"Fun Home" Title: Hors d'oeuvre to a "great feast of languages" (and graphics!)

One topic which is yet to be fully discussed is that of “Fun Home”. Not the graphic memoir, of course, for that has been the basis of all of our discussion! But rather, the title of this memoir and its possible significance. 

Just as every page in Bechdel’s memoir is full of tragicomic wit, so too does her title concisely and brilliantly capture her desired message. Like much of Shakespeare’s writing, the title “Fun Home” can have many different meanings. ("Click here" to see some ingenious examples of double entendre in Shakespeare.) It can be interpreted to be a short form for FUNeral home, where her father worked. (I had not made this connection myself; one day, weeks after beginning the project, my dad pointed it out to me!) It can also be referring to the “home” in which she grew up, which was anything but “fun”. This sets the sarcastic overtone of the entire novel, with two simple words! It also eludes to a Fun House, which is an obstacle course or maze found at carnivals, full of distorting mirrors and misleading paths. As if in a fun house, Bechdel’s reflection did not match who she felt she was on the inside, and her father put a misleading mask on the life he lead. Also like Shakespeare’s text, Bechdel undoubtedly intended for her title to have so many interpretations. The title “Fun Home” is just a little hors d’oeuvre before the “great feast of languages” (and graphics!) that lies ahead for the reader!

Bechdel Test

As I mentioned before in a previous post, Alison Bechdel founded the "Bechdel Test" which is essentially a system of questions applied to a movie to see whether it comes off as sexist.

On the website Bechdeltest.com posters actually judge new releases and past movies to see whether they pass the test or not, which is really quite interesting. The whole basis is over whether two women in any given movie talk to eachother about anything besides a man. The posters judge as follows:

Fewer than two women in this movie

There are two or more women in this movie, but they don't talk to each other

There are two or more women in this movie, but they only talk to each other about a man

There are two or more women in this movie and they talk to each other about something other than a man^*

There is a comment for this movie

There are links to reviews available for this movie

* Please keep in mind that a movie scoring a does not mean it is at all "good" or feminist friendly, just that it passes all tests.

If there is an exclamation mark over the icon (eg. ), someone who has left a comment doesn't agree with the rating (and hopefully explains why).

If you look at the list of movies and how they were rated you start to see some trends, what I first noticed was that a lot of the popular super hero films do notttt get a pass. Those sorts of films typically revolve around a man in power and the women in his life. By the looks of it there are also several comedies which also fail the test.

After reading up on this I think I'll be paying closer attention to films now to see how they rate.

If you'd like to search a particular movie to see how it fairs, search here.

While the majority of the graphic novel focuses on Bechdel and her relationship with her father, including the differences and similarities of their personalities, I think that there is a lot that can still be explored between them. Bechdel's fathers death was a mystery to Alison, who had come out to her parents not too long before. 

Since Alison was aware of her father's gayness, it might have made it easier for her to come out to her parents, and she was probably curious about his reaction to it. She thought it could create a connection between them, and when she came to visit from college, he began to open up slowly, especially through literature. Though at first Alison was flattered and excited that her dad was starting to take interest in her, it also started becoming a burden to her. Once again she had expectations from him, and she slowly started to move away from books and instead began trying to get him to open up about his past. Maybe this was why Alison began thinking that she was the reason her father committed suicide: not only because he wasn't able to be open about his sexuality, but maybe because Alison was opening up his past wounds and his shameful affairs.

Biography - Part 5

Media Appearances

On Alison's site Dykes to Watch Out For she keeps an up to date list on all of the events she attends as well as her book tour info. Some of her more major stops this year have included Comic-Con and TCAF right here in Toronto. A full list can be viewed here. She primarily stop at bookstores and libraries for her tour, and also seems to attend a lot of literary events and award shows.

Alison Bechdel @ Comic Con 2012

Other Work

Along with her usual interviews and tour appearances, Alison also gives talks and even did a short workshop at the University of Chicago under the title of, "Fevered Archives: 30 years of comics from the not-so-mixed-up files of Alison Bechdel". Here is a link to a video of Alison being interviewed by her co-teacher Hillary Chute. 

