Friday, February 28, 2014
Alison Bechdel & Fun Home
Alison Bechdel is a different kind of author, a different kind of artist. Let this 5 minute vid be your introduction to her story and her voice:
In the video below, Alison explains how she works through the process of drawing and telling a story with images and words, using both digital and traditional tools.
Third, watch this where Bechdel addresses the question: "What comes first, the writing or the drawing?" This is SO INTERESTING if you are asking yourself this very question. We've dipped our feet in the pool of creating our own comic memoir...see how she does it. She also answers some other interesting questions here about her work ethic and process.
And, finally...this just in. The College Of Charlston (SC) has recently come under fire for assigning Bechdel's Fun Home to its incoming freshmen.
South Carolina State Rep Garry Smith says: "It goes beyond the pale of academic debate...It graphically shows lesbian acts.” He thinks the College of Charleston is “promoting the gay and lesbian lifestyle” and says students should have been supplied with an alternative to “Fun Home.”
Read more about this in today's Christian Science Monitor (we are so cutting edge here at RIC!):
http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2014/0228/Alison-Bechdel-s-memoir-Fun-Home-runs-into-trouble-with-the-South-Carolina-House-of-Representatives
Okay, folks. Enjoy these resources and post your thoughts here, preferably after you read some of the book, so you're speaking (writing) from a place of knowing. I look forward to reading your smart posts!
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I loved the interview with Alison! She is very decisive about which words she chooses when answering the questions, which can also be seen in the book as well. At times she seems insecure, awkward and childlike during the interview, like she is afraid something she is saying is wrong. At one point she even apologizes for not having an example as she talks about words or phrases she tries to omit from her work and her speech, a reaction I can personally relate to (I apologize for everything, whether I had a direct influence on it cause or not). Her awkwardness combined with her attention to detail, her elevated language and her painstaking drawing process lead me to wonder if she has a minimal form of autism (just a passing thought). But it is obvious to see that her childhood (as depicted in Fun Home) has shaped the woman she is today.
ReplyDeleteAs for the book, Fun Home is an interesting read. The title, Fun Home, seems strange for me. At first, without having read any of the book, I had assumed "fun home" was a sarcastic representation of the horrible household Bechdel grew up in. Learning that "fun home" was the nickname she gave the funeral home as a child shook my assumption and I had to reorient myself. I find it interesting that Bechdel chose to use this nickname as the title of the book. Perhaps the funeral home was a very important part of her childhood, but I also think that the title serves a duality: that highlights both the importance of the funeral home and follows my previous assumption, that Bechdel's home life was anything but fun.
The book is text heavy, even including panels with dictionary definitions. I feel like the abundance of text is Bechdel's way of making sure her point comes across. I can somewhat relate as I often over-communicate to make sure that I've addressed my point from several directions to make sure I'm not misunderstood, which is what it seems Bechdel is doing.
I would classify Bechdel's art style as realistic cartoon. Her characters, while detailed, still maintain that cartoon quality, as opposed to say David Small whose characters are drawn more realistically. She uses a lot of detail to flesh out her drawings, which again I think points to her desire to communicate effectively what she is trying to represent. Bechdel uses a monochrome color scheme, however she uses a blue tint rather than the straight-up black and white seen in the works of Brown, Wertz and Small.
Panel sizes differ often but they are always rectangular in shape and follow a linear pattern. That is to say, Bechdel doesn't freely juxtapose the panels on the page; they follow the same typical pattern despite their varying sizes.
Overall, I think the book is Bechdel's way of trying to understand her father's death and his secret life; trying to work through her guilt that her coming out was in some way responsible for his death but at the same time not wanting to believe otherwise for fear that she may lose that one and only connection to him. I think she regrets not being able to discuss homosexuality with him on some level, another possible connection she could have shared with him. And as she says in one of the videos above, this book is really about her father as told through her perspective. Yes it is the story of her childhood and her self-discovery, but at the same time it is the story of her father.
I don't really know what to say about that article about the SC represetatives except to be dumbfounded. I suppose I shouldn't be and the expectation of bigotry should be the default. Let's say it is promoting a gay or lesbian lifestyle. SO? AND? It's kind of ironic that it's coming from the SC representatives because the whole idea of a representative is to REPRESENT. A large amount of the population is gay or lesbian and 99% (I'm making up that percentage but it's got to be close) of entertainment (or learning in this case) is geared towards straight people and that's clearly a problem.
