Persepolis + White

Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, I found to be such an enjoyable read. It in so many ways reminded me of myself as a child struggling with the idea of God and politics. Marjane does such an excellent job of using this autobiography to relate to her audience. I am going to use White's idea in finding the appeal to an autobiography to shape this blog. In many instances we find ourselves questioning beliefs that we have either been brought up with or taught within society in younger ages. For Marjane I believe she used this to make the audience feel a greater sense of involvement throughout the text, for they can relate strongly to that feeling of loss and/or confusion of such strong beliefs. On page 71 you see Marjane floating in an epitome of nothingness, with stars and spaceships floating around her in space to help symbolize that effect, and I know personally for me I felt a strong sense of loss myself, for I know I have felt that myself at one time.

Do you believe, that in using God/religion as a source in making this autobiography more appealing to the audience, that it ties in well with White's idea of autobiographical appeal? i tossed this idea around in my head in our class discussion of Persepolis and felt this was a great way to ease my feelings on the subject.

My personal interpretation of White's autobiographical appeal is that in using certain tools, such as religion, it draws the audience into that time so much more for they can relate to what it is that person or society as a whole is feeling. On page 115 there is an image of a man lying on his back, shrieking in pain with black holes seen along his arms with the caption "The one that struck me the most by its gory imagery was: 'To die a martyr is to inject blood into the veins of society.'" This appeals to me, as I am sure it does to many others, because it reveals that sense of religion being betrayed by paraphernalia that young children were and are still subjected to. It is not simply the words that strike, yet they do that quite well, but the image that makes me squirm in my seat. I believe White would agree with me when I say that this portrayal of religion in that particular setting makes this autobiography appealing to a wide range audience.

Another example of the use of appeal in this comic is rebellion. Allow me to use the example of page 106 to reveal my thoughts on this idea. I know I was giggling as I saw them all dancing and partying, with the cleaning lady feeling guilty for crushing grapes for wine in the bathroom. It's such a far fetched idea to me that enjoying eachother's company through music, laughter, dancing, and friends would be illegal. This made me want to rebel with the characters in the graphic novel as well.

Using tools such as religion and rebellion in Marjane's Persepolis created a strong sense of appeal that I feel White would agree with as well. I hope you all enjoyed my interpretation of White and Satrapi's autobiographical appeal and thanks for reading yet again. I will leave you with a image I feel symbolizes my thoughts on this subject well.

V for Vendetta + McCloud

I found V for Vendetta by Alan Moore to be a particularly inspiring text. The use of paneling and character development throughout was fantastic I found. I would like to start off by using an example from the text so I can give you a clear idea of what it is that I find so breathatking about this novel and it's graphics. Beginning on page 162 when Evey is kidnapped, tortured, beaten, starved, and thrown into a cell by "the government" for information regarding V and ending on page 167 when she finds herself in V's domain. The shadings on her naked chest revealing her starved appearence, her pain staking expressions, the dark shadings on her dress along with the sides of the walls revealing a certain darkness and manipulation possibly behind her kidnapping and finally ending on page 167 the page is entirely in shadow, even Evey is left in the shadows, and V simply states "Welcome Home", which chilled me right to the bone. This is an excellent example of how with the use of paneling, expression, and shading alone the author created an agent of suspense and "irk" if you will to his audience.

Yet the question remains, is the juxtaposition shown on these pages just as powerful and moving, or more so even, as watching the film? This question followed me throughout the text and I know when I saw that this was one of our many reading assignments how excited I was because of how moved I was by the film.

In Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud it is stated that through paneling you can create the same sense of emotion through paneling as you would in watching a film. I found this a great time to share my idea on how I feel Alan Moore was able to do this, for it seems like quite the feat. As I shared in the example I found particularly inspiring above, the expressions on Evey's face and the shadings throughout her body, along with the stress lines on her forehead and the bones that can be seen prodding out of her chest from starvation created the same sadness as watching the film and seeing Natalie Portman starve and hearing her screams of sorrow. The detail in this paneling creates so many different emotions throughout the entire text. It made it impossible to put the book down.

Another observation I made when reading V was that coloration of certain panels also helped in enacting different emotions in the author/illustrator's audience. The example I would like to use here is on page 96 and 97 when Evey is dancing with V underneath the disco ball and the entirety of the panels if filled with these pastel colors (blue, yellow, and red) and it brough a whole different sense of feeling to these pages. You could feel the bond between them growing, such as two highschoolers at a school dance. I found this to be another fine example but with different use of colors you can create a whole different emotion and appeal to your audience.

Not only did I find V for Vendetta a fascinating read, but I feel that it rather one ups the movie I watched of it previously. I would reccomend the comic to the movie to any art/film/graphic novel fantic. I will leave you a picture I found as a great representation of this blog. Thanks for reading.