A Blanket of Truth

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            Audiences enjoy a good, inspiring story based on true events. Heck, at the time of this writing, we’ve had a slew, dozens of movies and books based on a true story or somebody’s life each year. However, overtime we’ve come to understand that memoirs and the biography genre may not truly represent the subject’s life. Narratives have different requirements and constraints than real life could accomplish and sometimes a creator has to embellish a few aspects to give it a better narrative flow. Because of this, how “true” could a true story be if the facts can be embellished and change, wouldn’t that be no different than making it up? Talk show host Frank Stasio of Talk of the Nation discuss A Million Little Pieces on “The Ethics of Memoir Writing” with journalist and writer of non-fiction and the editor of The Paris Review Philip Gourevitch, along with Professor Nicholas Christopher of Columbia University. Despite the subject being A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, this discussion will instead focus on the graphic novel Blankets by Craig Thompsons, apply the ethics behind biographical embellishment and whether it betrays the author’s integrity.

           When a creator labels a story as true, we instantly trust their integrity. However, if evidence surfaces claiming deception on the writer’s part, Mr. Gourevitch claims it to be no different than:

If [he says] to you, ‘Here, buy this car. It’s a hybrid,’ and then it turns out actually it’s a gas guzzler—if I say to you, ‘Buy this war. There are weapons of mass destruction and they’re tied to terrorism,’ and then none of those are proved, you would have reason to question me.

Or maybe the author lost the records. Link

Gourevitch’s stance is that an author should be honest, that if he or she claimed that the story is true, it better be exactly what it says on the tin. Any evidence to contrary and the author is nothing more than a con artist looking suckers to scam. Professor Christopher, however, is much more lenient to author, citing that it’s human nature to be flawed and our memories can be imperfect. “But when you’re writing a memoir, you’re saying—you’re making a covenant with the reader saying, “The facts in here are accurate as best I can remember them,” says Christopher, though nevertheless he establishes his limits by stating,” If you start appropriating other people’s lives, . . . and the other people’s tragedies and then transfiguring those, I think it’s just unethical and bogus and lying after awhile.” I understand Christopher’s point if other people are used for another author’s purpose, whether it is their fictional selves being warped or unflattering caricatures.

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In the first chapter of Blankets, Craig Thompson establishes his Christian upbringing and poor home life. There were several scenes that depicted child-Craig as pathetic and tormented, which could be a device the Thompson is using to illicit sympathy from his readers to his plight. In addition to things that could be embarrassing such as the pee fight between him and his brother in a later chapter. However, it also suggests his parents—particularly his father—were abusive because his father responded to child-Craig’s and his younger brother Phil’s complaints over sharing a bed with hostility and punishing them by locking Phil in the Cubby Hole, a room that’s a cross between an attic and a closet. According to Thompson, his parents received a copy of the book and were not pleased, however, their displeasure was probably more focused on the fact that he meant for the book as a means of “coming out” to them, in that he renounces Christianity but still holds faith in God and Jesus. In addition to his own family represented, Thompson is also representing Raina’s, his love interest, family as well, who are conveniently in the middle of a divorce and depicting their family troubles.

            There’s a distinction between fiction and lying. Fiction is not lying, it’s telling truths through one’s imagination. There are some people who feel there is no need to feel betrayed. For example, a person named Judy calls the show to offer her perspective over the issue:

I don’t personally have a problem if I actually don’t know what parts were changed. But I learned, when I was taking a qualitative research course in the PhD program, that sometimes a fictionalized account of something can be more powerful. . . . sometimes if you just recount the facts, that’s kind of cut and dry, but if there’s an added fictionalized aspect to it . . . you can convey the feeling of the experience much better.

When I was little, I would just pretend my bed was a circus, or a caccoon, or a magic carpet, or my last bastion against the monsters and things living under it. I should stop. Link

Going back to the idea that life is not as exciting or inspiring without the lens of fiction as depicted in books or movies and sometimes embellishment is needed to enhance the experience. In fact, folklore, myths, and legends were “true stories” that became exaggerated overtime through generations of re-tellings that nevertheless ring powerful truths. We may doubt that there was a girl called Cinderella but we still believe in karma through the fairy tale.