ReplyDeleteI really like Bechdel's memoir and the weight placed on the text in the book is much more of what I am used to as the type of reader I am. The text is more complicated and less accessible than the other graphic memoirs we have read but I do not discredit it for this for I like the language Bechdel uses. I like that Bechdel operates in the realm of complexity in language because it breaks the associations one might have with comics and simplicity. I showed my dad some of the books we were reading and I still think he doesn't understand the depth you can draw from them in the same way you could draw from a novel. However, I think what you can draw from a graphic novel opposed to the conservative model is much more concentrated.
Bechdel's art and panels are pretty detailed but they are still cartoonish although they are more complex than Brown's and Barry's. The panel sizes are not consistent and Bechdel does not stick to a uniform size, unlike Brown, Wertz, and Barry. Brown and Wertz usually being six-panel pages and Barry's two-panel. This is interesting considering Bechdel's childhood and the story she's telling isn't one of consistency. Her father is living two separate lives, and even her mother perhaps with how involved she is in her studies and theatre.
I enjoyed reading Fun Home this week. This graphic memoir certainly stands out to me out of all the memoirs we have read thus far for numerous reasons. I found Bechdel’s art style to be simplistic yet realistic all at once. Her characters are drawn with far more detail and realistic features compared to some of the other memoirists we have read, like Barry and Brown. We have talked about the idea that keeping the drawings in comics simple allows the reader to occupy the character’s body, the idea of inhabiting an empty shell. Yet I found that even though Bechdel draws her younger self in a more realistic style, I still felt that I was able to connect with her characters and feel empathy for her just as much as I did for the other protagonists from the memoirs we read previously. I wonder if this is because her character still holds a simplistic element, meaning that her character still clearly resembles a drawing of a person, rather than a photograph of a person. This is something I questioned while reading Fun Home.
ReplyDeleteIn Fun Home I noticed that like most memoirs we have read, the timeline jumps around quite a bit. Bechdel goes back and forth telling her story, and often mentions events early on, and then goes back and shows what lead up to the event that the audience already knows is going to take place. I also noticed Bechdel’s page layout slightly varies through-out the memoir. One thing that remains the same on almost every page however, is that Bechdel uses the gutter space to narrate the panels below. When looking at the page, I get a slight feelings of claustrophobia because of all the words that are trapped between the panels. I felt similar when reading Barry’s memoir One Hundred Demons, except for the fact that Barry’s text was compressed inside the panels, rather than in the gutter space. I thought that this was an interesting technique, and although it is something different then what we have seen before, it still works with the story Bechdel is trying to tell. I noticed her text and words go very well together, which is one reason this novel was so appealing to me. Another thing I noticed about her page layouts were that she does not have a consistent number of panels or panel shapes on each page, instead this is something that varies through-out the story. I noticed that Bechdel often drew panels that were more significant in the story larger. For example, on the last page of the story Bechdel draws a large ending panel of herself jumping towards her father’s open arms. This panel clearly is significant because it ties to the memoirs overall theme, and we are able to slow down time and understand the panels importance just because it is drawn much larger than the previous panels in the story.
One last point I would like to address is Bechdel’s use of memoir to relive her childhood and reflect on the life of her father. Last week we talked a little about the idea of memoirs being used as therapy to help authors revisit parts of their past. When reading Fun Home I couldn’t help but notice that Bechdel’s memoir did remind me somewhat of a therapy session. Bechdel is reexamining her relationship with her father, and is trying to ultimately make sense out of what could have finally triggered his decision to commit suicide. Bechdel writes at one point that she questions whether or not it was indeed suicide or an accident, but we can tell by her memoir that she clearly does not believe that it was just an accident, and she even feels partially responsible for what happened to her father. In some ways I believe this memoir is a way for Bechdel to examine her own guilt, and perhaps even try to prove to herself that she is not responsible for what happened to her father.
