Persepolis and White

What is the significance in the way Persepolis is told as opposed to the way Maus is told.?

Both are autobiographies so they both share tons of similarities. They also both tell stories of regimes reigning terror upon a battered and bullied nation and how the main characters are affected living through it. The major difference between the two stories however is the way they are told. They both follow White's Relativity of Narrative. There is a lot of reality in telling a story about WWII and the Iran-Iraq War from our authors. Speigelman tells the story of how his father survived as a Jew in Europe. There is a definite bias layed down as a groundwork for the telling of events. We are shown only one side of a large history and the author picked and chose what to leave in the final project. Persepolis tells the story through the innocence of a child. This allows a non-biased opinion to be put on the reader and allows us to experience the story as we read and tak from it what we will.

What makes for a better way to tell an autobiography and why?

I feel that the best way to tell a story is to give a non-biased recollection of all the events that happened in the individual's life. It's better to throw all the facts on the table, let us see the life as a third party bystander and let us make of what we want from the story then to be told. I think White would agree with me suggesting that facts are the main component to a story especially in telling a true story. Let people think what they want to.


JONATHON GOODRO

Jimmy Corrigan is not a hipster or an anti-hero

Jimmy Corrigan might be one the most boring comics I have ever read. Everything was so drab, disappointing, and depressing. I do have to say that I enjoy the artwork on how everything was so precise and uniform.

What is the significance of the old school artwork and the precise illustrations in Jimmy Corrigan?

I think it's important to the comic because it gives the reader a feeling of a Pleasantville. A picture perfect world where nothing goes wrong and everything is happy. Then once we get into the content we realize this world we are involved with isn't a happy one. Whether it we are watching Jimmy's overbearing mother or watching him try to escape his limited social life with his fantasies, we are shown a lot of irony.

Why is Jimmy Corrigan not an anti-hero?

He isn't an anti-hero because even though he lacks the attributes of most heroes, he isn't a bad person. Most anti-heroes are bad people who end up saving the day somehow. Jimmy never saves anyone or anything. A good example of an anti-hero is Travis Bickle from the movie Taxidriver. We sympathize with him at first but then later on we start to realize he's not working with a full deck. He shows the audience non-heroic traits but it's not until he saves a child prostitute from the mob that he shows us that a bad guy like him can still save the day. Jimmy is no Travis Bickle. he is a sad sorry character that doesn't do anything interesting ever. V from V for Vendetta is more of an anti-hero. He would be considered a terrorist by nine out of ten people but what most doesn't see is that through every bombing, V is showing us heroic traits that make him someone worth rooting for.

A Little Late

I know I missed the deadline on this particular post but I wanted to still talk about it whether I get credit or not. I remember the days we spent discussing V for Vendetta and Sandman. A lot of interesting conversational topics were brought up. One thing I find very hard is speaking up and putting my two cents in because as a class we don't stay on one thread for very long. I do want to use this blog to say what I wanted to say in class but didn't have the opportunity to.

There were talks on why V and Sandman are considered superhero when they are conventionally not who we would turn to to be saved.

I present the following question and answer:

Why are the title characters (V and Sandman) considered superheroes?

They are both considered superheroes for different reasons. V has a lot of the same traits as the superheroes we all know and love. He has a secret identity. He wear a mask and costume to hide this identity. He has a dark past which was the main catalyst in becoming who he is now just like Batman. He doesn't have super powers per say but he is highly skilled in hand to hand combat. He's very intelligent and uses his intelligence to fashion together bombs and gadgets like that. Where he differs from Superman, Spiderman, and Batman is he "saves the day" through acts of terrorism by blowing up government buildings. He isn't set on a straight and arrow path. He believes that totalitarian government set up in England is wrong and chaos and anarchy is the way to break free. He teeters back and forth debating on his beliefs on how justice and freedom can be achieved. He believes in both like all of our favorite superheroes but he goes about them the wrong way. Sandman differs in a lot of ways. He has superhero-like powers by being the dream god. Sandman is his alter-ego with his real name being Morpheus. He too sets out for vengeance on his captors and to rebuild his kingdom. The gas mask acts his disguise.

What is the significance of the fact that DC/Vertigo comics consider V and Sandman superheroes?

I believe that they do is because it's something different to read. It's written for a much darker crowd. A demographic that is doesn't like the goodie goods of the superhero world like the ones we are used to reading about. They show us that you can still be a super hero even without powers. They show us that justice can be achieved in other ways. It's okay to be a little bad to get good as an outcome.


Also I do want to add as a side note that Chaos is not an agent of anarchy. Anarchy by definition suggests no formal government. Chaos is doing something just because. It's done without a reason. So I believe that chaos can't be used to inspire anarchy or anything for that matter. Chaos is a state of confusion or complete disorder. If creating chaos in order to achieve something then its not chaos.

JONATHON GOODRO

animal farm

I do also want to add as a side note, that the usage of animals in this graphic novel was a excellent take on the story at hand. It reminds me of the book, "Animal Farm." I found myself more invested in the characters than if they were just human. Jew and Nazi stories are all stale for the most part and to spice up a war story with animals represented by animals like mice, cats, and frogs etc. is fresh and easy to stay attracted to.

Story with Maus and White

"The idea that narrative should be considered less as a form of representation than as a matter of speaking about events, whether real or imaginary, has been recently elaborated within the discussion of the relationship between discourse and narrative that has arisen in the wake of Structuralism." - Hayden White

As a screenwriter/director, I disagree with the concept that White mentions in the above quote. I believe that the actual magic in telling a story of any kind, whether it be written, oral, or on film is that fact that in telling numerous sequence of events in chronological or non-chronological order you can also use forms of representation to illustrate multiple meanings of what's going on in the plot line. Speigelman does this very well in Maus. He manages to tell a story within a story and in doing so he uses the telling of events to show the reader a much bigger picture than a story about Jews and Nazis.

He's telling a story about the connection between generations and how we can learn from one another. He tells a story about perseverance and never giving up. There are much more messages or representations in the comic book. The many layers makes it much more than just a comic. This is much more than just discourse among two people and that's why narrative must continue to be just as much of a representation as a retelling of events to an eager audience.

enjoying Maus

I do like to say that I'm really enjoying Maus' storytelling qualities. Most of the comic books I read are superhero comics and horror comics so this is definitely a change of pace for me. However the stories are similar in their abilities to draw in a reader. I'm not fond of most war stories/films. I have my favorites that stand out to me as excellent stories examples being "Plattoon" "Full Metal Jacket" "Inglourious Basterds" "The Dirty Dozen" and "Saving Private Ryan". Maus is up there being how engaging the characters are considering the events are very trite and overdone. I see myself focusing on the characters and their feelings then what's really going on, which to me is great storytelling. I'm investing my own emotions to fictional characters and riding the wave with them all the way through. I will more than likely finish the comic in the next day or so.