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            Occasionally Thompson’s novel will get surreal and of course it probably never happened in real life but only to convey his thoughts, dreams, and a visual display of the unreliable narrator. Occasionally I question whether Raina and her family are real and whether their problems were real. However, Thompson’s focus is not on them but a character study of his own spirituality and coming of age, his own independence from Christianity.

Persepolis: A Child of Iran

            It’s very easy to dream of a better world. Ideologies are born, gain momentum and popularity during turbulent political and sociological climates. It is not helped if the current regime in any government is running poorly and the ideology, such as Marxism, seem like the better alternative to a happier lifestyle. And thus, once an ideology becomes popular in times of political and sociological turmoil, it can only lead to one result: revolution! It’s very easy to dream of a better world. While an ideology sounds perfect in theory, putting it in practice is a different beast altogether. What are the consequences of applying a new set of ideals onto an entire nation? Marjane Satrapi’s graphic memoir Persepolis illustrates her growing up in post-Iranian Revolution Iran and the radical changes she and her family experienced as a result of the revolution.

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            The book opens with a cartoon representation of Satrapi’s 5^th grade school photo, the most striking feature is that she’s wearing a veil. Several panels after the first go on to explain it being the first of many new policies implemented in the Revolution’s aftermath, in which women are now required to wear veils in public. Naturally, many women, especially young girls, are very resistant to this repressive change. Shortly after in the chapter “The Water Cell” Satrapi goes into detail of Iran’s history and the politics that led to the Iranian Revolution. Reza Shah Pahlavi was appointed Shah of the Kingdom of Iran by the British Empire, whom they saw as a patsy as he was basically an uneducated nobody who they could use to exploit Iran’s resources, namely oil. Satrapi conveys this information by first having her child self recite it like a lesson she learned from school, then depicted the story as a fairy tale told from her father, with the Shah resembling a stereotypical king. A king possibly serves as a template for child-Satrapi for any absolute ruler or official of a nation.

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Reza Shah was originally meant to be a patsy, however, his synergistic relationship with the British Empire prompted him to modernize the Kingdom of Iran by introducing western culture and technology to its citizens. The BBC documentary provides old footage of British-Iranian cultural merge, which comments: “Everyone seems to be acting a part, the effects smack more of a copy of nineteenth-century European court than of Iran’s older traditions of royal life.” Britain’s dominating influence and Iran’s fading cultural identity heavily contributed to the country’s dissention, and the situation was exacerbated further once the Shah was succeeded by his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Satrapi explains the difference between the reign of the current Shah and his predecessor through her grandmother:

You know, my child, since the dawn of time, dynasties have succeeded each other but the kings always kept their promises. The Shah kept none; I remember the day he was crowned. He said: “I am the light of the Aryans. I will make this the most modern of all time. Our People will regain their splendor. (27)

In addition to the dynasty’s goal to modernize Iran and the issue regarding cultural identity, the Shah had also been wasteful by spending the country’s money on extravagant parties, frivolous goods, and trying to transform Iran into a military superpower. The documentary explained:

“The Shah needed a strong army. But by becoming the fifth most powerful army in the world needed economic, cultural and industrial foundations which Iran wouldn’t have for years. But the Shah didn’t understand this. He just couldn’t grasp it.”

It’s questionable as to why the Shah needed his toys in the first place, however, Iraq was on the verge of becoming rogue and Mohammad did not believe peace would last, while also wanting to compete with other countries like Britain and France in terms of military power. Nevertheless, any one who opposes the Shah, whether violently or peacefully, are arrested as political prisoners.  Most of the Iranian citizens agreed that Reza’s reign, as Shah, was tough; it’s universally agreed that his son was ten times worse. Once the revolution was in full swing, the Shah abdicated the throne and Iran returned to an Islamic state.