What I found interesting as I watched the first video was how she only read the narration and not the dialogue, as if we were not supposed to be reading it in her voice but in the voice of the characters, whatever they may be. Usually, when hearing a comic artist read their work aloud, such as David Small, they read the dialogue and the narration. I thought that this was an interesting method of reading. It brings me back to the idea we discussed in class about how honest a piece of work is. We are not to see what the characters say as her words but as what they actually said. I do not know how great Bechdel’s memory is, though I doubt she is able to remember things her father said when she was very small. However, it still leaves me to believe that she is trying to make the work more “honest” to the characters, even though they are from her perspective.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading the text, it was not until chapter two that I realized that the book was tinted blue. I am not sure why Bechdel took this approach, but I think it adds a certain mood to the text. Blue is normally associated with sorrow. However, as I looked further into it, blue also symbolizes Peace, tranquility, cold, calm, stability, harmony (http://www.incredibleart.org/lessons/middle/color2.htm?ModPagespeed=noscript). This leads me to believe that she has come to terms with the death of her father, and knowing about him, and isn’t bothered. In fact, even in the early chapters of the book she claims that she never was initially grieving, “I cried about it quite genuinely for about two minutes. That was all.” (46). I also noticed that on pages 220 and 221, the blue is a little darker. It could be nighttime, or there was some sort of out of the ordinary interaction that Bechdel wanted us to pay attention to. It’s one of those few moments where we see them talk about their gender and sexual identities, “I think she regrets not being able to discuss homosexuality with him on some level, another possible connection she could have shared with him. And as she says in one of the videos above, this book is really about her father as told through her perspective.” (Samantha).
The art style is pretty unique to Bechdel, “I would classify Bechdel's art style as realistic cartoon” as Samantha states it. I found it to be similar to Brown’s style, with the detail and un-uniformed lines. It’s a little disorienting at first, especially with the high amount of text. There is quite a lot to look at and soak in. I would agree with anyone who claims that this is not a good starter graphic novel, based on style alone.
The story is very intense. It’s dark, it’s funny, and it’s raw. Bechdel does not leave her readers out of anything. I will say that Bechdel has told her readers more about herself and her personal life more than some of the other writers we have talked about (though, had we read Brown’s other works, I might have phased this differently). “In Fun Home I noticed that like most memoirs we have read, the timeline jumps around quite a bit. Bechdel goes back and forth telling her story, and often mentions events early on, and then goes back and shows what lead up to the event that the audience already knows is going to take place” (Carina). I have noticed this as well, and I believe it has something to do with that Brown mentioned in his own memoir, that writing memoir is like memory and writing it occurs as the memories do. It makes more sense and is flexible for the writer to work with as they compose their story.
DeleteI do appreciate this text as an important piece to the world of graphic memoir. However, it is a little difficult to read, especially with the heavy text (and definitions at some point) as well as the busy art style. As I mentioned, it is a lot to take in and even more difficult to read in one sitting. I tried to plow through the text in one shot, and I’ve barely made it half way (without skimming). It is difficult to soak in all at once, and one of those books you have to take your time with and focus on what’s important. I started using sticky notes again to pinpoint important elements and so far, I need a new pad of notes… As others have mentioned already, it did feel like a therapy session, though one that is a little more bearable to sit through. I even found myself relating to Bechdel at some points and yelling at her in others. It’s not a favorite, but I do appreciate this text for what it is worth.
I got a chance to read the article and I was a little dumbfounded, and also irritated. I read stuff like this often on Tumblr and it is starting to become less and less of a surprise how people respond to text and literature that is seemingly, or IS, involving homosexuality. “I'm very grateful to the people who taught my book at the College of Charleston,” the author said. “It was brave of them to do that given the conservative pressures they're apparently under.” WHAT PRESSURE? It’s a BOOK, a book about someone’s LIFE. “..the book asks important questions about family, identity, and the transition to adulthood,” he said. “These are important questions for all college students…. I'm concerned that some members of the (L)egislature believe their duties include deciding what books should and should not be taught in a college classroom..” Usually, I am led to believe that college classrooms possess a sort of liberty to choose what texts they wanted versus public high school and middle schools. It was why I was grateful to take my God’s class, since then I would be able to read the bible without people plaguing me with questions. Reading this just infuriated me beyond belief.
Fun Home is a great coming of age story about both Alison Bechdel and society in general. The coming of age story of Alison Bechdel is obvious, but there is an underlying story of the growth of society in terms of the acceptance of gays and lesbians in society. Alison’s father never made it public that he was gay and that is probably because of the time period he grew up in. In a picture of the Bechdel’s passport on page 72, the date of the passport is 1967. After looking up Alison Bechdel’s age (she’s 53), I did the math and came to the conclusion that she was about seven years old in the picture on that panel. It also says on that panel that the passport was “taken eight years later” from the first passport that Bechdel’s mother took when she went to marry Bechdel’s father in Germany. It should also be noted that Alison Bechel herself came out that she was a lesbian when she was in college which probably would have been during the late seventies early eighties. Bechdel’s father was probably in college during the 1950s, if my math is correct. Bechdel’s father did not have the courage to say that he was gay during the 1950s but approximately thirty years later Bechdel herself comes out and says she is a lesbian. While I am not totally sure that Alison Bechdel was totally comfortable with admitting to the world she was a lesbian she was clearly more comfortable than her father was in the 1950s. Therefore, it seems as if society came a long way in its acceptance of gay and lesbians between the thirty years Alison was in college and Alison’s father was in college. Unfortunately, gays and lesbians are still looked down upon by some people as evident by the article about the South Carolina House of Representatives, and the views of powerful leaders such as Vladimir Putin, and Yoweri Museveni. However, the growth of society mapped out in Bechdel’s memoir gives us hope that maybe one day we can live in a world in which gays and lesbians are not discriminated against.
