What. A. Cliff-hanger! I know this was only a selection from the whole comic, and I do appreciate that, as reading the whole thing might have seemed overwhelming combined with the length of the other reading, but man am I hooked! I want to know what happens next. I want to know how this guy going out in this rubber makeshift hazmat suit turns into the guy from the beginning of the comic, visiting the house of the comic’s writer, Héctor Germán Oesterheld, as a time-traveller who just appeared in his study. I want answers! However, since I have very few, I will focus on what I did get from the reading.
Something that struck me in both The Eternaut, as well as in the few assigned Mafalda comic strips, was the accessibility of the storyling. As was mentioned in the English translator’s not at the beginning of The Eternaut, these comics were written from the point of view of regular people in these countries. They are common people, easy to understand, easy to empathise with. Which, I suppose, is the entire point as to why we are discussing them in a class about Popular Culture. I even found myself laughing along and thinking about how much I could relate to some of the Mafalda strips. Furthermore, as I’ve mentioned, I was entirely enraptured by Oesterheld and López’ comic.
One of the things that I found most interesting was the attitudes of the characters in the story. At first, they seemed to almost not care about the rest of the world. They called the US’ weapon testing a ‘hobby,’ as though it were as insignificant as building violins. They paid it almost no mind at all, sparing only a sentence before moving on to continue their game. It was the same with the car crash that they heard. Favalli got annoyed that Juan wanted to pause to go see what had happened, and said that they wouldn’t stop the game just for a crash. Again, said like it didn’t matter at all.
Later on, this attitude is shown by the immediate conclusion being drawn that they were one of the only ones that could have survived. Of course, they later realize that this isn’t true when they see the light go on in a neighbour’s house, but it’s curious to me that they would have gone so quickly to thinking that everyone they knew must be dead already. I think a part of the way of thinking and processing information that might be behind this general attitude, may come from the phrase said often near the end of this selection, “best not to think about it.” If they choose not to think about the rest of the world, it might make managing what’s going on in their own lives easier.
My question for the class is this: how do you think that this attitude of ‘not thinking about it’ plays into Latin American culture?
