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. :)
Emily, really interesting seeing the huge similarities between Addams and Bechdel's respective works! Even with the line quality you can see that Bechdel was influenced by Addams' cartoons. Ironically, both the Addams Family and Bechdel's families were strongly surrounded by the morbid and death, since Bechdel's family did live in a funeral home, after all, so it makes sense.
ReplyDeleteIn accordance to your comment about whether Bechdel's handling of her comic by making it a "tragicomic", I think that different people have different ways of coping with their past. While some memoir authors tend to write in a more melancholic, somber tone, Bechdel seems like the type of person who is blase to certain situations in her life. Therefore, by her writing her comic in that tone, she is keeping it honest in her own way. Her indifference and her black humour, laced with references to literature and poetry, make it much easier to read the sadder parts of her memoir.
Anyway, I found this video that relates pretty well to the first part of my comment about influences. Alison took photos of herself as posing reference for several characters in the graphic novel. Her whole process seems daunting and extremely tedious, but she gets it all done effectively.
NO WAY! I cannot believe her method of drawing pictures. That is so neat. I never even thought of that as an option, but it makes so much sense. I wonder if my close friend in the animation program ever does that? (She's mentioned that she often catches herself making the face of the character she's sketching.)
ReplyDeleteI found another interesting article that talks about Bechdel's graphic memoir as "comic relief"- again, exploring that theme of 'comedy vs. tragedy, or both?' I guess that's why she calls it a tragicomic!