ReplyDeleteThis is my second time reading "Fun Home," but it's really just as exciting to read it again. Partially, I think this is because there's no real "plot" to this book (plot as an abstract linear structure). The memoir continuously jumps back and forth through time, and Bechdel throws most of the "twists" at us early on so there's no surprising "reveal" -- there is only the unraveling process of going layer by layer to find context, motivation, meaning. Because of this, I wasn't particularly worried about "already knowing what would happen" and was surprised by the many things I was able to find which I had missed the first time through. Bechdel strikes me as someone who is obsessed with detail, and it shows in her memoir. It was really interesting to watch her interviews after reading "Fun Home" and hear from her just how much she thinks about and refines all of her ideas before they make it into the published product. Her diligence shows. There are so many things going on metaphorically within the text and visually outside of the text. I feel that if I were to read through the book again, I would notice even more things I'd missed in my two previous readings.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that really struck me from the interviews was when Bechdel mentioned she took photographs of herself in various poses to use as references for her art. Now, I understand that this is most likely her practical solution to a drawing problem. Especially for someone as detail-oriented as Bechdel, you need something to stand in for a reference when you don't have an original source readily available, and the only model you can always rely on is yourself. But I wonder what implications this had for the memoir. True, Bechdel usually draws different clothes and new "skins" on the characters who eventually make their way into the book, but I think that some of her dimensions, mannerisms, expressions (eyes, perhaps?) would have inevitably been superimposed on these characters. At least superficially, this would make all of the characters some sort of reflection of Alison.
Is this a bad thing? I don't think so. It actually makes sense for my interpretation of how Bechdel portrays herself and others. In many places, she explicitly states that she has been formed by others and her perception of others has (at least in her mind) formed them. For example on page 98, Bechdel draws herself and her father standing side by side in a mirror and writes, "We were inversions of one another." The fact that part of Bechdel might have made its way artistically into each of the memoir's characters seems very appropriate to the relationships she writes/draws about.
Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir of fun home has me really thinking about the idea and concept of truth. This is something I began being curious about when reading stitches and thinking about how we often hide truth from children because “they can’t handle it”. But if something is true, aren’t we handling it whether we know it or not? Reading Bechdel’s book I began thinking about what kind of truth graphic memoirists are holding from us. Is what they are presenting even the truth? It is all memory right? And people remember things differently than they really occurred, right?
ReplyDeleteThis has me curious if these memoirists are completely reliable. Bechdel even calls herself out on this on page 41 when speaking about her grandmother’s story and draws the mailman as a milkman because that’s how she pictured him at that time. That wasn’t the absolute truth, but it was the truth of her personal imagination. Does that make it true though? Did her grandmother leave out some truths when telling the story to Bechdel and her siblings?
The idea of truth causes me to reflect onto Lynda Barry who questions if biography can have some falsities in it and I believe the answer is yes. I’m personally interested in Bechdel’s own inability to trust herself in her own diary. She writes “I think” after everything, and uses her little shorthand for “I think”. Later, her shorthand covers everything she writes. I share this inability to believe myself. It is a product of my own obsessive compulsive disorder brought on by my anxiety issues. I have a hard time believing I have done many routine things such as locking doors and I have to check them about 20 times and say “I locked the door” in a very audible voice before I can believe I actually did it (I think). But what exactly is truth? Is truth what really happened or is truth what I perceived to have happened?
Bechdel doesn’t know the truth about her father’s death, and will probably never know. But can she convince herself that suicide was the true cause of his death? And if she convinces herself that this is true, does it make it true? Truth is a funny word, and I’m beginning to realize it has many layers. Can emotion or feeling be true if no one else feels them but you? Can memories be true if you are the only one that remembers?
“Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear” What percentage of memories should you believe though?