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            While many had hope the revolution would bring Iran back to prosperity again. The country, however, now governed by Islamic fundamentalism, is now undergoing many changes that affect many citizens personally, including Satrapi. For starters, women and young girls are now required to 

wear veils when out in public, according to religious dogma, but also under the sexist belief that a woman’s hair emits rays that cause a man to become crazy and lustful, regardless of the woman’s age or sexual maturity. The new regime also personally affected Satrapi when she was young by executing her uncle Anoosh, whom she was close too. Uncle Anoosh was a socialist who tried to escape the country and reconnect with his estranged family, only to be imprisoned for nine years and then released when the Shah abdicated. However, once the Islamic fundamentalists came into power, they arrested and executed Anoosh because he opposed their ideals. Uncle Anoosh was allowed one visitor before his execution, and he chose Satrapi. The event impacted her so greatly that she renounced her faith in God, whom by that point, had a relationship with Satrapi akin to an imaginary friend, or Merlin considering her earliest ambition was to become a prophet, and thus God was mentoring her for the role.

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            The Islamic fundamentalist’s main ideal is to ema

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ncipate Iran from Western culture and ideals, including capitalism. The result is a stifling environment no different than Orwell’s 1984 in which bystanders will have no qualms selling out other people if they feel they are not upholding the new standards. This image is best illustrated in the chapter “Kim Wilde” in which a teenage Satrapi goes shopping, hoping to expand her growing taste for punk and rock and roll. Her sources are black market dealers, hoping to hawk luxury goods such as Michael Jackson, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, and other secular goods like chess, make-up, and playing cards. Then once she makes her purchase, sinister nuns appear suspicious and hostile towards the young Satrapi and if she hadn’t been so crafty, the nuns would most likely report her to the Islamic Guardians where she would be punished severely and possibly killed.

            Satrapi had been expelled from various instructors because of her rebelliousness and confrontational demeanor. During a lesson at school from her newest teacher, the teacher declares: “Since the Islamic Republic was founded, we no longer have political prisoners” (144). Satrapi, speaking from personal experience with her uncle and witnessing many of her friends and family either fleeing or dying as a result of the Republic’s rise to power, however, disagrees and proceeds to poke truck-sized holes in the teacher’s claim. While awesome and mike drop worthy on Satrapi’s part, her mother, nevertheless, chastises her for making that mistake, which could have resulted in what the nuns would have done if they hadn’t lost interest; or arrested and executed by firing squad like the daughter of a passport-forger being hunted and recently martyred for being a communist; or being forcibly married to a guardian, then raped by said guardian so the government could bypass the law against killing virgins. Because of her character, Satrapi’s parents think it best for her to leave the country so as to avoid potential repercussions of hers or their beliefs.

            It’s easy to dream of a better world. The Islamic Republic and the supporters of the Islamic revolution had noble intentions in regards to the political climate. However, the Republic’s extremism and favor for the nation have led them to disregard the rights of the individual. In addition, Satrapi conveys their extremism in putting their ideology, in its “purest” form by removing all sources of Western culture, as something repressive, regressive, hypocritical, stifling, and dangerous to the citizens of Iran, especially to a child growing up in such a place.

Work Cited

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. Paris: Pantheon. 2003. Print.

In The Details

Pg. 22

            A comic or graphic novel is not limited in medium or genre. That’s what graphic novelist Scott McCloud believes as he wrote in the first chapter of his book Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art that a comic could be done in pencil, ink, painted, sketched with pastels or charcoal. In addition, a comic’s content is not strictly just about superheroes or B-movie plots, but can feature a wide range of genres like fantasy, science-fiction, historical dramas, mystery, epics, social commentary, etc. There is no limit. Later in his book, McCloud discusses the idea of audience involvement, the idea of a novelist evoking sympathy to his or her audience based on the level of detail in their work. In this blog, I will discuss the ideas McCloud has on comics and how they apply to the graphic novel Fun Home by Alison Bechdel.

Loving father?

Pg. 18-19

            Fun Home is a memoir in graphic novel form that depicts Bechdel growing up in a small town in Pennsylvania. However, the novel is also a study of Bechdel’s father, her relationship with him, as well as coming to terms with her sexuality as a lesbian in the wake of his abrupt death, and how the events have altered her perspective of his character. McCloud makes a point that to the reader, a cartoon is merely a concept. McCloud’s comic book avatar declares, “Who I am is irrelevant. . . But if who I am matters less, maybe what I say will matter more (37). Bechdel’s memoir functions on a similar principle for I, as a reader, have no idea who Bechdel’s father was, I have never met him, and I have no chance to meet him now. He exists as a concept in her novel, the only record of his existence, and it’s up to me as a reader to judge him based on that.

