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)