This memoir is very dark, sad, funny, heartbreaking, and brave. I really enjoy her honesty as well. I feel this is a tough story to tell—its tragic and heartbreaking. I found so many endearing tidbits that made me love the quirkiness of Bechdel, like her comparison of her family to the Adams Family, and her wanting to climb into an empty grave. These small quirky windows into her life allow for the reader to stop bearing down on their teeth and perhaps breathe in before attempting to choke down the next harrowing detail of her life.
ReplyDeleteBechdel’s style is realistic and simplistic, while also still cartoony. The lack of color, much like Wertz and Brown, allow the reader to find themselves in the story. I’m still not entirely sure how to make out her use of a grey-blue shading as opposed to black and grey. At first, I thought it was to showcase the sadness and confusion in her life, but I feel that would maybe come through more with the use of black. So why use this color? Maybe it’s to brighten the story and show she still has happiness amidst a tragicomic. Maybe it’s just the color her watered down ink made and there is no thought behind the use of this shade of color. I love knowing that she uses google images and family photos to draw. I love the way she showcases the different forms of writing in the world. I love seeing the pages of books, handwritten letters, typed letters, and pages of novels and dictionaries. I find it enjoyable that she does not just tell the memory, but also explains her thought process during that memory and any afterthoughts. It felt more like I was reading her diary, or journeying through a portal John Malkovich style to her inner thought process and workings.
I found her use of vocabulary remarkable and intimidating! I did at times have to break out my dictionary app and look up words. Instead of her use of vocabulary deterring me from the story it just engrossed me more in her story. I loved hearing her state in the video that she “wants to eradicate self-deprecating speech and writing”. I find her honesty refreshing!
I soooo ditto your sentiment on loving the fact I had to use my dictionary app!!! I was like "yes!!! give me more!" hahaha
DeleteEven though Dr. Cook warned us, I really wasn't prepared for how difficult it would be for me to get through this novel. To be honest I don't really enjoy the art in this one as much as others.. the blueish background I guess? I also found her references to previous literature to be hard to swallow when I was unsure of what she was referencing. Even with her in depth explanations I found myself saying "wait, what?" The story behind this is interesting, however. The way she ties her father's mortician lifestyle and his way of nit picking the house, as a way to cover up his secret gay lifestyle. I do think the part where she comes out as a lesbian is interesting because she does say it was more theory than practice at that time. She was so sure, however, she told them anyway. I was glad to have her read that out in the video. Of course the fact that this could be banned for having explicit homosexual sexual acts absolutely disgusts me. I'm still very unsure how it can be the year 2014 and we've blocked out slavery and sexism (at least made major strides) and people still want to pin down onto gay people for being gay. Who cares? Literally it makes not one single ounce of difference to anyone if someone else prefers the same sex. No one comes up to me and says "oh jeeze you have a boyfriend, don't write/talk/draw about it." Bechdel wanted to tell the story of her father, and part of her father's death was her guilt about her coming out and thinking she had something to do with his potential suicide. Her girlfriend was there for her through the experience so she included her in the story. The end. There should be no reason for that to be "ban worthy." There's a total double standard because "girl on girl" is played up on the media as sexy and awesome but this woman shared intimate and important moments in her life and all of a sudden that's unacceptable? Clearly she was using this memoir as a way to help deal with the situation. That's all it should be taken for. Overall though this memoir is a compelling read. It truly is, as she labels it, a tragicomic.
ReplyDeleteThis has been my favorite memoir thus far. I approached it feeling kind of intimidated because the people in the class who had read it had indicated that it was more Literary (with a capital L) than many of the others. I definitely agree, and I also think that my reading of this text would have been inhanced by a more than surface knowledge of the text she write about. However, I was glad to realize that, even without knowledge like hers, I could understand and appreciate her more Literary style.
ReplyDeleteThe component of Bechdel's book that has interested me most is her diary keeping technique. The "I think" that turns into tthe symbol is absolutely fascinating to me. As a kid, it would have never occurred to me that my interpretations of a situation could be wrong. I would never to preface things that I categorize as factional with "I think". However, I now understand her hesitation. In thinking about constructing my own memoir, I am most concerned with this very problem. I hate the idea of casting my own version of things as Truth. It's honestly surprising that a person who once questioned the validity of every statement she made has written a memoir at all. I am intersted in how she made that leap.
