenant. The top quarter of the frame consists of situational text that tells the reader what is happening in this frame and then the conversations snakes from the main character to the future tenant and back to her. Although there is a great deal of text in this frame, it fits comfortably with the images allowing both equal space.
Many of the frames in "Lucky" are split evenly between the text and the image. Four of the six frames on page 11 are full of text on the top half and the image fills the bottom half of the frame. The fourth panel breaks up this pattern because the main character stands among the text talking on the phone. As a graphic novel the choice Belle made to use so much text is a fascinating one. She still communicates a great deal with the images, such as body language, dress, cropping, and positioning them within the frames.
The black and white drawings with little line variation crated a monotone throughout the book. For instance, her crying moments not only seemed the same to one another, but they mirrored the other moments in the book. She is crying on pages 9 and 15, shown sitting in the same position with her head in her hand in both frames. Plus, the camera seems to be zoomed in the same amount in both crying frames. If Belle wanted to show emphasis on one crying moment over another, or any difference at all, she could have zoomed in on the main character’s facial expression, added a light source or perspective to add tension and emotion, or at least positioned her in a different way. But she didn't, which tells the reader these moments of great emotion were similar for the main character. To push this point further the main character is the same size in other frames on page 15 as she is when she is crying, which could imply these states of mind are all the same for this character. Belle does offer a different lens or perspective on the top of 15 when she shows us the back of the main character's head.
The "novelist who read from her (?) pornographic novel," was drawn in greater detail than most of the other characters. Here, on page 24, we see her haircut, eyeglasses, arm warmers, fingernails, and rings. I found this interesting because we don't even get that much detail of her boyfriend, or herself. However, I felt this was a true rendition of how we see each other; the ones we know the best disappear until we no longer see their physical beings, while the people we don't know are foreign and brimming withe details.
~Margaret Seelie~
Sunday, February 3, 2013
The Craft of Life Mapping ~ Margaret Seelie
Every January I make a life map. This tradition began a few years ago when I was living abroad and traveling. I split my maps into three categories: Date, Location, and Life / Love. I imagine the first two are self-explanatory, but the last column highlighted who came to visit, who I loved and / or slept with, and job highlights. Each column consisted of bullet-points, and sometimes brief summaries. Being someone who is prone to long-winded prose, I was impressed by Sandell's ability to summarize, and had I never written a life map I believe her craft would have baffled me. It seems that summary is a craft tool that Sandell used to communicate her multifarious plot.
Looking at her theoretical Table of Contents below we can see what portions of her life she chose to summarize in each chapter, and how she wove multiple plot-lines together. Similar to written prose, she choose vital scenes to moving the plot forward, for instance, she shows us her relationship overseas in "Flight," then launches into the rest of her dating career in "Men." Then, we take a slight detour from the main character's plot-line to revisit the story of the father. By fracturing her story-lines into summarized sections she is able to move seamlessly through time, space, and plot.
Table of Contents (theoretical)
Part I
1. Secrets
2. Stories & Gifts
3. Visions
4. Signs
5. A Discovery
6. Flight
7. Men
8. Relative Impostor
9. Father Fiction
Part II
1. Startstruck
2. Doubt
2.5 Celebrity Zoo (120)
2.75 My Interviews (122)
3. The Big Guns (125)
4. The Towel (131)
5. Contact
6. Two Truths and a Lie
7. Argentina
8. Contract of Denial (174)
8.5 The Price of Fiction (176)
9. Goodbye Doubt (186)
9.5 A Storybook Life (188)
10. Too Little, Too Late
11. Blackout
12. Shades of Hope
13. Family Week
14. Shades of Brooklyn
15. The Good Life
By summarizing, Sandell is able to pack a lot of plot into a small space. This prevents the plot from spinning out of control. For instance, if Sandell were anything like me (unable to keep her travel tales to herself), she would not have been able to keep her "I traveled more" section to six frames. I would have expanded on this section till the reader forgot who her father even was, but by life mapping I understood and admired her ability to keep months of travels to half a page...impressive!
"The Impostor's Daughter" had an eighth grader's scrapbook aesthetic, for me. This was established from the first page with the pastel polka-dots around the bubble-letters reading, "Part I." In the beginning this aesthetic choice made sense because it set the adolescent tone of naiveté. As the mystery developed and the main character spiraled deeper into her father's lies and her own depression I expected more shadows, muted colors, and perspective in the frames. Even at her darkest, most depressed moments in "Shades of Hope" the pages are still splashed with pinks, oranges, greens, and blues (204-219). The bags under her eyes and zoomed-in frame of her face on page 207 are what communicate her depression. Ultimately, I speculate that the book maintained a bright aesthetic throughout because of the character's magazine background, and I appreciate that she stuck to the aesthetic she knows.
I was confused by the fluctuation between pink and brown hair colors from pages 53-60. It was unclear as to weather the absence of pink in her hair signified a growing up moment (when she decides not to be a stripper, pg. 60), or primitive art (Sandell just forgot to add the pink). The absence of the pink in her hair seemed deliberate, but not frequent enough for me not to questions...I imagined it is like when you're trying to include a metaphor in your writing and your workshop says, "you need to push the metaphor further for the reader to get it."
Ultimately, Sandell has inspired me to attempt to stay in scene with my writing and stick to the plot. I realized that maybe I need to start life mapping my characters as well as myself.
~Margaret Seelie~ (I apologize for the text-block, Blogger is being stubborn with the spacing.)
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