Hello again,

At the beginning of the semester in Arts Studies, we read and discussed the book, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. In this graphic memoir, Marji (a younger version of Satrapi and protagonist in the text) is living in Iran during the Revolution and is telling stories from her life.  I wanted to revisit the book because I find the author uses some very interesting techniques in her illustration. For the most part her panels are laid out two or three in a row in three rows but in certain points of the story Satrapi changes that norm to put larger panels on the page. The question I pose in this blog is, what is the purpose for using panels that take up the entire page?

The first instance a full page panel is found is on page 42. The page before shows how the Shah was ousted from power. The caption at the very top of the page reads, “The day he left, the country had the biggest celebration of its entire history,” and below is shown a large group of about 30 people, each with a smile on their face and many hands showing peace signs. Every person has a different pattern on their shirt and no two faces look the same. Marji and her family can be found in the bottom left corner of the panel. Satrapi uses a full page to relay the immense size of the event. She wants the audience to know that the celebration was truly the largest the country had ever been apart of and therefore she uses the largest panel she could for it.

The second time the author uses this kind of image is further in the book on page 71. On the top of the panel is written, “And so I was lost, without any bearings… What could be worse than that?” This panel is about how she feels after she has been disconnected from God and she feels alone in the universe. The illustration is almost completely dark with a couple of stars, a planet, and a lone Marji floating out in space. In the bottom right corner is a jagged speech balloon saying, “Marji, run to the basement we’re being bombed!” in bold, capital letters. At the very bottom on the page, the caption says, “it was the beginning of the war.” In this case, Satrapi uses the large panel to signify two different things, how small Marji feels in this moment and the polar extremes between the quiet of space and the force of the bombs. This particular part of the story is when Marji grows up and is no longer a child.

Satrapi uses this device is on page 77 as well. In this panel is an illustration of Marji and her family riding a magic carpet between an Euopean tower, apartment building, and the leaning tower of Pisa. There are images of curls and waves all around them to signify the wind. The caption on the image reads, “In September 1980, my parents abruptly planned a vacation. I think they realizd that soon such things would no longer be possible. And so we went to Italy and Spain for three weeks… It was wonderful.” The fact that this panel is so large is supposed to represent how wonderful the trip was for Marji and how it was the very last time that her and her parents went away together. This is the final time that Marji gets to spend quality time with her parents without the war in the foreground.

Satrapi has many uses of full page panels. The panels are metaphors for extremes in the story and are used in order to show the audience how important the different aspects of the story are. This panels also show a finality in Marji’s life where something comes to and end or the plot drastically changes.

Hello there,

If you are reading this, then you have artfully found my blog. This blog’s sole purpose is to share my insights and opinions in what we are learning in my Art Studies class at the University of British Columbia.

If you know me, you know that I love Disney (and posting on my ASTU blog.) So for this blog I decided to combine the two and tell the story of Running In The Family through my favorite genre of music, the Brother Bear soundtrack.

“On My Way” is my favorite song in the move Brother Bear and I think that it fits the book perfectly. In this scene, Koda, the smaller bear, is taking Kenai, the larger bear, to the salmon run, a tradition that all bears partake in but Kenai has never experienced. Kenai represents Ondaatje as the tourist and Koda represents Ondaatje as the native. As you watch the scene in Brother Bear play out, you notice that Kenai has trouble doing things that most bears find easy, such as eating berries, because he has been disconnected from his roots as a bear. When Ondaatje returns to his home of Ceylon he has been disconnected from his roots for so long and such finds things such as “bear”ing the heat difficult, just as a tourist or traveler would.

Certain lines of the song relate to the book outside of the traveler/native metaphor as well. Phil Collins sings,”And the stories that we tell will make you smile,” which is reminiscent of chapters such as, “Aunts” and “Jaffna Afternoons” where Ondaatje sits with his family and talks about stories from their past. Some stories that they tell, like that of a “funny hideous scandal” make them smile as they retell it and some stories, like that of the governor’s daughter who “threw herself down a well,” don’t have the same effect. As the bears and Ondaatje continue their journey, the lyrics, “not the rain, can change my mind, the sun will come out, wait and see,” reminds me of the many chapters entitled “Monsoon Notebook.” These chapters do not actually talk about monsoons but what it is like to live and experience Ceylon for what it truly is.

https://youtu.be/v95tQG1-KRQ?list=PLVLwLXWb_ZpNT20S1LjTQfThl9xj3VfhI

In this scene in the movie, Kenai, or in this metaphor Ondaatje as a traveler, reaches the salmon run and is immediately accepted into this group of bears. When Ondaatje reaches Sri Lanka, his family welcomes him home with open arms even though he left the island for so long. Ondaatje as the local is joyous because he is reunited with his family and is able to spend time with his siblings and extended family who he has not seen in a while. Ondaatje as the tourist is here to learn new things about his father and to explore that relationship, just like a tourist would with a new place.

Similarly, there are lines in this song that stick out in a different way than this overarching theme of the tourist. The lyrics, “remembering loved ones departed, someone dear to your heart,” reminds me of one of the purposes of the book, to speak about memory and remembering his family in a way that is emotionally true to the author. The quote, “this has to be the most beautiful, the most peaceful place I’ve ever been to, its nothing like I’ve ever been to” reminds me of Ondaatje’s daughter in the chapter, “Kuttapitiya,” and she remarks after traveling all over the island, “If we lived here it would be perfect.”

What we’ve learned from this post is, Brother Bear was greatly under appreciated. Also that the two polar roles of traveler and local that Ondaatje must wear is a complicated line to walk but important due to the way the plot of the text plays out. Ondaatje as the tourist explores the island with new eyes due to the time he has spent away from it. Ondaatje as the native spends his time on the island coming home to what is familiar, cities he lived and close family members.