This is also by far my favorite Jessica! I am so in love with the way Bechdel writes. There is a consistent paradoxical tone (if that makes any sense) throughout the book. On more occasions than I can count, she describes a situation by using two opposing ideas or facts that both contradict each other and yet work so well together. She even makes mention of the word paradox several times, taking quotes from the many authors she references throughout the book and using these quotes to shed light (while further complicating) some facet of her life. I can’t quite find the word I’m looking for to describe what it is that she does . . . I say paradox for lack of a better word because it’s not that simple. It’s the way she juxtaposes contradicting emotions, images . . . the way she turns things inside out, but ultimately it makes so much more sense that way. I sound nutty, I know, but I had a pretty intense reaction to reading this and am having a hard time putting into words exactly how Bechdel evoked that sort of response in me. One part that stuck out to me the most and really resonated with me, as I can relate to it so much so that it made me jump out of my seat, was where she describes the “wholesale revision of her history” when her mother tells her that her father is gay and had had an affair with her babysitter. During my parents recent divorce, so much was revealed to me that it made me feel like my life as I knew it had been a movie . . . and my reality was only just now setting in. This theme of fiction vs. reality . . . or fiction superimposed onto reality, really hit home for me. I have to admit I haven’t finished reading, but I cannot wait to pick it back up.
ReplyDeleteThis is great. I like what you said about "wholesale revision" of history, because I feel that's exactly what Bechdel, and to an extent all memoirists, are trying to do. That's why Bechdel keeps circling back to the same things again and again. Her whole perception of the truth changes after new pieces of information trickle in.
DeleteOverall Fun Home is in many ways stylistically more similar to the works we read earlier in class than Stitches. Except like Stitches it isn't humorous. It stands in stark contrast to Stitches in how many words there are. Fun Home is very word heavy. The art style I think is more balanced between realistic and cartoony/iconic than the other comics, it is closer to the middle of the style pyramid shown in Understanding comics. It is different type of black and white comic. I would still call it black and white, but instead of the shades between black and white being gray, they are light blue. Subject. moment, scene, and action transitions seem to be used the most. Aspect transitions are used less, and non- sequiturs not at all.
ReplyDeleteFun Home goes deeper into homosexual than the physical acts of it. Of course this is a graphic memoir, and Alison Bechdel does include some graphic panels. But for freshmen in college, that shouldn’t be such a big deal. By the time of college most of us have already had a few dirty searches on google and have seen way worse than oral sex. The fact that this book delves into the repression of one’s true identity and what that does to a person and how its harmful to a person is what I feel politicians are afraid of.
ReplyDeleteThere’s a lot in here that is beneficial to read. First of all, the reading level of the text is advanced. This is college material right here (I know because one of my professors asked us to go a fry test to get the reading level of a book we had with us. Let me say that this book’s sentence to syllable level is amazing.) The vocabulary Bechdel uses and her scope of reference to literature is fierce. If you took the comics out of this book and just wrote the story using the text boxes and bubbles, this would be considered a “smart” work of literature.
The style of the panel layout is pretty standard and easy for a reader to follow. I noticed quickly how story Alison and her father make similar facial gesture (page 15 top left panel and bottom right panel… or just flip through to a random page for example.)
Unlike most of the memoirs we’ve read so far, this one has predominate mixture of hues of blues, with black, grey, and white. I feel as though this is a very conscious decision. Bechdel ties the color blue to her father throughout the book. She explains that she only knew for sure that it was her father lying in the coffin because of the blue tattoo if pen ink on his hand. She often times brings up the sunsets they would watch together that in in dark, midnight blue. The fact that she writes/ draws this story in blue, a story she explains is her father’s story, only seems fitting.
I noticed that Bechdel uses letters and writing a lot in her panels. Often times the panels are just of highlighted fragments of text and letters. This resonates with Bechdel’s relationship with her father through their shared interest of reading. While her father is finding himself through the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald, she is finding her sexuality through books. The literal image of words, in what is probably actual hand writing from real life letters, is one that is powerful to the story. The essence of her father lives on for her in his words. They are, like her, something produced by his own being.
I t is ridiculous a budget cut was made to that college for allowing the book to be taught. The book shows the negative effect society has on people by judging them for their sexuality. On page 212 Alison’s dad writes in a letter to her saying that that even though it is hard to believe it when he was growing up It was not considered an option to be openly gay or bi-sexual just like it was hard to believe that when he was a child he saw colored and white drinking fountains. The budget cut was an intent to take away a person’s right to free speech. I loved the way she seemed to map things through literature and her diary. She did a good job collecting material probably without knowing. It must have been very hard for her to admit to the world that her dad was pedophile. The bond between Alison and her father was sometimes bumpy but he encouraged her to explore her sexuality so she don’t end up like him. She is brave for sharing her life story with us.
ReplyDelete