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kgould's picture

Subjective, Objective, Slapdash

In our discussions of Tarnation and the Graphic Adaptation of 9/11, we mentioned subjectivity and objectivity, and how one form may be more or less objective than another...

I think we need to be careful when we talk about this. While I think there is a more emotional response when presented with visual images, and while we are going to be reading illustrations in a different way than written prose, I don't know that anything is really objective

Everything is edited. Everything is constructed. And we construct everything ourselves, with our interpretations-- and all of it is done with a purpose, realized or not. 

To place prose on a pedestal, on outside sources shedding light on the situation and making them more objective, not only does it seem to give us a false sense of security and of "realness," but it does a disservice to the experience of film and graphic narrative. Those forms are no less "true" or "real" than prose...

That said, I had trouble reading the Graphic Adaptation as a graphic novel-- I don't know that it was purposefully confusing to represent the panic and the chaos of the event... It seemed to me to be a more rushed or slapdash attempt at graphic narrative, that they chose this form because it seemed to be easier to read or understand but didn't fully understand how to utilize the medium.

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