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class notes 9/16
- looked at maps on pages 126 and 144 in Fun Home: they show the same map, but the second one is labeled. highlights how maps can be selective and labeled/changed in different ways --> map are fictional representations
- read closer: EVD lead us in reading page 3 --> "think and hear"what the people are saying in the pictures rather than just read what is written
- there's an interrelationship between text and images: Bechdel uses different types of framing:
- words above pictures
- words in boxes on top of the pictures --> used to highlight the images
- word bubbles
- in one image, Bechdel drew an intricate carpet: shows how fussy her father was and the complexities that are present throughout the whole novel
- we should read graphic novels by thinking of them as stills from a film
- maht91: English is her second language, so she found the pictures and dialogue bubbles helpful in decoding what was happening
- some students said they weren't allowed to read comics as children
- graphic novels are about the interaction between words and pictures, and their meanings
- the difference between comics and graphic novels --> graphic nivels have more critical value than comics (entertainment)
- SandraG expressed concern about how much was revealed about Bechdel's family --> a violation of propriety and family secrecy
- in order to tell her own story, Bechdel had to tell her father's story
- everyone's lives are intertwined and their stories shared
- graphic novels are often used to tell horrific stories --> signifies the "unrepresentable" nature of really terrible events
- Why did Bechdel write Fun Home? : to help deal with her father's death? to make sense of her own life?
- read pages 220-221 outload --> discussed the strategy of using the same sized boxes with very little variation --> emphasizes the awkwardness of the moment/experience
- drawing as a form of representation IS fictional
- saw older forms of "graphic novels":
- illustrated bibles
- Chaucer's text/drawings
- 18th century cartoons (Hogarth)
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