Literary Kinds

As a follow-up to  jrlewis's description of closely related literary kinds--and an invitation to get you to think about the "connections" between your own "cloister" and the world portrayed in Satrapi's autographics...

...here's a rail map that shows how you can get from Oslo to Pyongyang “without changing trains.”

For our reading of A Thousand and One Arabian Nights I used the Lang interpretations on the "ELF Presents The Arabian Nights" website. I read the Prelude (1), the Story of the Three Calenders, Sons of Kings, & Five Ladies of Bagdad (10), the Story of the First Calender, Son of a King (11), the Story of the Second Calender, Son of a King (12), the Story of the Envious Man and of Him Who Was Envied (13), and the Story of a Third Calender, Song of a King (14) ... all of repeated to some degree the lesson that you shouldn't stick your nose where it doesn't belong.

 Watching Persepolis after reading the graphic novel was a bit disappointing. I always enjoy watching movie adaptations of novels because it provides readers with another interpretation, another way of viewing the plot. Although I may not always agree with the director, I always find the experience worthwhile. However, with Satrapi’s film version of Persepolis I was given the same storyline, pictures, verbatim. Granted, there were a few discrepancies and Satrapi did exclude certain frames and scenarios from the movie. But, I can surely say that I enjoyed reading the graphic novel version more than watching the movie. Like others have said I feel that the narration was lost in the movie and the story moved too quickly.

I'm having trouble deciding which version of Persepolis I enjoyed more: the graphic novel or the film.  I realized while I was watching the film that there are some aspects of this media that can simply not be replicated in the pages of a book, graphic or not.  I think I found myself more engaged and drawn to the film because of its use of sound--it was easier to relate to characters more deeply when I heard their voices and could differentiate between them (for example, between the deep voice of Uncle Anoush and the high-pitched, childlike voice of Marji) and the sounds of battle ensuing and illegal music blaring worked to this same effect.  Unlike the graphic novel, where speech bubbles could be easily confused depending on whose head they were h

a de-briefer - being the note taker for the class was a strange experience for me, having to sit back and watch everything happen instead of being a part of it was frustrating at first, until i realized that it gave me different insights into the way the class functioned and the way we behaved and things we said - i think i actually enjoyed watching because it made listening to people and absorbong what they said so much easier.

anyway, heres the summary for the class.

we started off with a brief history to Persepolis and Satrapi and found out that Satrapi had not only written thestory but had drawn each image as well. whats more, when it was time to make the movie, she acted out each character role.

Reading both volumes of Persepolis was refreshing.  I did not enjoy "A Game of You" and was not looking forward to diving into another graphic novel so soon, but once I began reading I was pleasantly surprised.

One of my favorite elements of the illustrations was that they were in black and white.  It was far less distracting from the reading when compared to the business of the images in "A Game of You," and I think jrlewis had a really good point in class when she brought up how the images reflected Satrapi's black and white thinking as a child.  

While watching the movie the other night, I noticed that while many scenes were copied from the graphic novel, they were executed in a style that utilized the medium of film. 

Think, for example, of the scene in which Satrapi recaps the history of the Shah for the viewer. In the graphic novel, the panels depicting this scene resemble (parody?) the flat art style from ancient works. 

The film depicts this scene in a different manner. No longer are the Shah and England flat, immobile representations. They are animated as a kind of puppet one would hold by a stick and jostle to move the arms and head. The scene is like that of a puppet theater. the background and the people look as though they could be made out of paper or cardboard. 

Although there was only one option as to which film we would see after reading Persepolis I am really glad we were all able to watch the same movie. I saw the movie before I knew that Satrapi was the director and artist for the film. Once I did learn that information it definitely helped explain my reaction to the film. I was shocked to see the similarities between the movie and the book. Aside from maintaining the same kind of drawing style from the page to the screen, the plot was rarely changed. I saw the movie not even 24 hours after I read the novel and it felt like I was having the somewhat the same experience. For once the medium did not affect my feelings towards the adaptation.

I just finished reading Philippe Petit's book, "Man on Wire"   This text chronicles Petit's multiyear long project to perform a high wire walk across the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.  There is a significant amount of autiobiographical information, including Petit's childhood passion for horseback riding.  Interspersed throughout the text are black and white images of Petit, his accomplices, and the Twin Towers.  Some are photographs, others are sketches and notes in