Alison also sells original work on her website which is primarily original pages from her graphic memoirs.

A short promotional video of Are You My Mother?

Wrapping It All Up!

In my previous entries regarding the theme of sexuality in Fun Home, I focused on both Bechdel and her father in separate instances, and which factors went into each characters' discovery, exposure, and contributing factors to discovering their homosexuality. As my posting in this blog comes to a close, I've decided to wrap it all off with the "aftermath", so to speak. No longer will I delve into the past of each person, but I will address how the events of Bechdel's father's death affected Bechdel, and her thoughts regarding them.

As most of the graphic novel is a recollection of Bechdel's memories and how her home and family life factored into the discovery of her sexuality, most instances of death are touched on and scattered throughout the story, almost as an afterthought. Bechdel recalls the instance in which she finds out about her father's death while she's in college, and her reaction to it. To her, his death is "absurd", and quite unexpected and random until she begins trying to make sense of his untimely death. Although it is never revealed that her father committed suicide, Bechdel still maintains that the fact that she came out to her parents might have been a contributing factor to his death. One of the last meaningful conversations with her father involved her lesbianism, and Bechdel still wonders, to this day, if this conversation was enough to spur her father to take his own life.

In a sense, with Bechdel questioning the inconsistencies and mysteries behind her father's death, it also allows her to explore the gap between them, as well as the similarities that tied them together; in terms of their respective gender identities and sexualities. Although Bechdel will never know the true manner in which her father died, she is still able to hold onto his history and his memory. Here is a good site that thoroughly covers both the themes of death and sexuality in an in-depth fashion.

Do cartoons imply Bechdel's childhood a joke?

I cannot believe I am already writing my last post! This blogging journey has gone by so fast. In this lecture given given by Alison Bechdel at Cornell University, she begins by showing various Charles Addams cartoons, from which she received inspiration when writing/drawing her own memoir. You can see the influence of Addams’ artistic style on Bechdel’s. 

Particularly in this picture, these houses look like they could both be from the same neighbourhood! Or perhaps the similarity springs not from Bechdel’s admiration of Addams’ fictitious settings in his cartoons, but rather from Bechdel’s identification with Addams’ “disjuncture between appearance and reality”. At face value, Bechdel’s house was manicured and under control; a juxtaposition of the inner turmoil that boiled beneath the surface. Similarly, Addams’ cartoons

often show iconic ‘idealistic’ scenarios ------------------------------>

that are, in fact (upon further examination) shockingly morbid. Unlike Addams’ funny cartoons, however, Alison Bechdel’s childhood was no joke. 

This made me wonder: is it wrong for Bechdel to turn her saddening past into a “tragicomic” story? Or is finding the humour in the situation the only way she could look back on it all?

In doing a bit of research to answer this question for myself, I came across 
this article which discusses exactly that! It examines the psychology of laughter: the reasons why we find humour in the darkest of situations, to "ease the emotional chaos". This reminded me of my Grandmother's funeral. At some point in the evening of visitation, we all got the giggles! I can't even remember what triggered it (probably a wonderful, silly memory) but I do remember how big of a relief it was to smile again. You could feel the tension in the entire room deflate. :)

Distant

Alison’s father could be described as is loving, stern, distant, manipulative, and conflicted, but I think the one that really sticks out is distant. Although he was there for Allison he really wasn't  as Allison described it, it was like he was already dead. I think not being able to come out of the closest, or openly admit he was gay, really impacted his life. I would imagine it would impact anyone’s life keeping such a big issue a secret. Although Bruce tried to live a normal life and make the best of it, I think he could never feel complete, not living his life the way he would like to. This is what created the distance between him and his family, he was doing his duties, and he tried to make the best of it. But in the end there was too much missing and he could not cope with this. I think there is a good lesson here, instead of being what society wants or tells you to be, be true to yourself.