 

Seriously. Why should I listen to a
three dimensional man?
Pg. 36

The cartoon man looks way
more trustworthy.
Pg. 37

      

Bechdel often includes detailed
sketches based on actual photos
to enhance realism. She's also noting
the similarities she and her family
share with the Addams Family, and
how much she resembles Wednesday.
 Pg. 35

However, because the only record of Bruce Bechdel is through his daughter, this creates bias in his depiction, a graphic form of the unreliable narrator. Bechdel recalls an oppressive atmosphere growing up because of her father’s obsessive hobby of restoring the family manor and filling it with “beautiful” things. She hated the experience and the environments in the house contrast to other set pieces in the narrative, in which scenes that take place in the manor are highly detailed to emphasize the exquisite beauty her father was obsessively determined to display while to her (and the reader) it was represented as gaudy clutter as opposed to the simplicity in places like her grandmother’s place or the funeral home. McCloud comments, “while most characters were designed simply, to assist in reader-identification––other characters were drawn more realistically in order to objectify them, emphasizing their “otherness” from the reader” (44). As an examination of her father, the detail on him and the manor allows Bechdel to establish the resentment she harbors but also her father’s closeted homosexuality.

 In addition, it allows us to perceive him as an alien figure just as Bechdel viewed him while growing up, considering that the cartoon avatar of her late father displays very little emotion, or positive ones at least. Even when Bechdel provides a flashback of her father’s childhood based on a story her grandmother would often retell, he was still stoic.

Pg. 40-41

            The idea that the level of detail can evoke an audience sympathy can be rooted in the theory of the Uncanny Valley, in which the more human attributes we give to a non-human thing, it becomes off-putting once it’s reached a certain point. While the principle has its similarities, it still does not function that way. Nevertheless, we see how Bechdel sees her father, as she uses simplicity to show peace and happiness and detail creates conflict. In addition, the father is a concept to us and he is defined by what Bechdel provides us with, including material that she was not witness to and had to work through speculation.

Bechdel walking in on her father
preparing a corpse for a funeral.
The nakedness and gore was an
uncomfortable memory for her.
Pg. 44-45

Works Cited

Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home. Boston: Mariner Books, 2006. Print.

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: Harper, 1993. Print.

Strange Geometry: Structure of "The Girl Who Would Be Death"

Death's favorite movie is Mary Poppins.
Who knew?
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            Before I start this blog, I wish to establish that I love Neil Gaiman and his works. I discovered his writing when I was a junior in high school, my first novel by him titled Anansi Boys, and since then I’ve remained a fan and regard him as a major influence to my writing. I’ve started reading his most famous work, the Vertigo series The Sandman, as I was just starting college and took me two years to read through the saga’s eighty-two issues (eleven compiled volumes, including EndlessNights). Now I’m in my senior year and for my Graphic Novel class, every person is to analyze the structure of a random comic. What was the deliberate use of frames and panels? How do the frames enhance the story? Coincidently, I was assigned The Girl Who Would Be Death #3, the third act of a four part spin-off series created by Caitlin R. Kiernan and Dean Ormston. The cover lacked anything that would indicate Sandman or Dave McKean’s signature art style despite the word “Death” and the Vertigo logo. I joked while receiving the copy to look at, “I only know of one Death and this doesn’t look like her.” As it turns out, the story does take place in the Sandman universe as Gaiman was credited as a consultant.

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            Death, especially Gaiman’s Death, is one of the most well known and beloved characters in the DC Universe. Despite what her name and function implies, she is one of most loving and caring figures you could or ever want to meet, especially at the stressful and difficult moment of one’s own expiration. I say this because the cover is non-indicative to her character. The past covers by Dave McKean that have featured Death feature a dark and ethereal Goth girl. The cover of “The Girl Who Would Be Death” is more indicative of a horror/thriller title, which is not what the character is about. After skimming through the issue looking for candidate pages for this blog, I kept wondering at why I haven’t heard of this title because I’ve encountered all the other spinoffs. After googling it, there’s very little information about it and the comic book website, Comic Vine, lists the series as having poor reception since it’s release and is largely forgotten. That’s never a good sign. Beforehand, after skimming through, I was disappointed to find nothing that resonated with its source material. After seeing the review on Comic Vine, I realized that my feelings were founded. 

