Hello fellow bloggers!
After reading all of the great blogs from this week I was quite surprised not to see an overwhelming response to one book or topic, all of the blogs were more or less about different things. This was good because it gave me an opportunity to read about lots of different and interesting topics! Some of the common themes I found when reading were that a few people focused on the recent literature review and group presentation we did in class, and others focused on the graphic narrative Safe Area Gorazde written by Joe Sacco, and his illustration style.
Some of the blogs that focused on the recent literature review and group presentation were Paolina’s blog, Kate’s blog, Erin,s blog, Gabo’s blog, and Inneke’s blog . I found all of these blogs shared to be similar in that each blogger introduced their key word that they were given to research and told us a little bit about the scholarly conversation on that key word. Both Inneke and Kate wrote about ‘forgetting’ as their key word and Gabo focused on his key word that was ‘Technologies of memory’. When Paolina wrote about ‘cultural memory,’ she provides us with definitions of how other scholars define it and how it ties into the novel we have just finished in class which is titled Obasan by Joy Kogawa. Paolina explains that Obasan is a good example of cultural memory and how it is produced through a traumatic event. Another blogger who talked about their keyword was Erin. Erin focused on ‘national memory’ and came at it from more of her own perspective. She introduces the term ‘selective remembering’ which Sturgeon defines as the act of “strategically forgetting painful events that may be too dangerous to keep in active memory” (Sturken 7). In her blog Erin argues that the events of the transatlantic slave trade were are not an act of selective remembering, and are taught often in schools in America. Rather the bombs dropped in 1945 by the Americans in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, would be a more appropriate example of selective remembering from an American point of view.
There were three blogs that addressed Sacco’s drawing style in Safe Area Gorazde (Alex, Sandra, and Mia). If I had not been the class blogger this week, I would have chosen to analyze further the illustration style of Joe Sacco. Both Sandra and Alex compare Sacco’s drawing style to the style used in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. The drawings in Persepolis are much more simplistic and a lot less detailed, it almost appears that they could have been drawn by a child. In contrast Sacco illustrates in such detail, he uses an immense amount if expression in every persons face. The amount of detail he uses really helps to understand the harshness and the trauma that all the people of Gorazde are faced with. Alex brings up a good point in his blog about Persepolis being a first hand account and Safe Area Gorazde being written form the eyes of a journalist. Does this have anything to do I wonder with the way that each author chooses to illustrate? Sandra picks up on the fact that Sacco’s drawings don’t look like drawings in a regular comic book, and that may seem unappealing and/ or peculiar when one first starts to read it. Mia also contributes by focusing primarily on the faces of the people in Gorazde. Sacco creates what seems like a real person coming out of the book, he adds every detail such as wrinkles, and shading around the eyes. Mia observes that maybe the words on the page can not fully describe how powerful the image actually is, and that often an image speaks louder than words. I agree with her on that, I think that with the images being so detailed it is easy to get an accurate representation of what is going on by just the drawing alone.
I hope that my blog gave everyone a bit more insight on what infamous ASTU class was blogging about this week!
Until next time,
Magda Adkins 🙂
Hey Magda, I just had a thought on Alex’s point you brought up, but also relates to the rest in some way. Though I believe Joe Sacco’s illustrations have a much bigger impact on the reader since they are more detailed, it makes me wonder how accurate these illustrations actually are. What I mean is, they are drawn in such detail that I am lead to believe that they are a true depiction. However, it is not possible to be an exact depiction unless he had a photograph to copy off of for every panel. Some of his illustrations were most probably based off photographs, while some were through his own interpretation. For example, stories from interviews would have been interpreted through Sacco to be illustrated. As oppposed to Satrapi’s Persepolis (apparently you can’t italicize in a comment), she obviously can’t replicate everything from her childhood, so her illustrations are much more simple. Each artist/author has their distinct style which they believe will narrate the story in the best possible way.
Anyways, just a thought.
Ryan
Hey Ryan, I really like that you brought that up because it definitely made me think of the images in a different way. While I was flipping through the back pages of Safe Area Gorazde I was actually looking at some of the images that were took of Sacco in Gorazde and of the people, and now looking back at the illustrations I can see how they would be very much based off of images he may have taken. I agree that lots of different authors choose to illustrate in a particular way, and that it is crucial to observe their style when reading the graphic narrative. Going off of that I think that it is interesting now having read both books to compare the two illustration styles in both Persepolis and Safe Area Gorazde like some of our classmates talked about in their blogs. Thanks for your comment as it sparked some new ideas for me to reflect upon!
Magda
In response to Ryan’s comment,
I’m really glad you brought that up, because I felt the same way about the illustrations. While the extreme detail makes you feel the impact of the events, and makes you face the reality of the trauma that these people experienced, they are still drawings. Sacco still has to use his artistic license to create interesting and engaging illustrations. While he is a journalist and probably tries to stay as close to the truth as possible, he still has to interpret events for us as he imagined the stories people told him. He was not an eyewitness.
