Linda Barry’s One hundred demons is
a stark contrast from the other comics we have read in this course thus far. I
think first and most notably is the style in which the comic is done. It seems
assembled in a scrapbook fashion, each story has an intro page with miscellaneous
drawings and seemingly three-dimensional adhesives and ends with a single
drawing “summarizing” the story she just told.
Between these two book-ends is contained a sort of organized
chaos that is her “autobifictionalography”
What do you think of reading a comic that is both autobiographical and made up?
Are there any stories that seem less “true” than the others? Do you believe
that this is a commentary on the authenticity of our own memories?
Along with embellished tales of her
childhood, Barry also includes many exaggerated depictions of the people around
her in her drawings. What did you think about her distinct style as I believe
its much different than anything we have discussed or learned about in class.
So I've read a lot of books that are autobifictionalgraphy, and I personally like them. I think it mostly means that it really happened, with a little bit of embellishment. Like a horror movie essentially; they say based on a true story, but it's not TRUE, it's embellished. I think a lot of autobiographies are fictionalized to an extent, and I think a lot of fiction draws from real life experiences, so perhaps this perspective is the best because it's openly a hybrid.
ReplyDeleteI have no qualms against reading a book that is autobiographical and slightly made up... She is a creative author, so the made up part comes from somewhere inside of her- which in turn makes it autobiographical. I do believe this is kind of how we all feel, fantasize, and remember things. The way she drew her characters and scenes almost seems like a deja vu memory.
ReplyDeleteIt is very different! But I enjoy because I feel like it is ever-changing. I really enjoy seeing all different types of art in these graphic novels, but hers seems to be most fitting because of the way she relates the perspective, characters, and events in her stories to her art.
There's this sense that Barry's work is very different from the other work we've read this semester. While Barry's work is different and interesting it is very much inline with the other texts we've read this semester. Many of our texts have addressed issues of and with narrative, memory, race, class, and gender. Those threads are very much alive in Barry's work, some chapters even devoted to those specific issues.
ReplyDeleteBarry's chapters are similar in many ways to chapters from the other works. Think Maus and The Sheikh, Persepolis and The Veil, Fun Home and The Ideal Husband. All of this information provides an object that frames the sequence to follow. It both orders the logic and depiction of the world. Barry addresses this process directly by exploring the relationship between lost worlds, objects, memories, and narrative creation.
The difference in Barry's art from other works and within the text also fits this theme thematically. These texts might be read with an understanding that official systems of logic had facilitated or can at least be implicated in some conflict, trauma, marginalization, etc. The creation of a new system of logic, that is that thing which we've been reading, opposes the official system and forces them into a conversation with each other. That sort of instability and renegotiation is the text, a world with its own logic, like Barry's chapter, or "cicacada" but worlds and objects in conflict and dialogue in one created fictive whole.
One Hundred Demons is similar to other works we've read in that it's autobiographical nature creates a sense of irony as the reader predicts and then awaits the transformation of character into authorial persona. I think in a broad way these can both be understood as fictive objects but the authorial persona blends so closely with author that some reality is posited. The character's progress is then measured against this known. That development is seen in Maus to a lesser extent and in Persepolis and Fun Home.
I don't mind the fact that this book is an "autobifictionalography". Even most traditional biographies most likely embellish the story to some extent. I think purposefully embellishing allows the writer to better depict some of the themes that they are trying to get across to the reader via added symbolism, wordplay, etc.
ReplyDeleteI think the style of the book was very interesting. None of the characters every really looked the same in any of the frames, but the caricatural features made reading seamless.