Because of the context of the assignment, I am not aware of what happened in the previous two issues and I could not read the comic because of A) the short amount of time in class and B) the issues are not to be taken home. This is purely going to be a superficial reading on how the creators structured the narrative.

            The first page opens with an establishing shot of two women sharing a bed while encircled with some sort of substance. It seems the creators are taking a page from the Sanderson Sisters’ spell book on protection spells; the circle is also made of salt, then that’s just plagiarism. Nevertheless, the page indicates that these women have had a rough night considering they had to draw a circle around where they sleep and the bars from the window and headboard convey this prison-like imagery. It’s to suggest that these women are struggling; they are trapped and cornered by an unseen entity as well as shocking to first time readers into wondering what led to this moment. From a strayed observation, could these women have any relation to Hazel and Foxglove, the lesbian couple from The Sandman?

            The first page is also the first instance of the creators’ use of panels overlapping a bigger picture, which is used repeatedly throughout the issue. I think the technique is used to depict the idea that everything is happening at the same time, several elements are in motion that are leading to a result. On this page, a man sees a raven [Matthew?] flying and then crashing into the window of these women. This event is very frightening to them and it seems like it’s trying to bait them out of their circle. I don’t know why, but the overlapping technique on the raven in the middle of the splash page is off, like it’s superfluous and comes off as obstructive and lessens the terror this thing is suppose to give off.

            The overlap technique is used again when a zombie-like figure appears in the narrative. Like the raven, it’s a little distracting, but I think the intention was to give weight to the appearance of this thing, considering that the women are frightened over their current situation and this creature appears and breaks through their defenses.

The Sandman is always known for giving characters, especially the Endless, unique word balloons like Dream’s/Morpheus’ inverted black and white wavy word balloons, Desire’s sharp lettering, or Delirium’s colorful word balloons. This zombie has a wavy, oozing word balloon reminiscent of the fonts used in slasher films just to reinforce this creature’s horror. I’m curious as to whether this story takes place after the events of the source material because [SPOILER] Morpheus dies. Can an Endless leave behind a corpse? I don’t recall Morpheus leaving one for his funeral. Nevertheless, the creature is similar looking to Morpheus along with his speech bubble and accompaniment of a raven.

The last page I chose was for this one panel, which effectively conveys the character’s emotional state. The most effective way to show someone lost and alone is to have them isolated, which is what the artist did by having this character isolated in this white void with her shadow stretching farther than physically possible. Most human characters who encounter the Endless have their lives changed, they often go on living trying to forget the experience like it was a dream or they go mad from knowing their world had gotten a bit bigger than they care to know. The isolated woman suggests the latter category. Something this simple can say a lot.

God made the world in seven days.
Dream unmakes it in seven minutes.
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“The Girl Who Would Be Death” is a weak entry in The Sandman universe because it’s trying to be something that it’s not. The issue contains other monstrous creatures and bits of horror to the point it seems like a different story. While the source material has plenty of horrific elements, to this day I still can’t get over “24 Hours” in Preludes and Nocturnes, that’s still not the overall focus of the narrative. The Sandman was an introspective, post-modernist fantasy that examined the nature of story, myth and the nature of dreams itself. The series has boasted beautiful, surrealistic artwork and probably the most fantastic sequence was in A Game of You, when Morpheus, in a majestic display of his power, “unmakes” a fantasyland with ease.

Death’s character seems inappropriate to be part of a horror title. It seems like the title was given to lesser hands, who then tried to reverse engineer what worked in the source material but only resulted in failure. It’s like giving TheNightmare on Elm Street to mediocre slasher film directors or having the TV show Community taken away from its creator, Dan Harmon, and given to mediocre show runners. The metaphor would be half-effective if it weren’t true and both products turned out sloppy.