Olivea
I would like to expand on Alex’s idea that the way in which Joe Sacco draws derives from his journalistic nature. Sacco only puts himself into the graphic narrative at times when they are joking, singing, or having a casual conversation. Sacco takes himself out of the panel when a character is depicting a graphic scene of war. This helps to distinguish Sacco as an outsider, rather than a true participant of the Bosnian experience during this time in history. This distinction allows us to see Sacco as a journalist during times of Bosnians discussing their experience at war, and as a friend at other times who can greatly relate to their everyday struggles. This helps to draw the similarities and differences between a civilian caught in a civil war and an individual coming from a wealthy nation abroad.
-Erin Livinghouse
Great job on your blog Clara and thank you for the knowledge about Asian and European saws, I found that quite interesting! I would like to try to answer one of the questions you were wondering about near the end of your blog, about one dominant culture. I would argue that a dominant culture does and does not exist in our world. The only difference is a generation gap. In the past, individuals were subjected to many western cultures as it has had so much influence and power world-wide, such as the Japanese-Canadians in Obasan and how you said that they had to “comply to racist laws and forcing them to abandon everything they know”. This can relate to an idiom about “my way or the highway” in the western culture. In the contemporary world, I would argue that western cultures have slowly started to balance out with other cultures as our world is becoming more and more globalized. I emphasize more about globalization in the modern world in my political science paper! If you would like to read about it, I can send you a copy of it in class. Overall, great job on relating one of your personal experiences with your father to Obasan.
Great job on your blog Clara and thank you for the knowledge about Asian and European saws, I found that quite interesting! I would like to try to answer one of the questions you were wondering about near the end of your blog, about one dominant culture. I would argue that a dominant culture does and does not exist in our world. The only difference is a generation gap. In the past, individuals were subjected to many western cultures as it has had so much influence and power world-wide, such as the Japanese-Canadians in Obasan and how you said that they had to “comply to racist laws and forcing them to abandon everything they know”. This can relate to an idiom about “my way or the highway” in the western culture. In the contemporary world, I would argue that western cultures have slowly started to balance out with other cultures as our world is becoming more and more globalized. I emphasize more about globalization in the modern world in my political science paper! If you would like to read about it, I can send you a copy of it in class. Overall, great job on relating one of your personal experiences with your father to Obasan.
– Martin
Hi Erin!
I completely agree with your analysis of the United State’s lack of education when concerned with the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings of WWII. As a student who has also graduated from a public U.S school, I can honestly say that this topic was one of the most avoided in the curriculum. However, I also believe that this example can be applied to the term that I was assigned: “forgetting”. One could argue that the exemption of the bombings from school curriculum is an act of strategic forgetting. Weather or not this was in fact a strategic act made with the hope of forming a more positive national memory of WWII can be greatly debated, and would be a fun debate to have. Anyways, I simply wanted to add my two cents into a great article, and explore some possibilities related to remembering and forgetting. I look forward to reading more of your work!
Mia Spare
Focusing on Sandra’s blog “Joe Sacco’s Safe Area Gorazde” I would like to expand on the idea of how Sacco draws himself in a caricature style. I think Sacco exaggerated his traits comparing to the victim’s of the Bosnian war to make it clear for the readers that he is a journalist gathering information in respect to the war instead of being a victim of it. Through the book we can identify that people from Gorazde have more realistic traits because they were the ones who had to pass through all the violence and trauma that the war brought to their lives. Instead Joe Sacco comes from America and he did not pass through all the atrocities of the Bosnian war, he did not experience how a war can influence on how you perceive life after all the trauma it causes. Another trait from Sacco’s caricature character are the white glasses he wears. From my point of view he wants to emphasize that from all the stories he is gathering from people of Gorazde, he was not able to actually see and experience them in real life. Instead, for Sacco to get to know the impact the Bosnian war brought to the people he has to meet with different characters that express their own stories and feelings towards the war.
Maria Jose Zegarra
I want to make a comment on Claras Blog “Force versus control“.
It is really cool how you draw connections from the past to the present though the story of your friend’s grandfather. I also enjoyed the way you bring in your own experience about the topic of the major differences of Western and Asian cultures and connect it with phrases from Obasan.
Your comparison between culture and language is very interesting and I can only agree with you that culture has to be learned exactly as we have to study a language to be able to communicate and understand it.
Ending with questions like “Can we truly be of two cultures?“ give a lot of material to think about because for me personally this question is really relatable coming from Europe and growing up in an german-italian family.
Well done :),
Paolina
Hey Isaiah!
I really enjoyed reading your most recent blog “The Resilience of Authors and the Story”. I liked how you went into depth about the rejection letters and how they could have affected Kogawa. I hadn’t thought of how hard it must be for authors to receive negative comments, especially because I didn’t get the chance to flip through the rejection letters during our time at the archives. I also really liked how you described the visit to the archives as a “unique opportunity” and how it made authors seem less like machines and more like people. It’s not often that we get to see the “behind the scenes” material of an author and you did an awesome job in expressing this rare experience!
-Kate