Hey guys ! I know I haven’t blogged in a while so let me catch you guys up! So, after reading Persepolis, we did our group presentations on a certain term, then we did our literature review. After, we read Joe Sacco’s Safe Area Gorazde, and now we are reading Obasan by Joy Kogawa. It has been extremely busy for everyone with midterms, papers, projects, and midterms again but, I’m happy to say I’m back to blogging!
I will be focusing on Safe Area Gorazde by Joy Sacco and Marjane Satrapi’s Perseplis. Although, these were both comic book style books, they both hit me in very drastic ways. From reading both these books, I have learned a lot from both these books and they have both widen my views on the world.
Although, Safe Area Gorazde and Persepolis are both comic book style books, I noticed that the drawings in the book were very different. The way Sacco draws compared to Satrapi draws is highly different. Sacco draws in a much more real way, while Satrapi draws in a less detailed way. I was took by surprised because after reading Persepolis, I did not think it would be a more detailed book, I just expected Safe Area Gorazde to be similar drawing style. As I noticed this, I compared them and thought which drawing style was more effective to me. For me, I feel the way Satrapi draws is more effective than the way Sacco draws. I feel I can connect to Satrapi’s drawing more because it is more simpler and it is more effective in a way. But, I found something very interesting in Safe Area Gorazde that was not in Persepolis.
In Safe Area Gorazde, there is a particular part where in the book that the people living there asks for Levi’s Jeans (Sacco 56). This made me really think about the people living there. I felt that there are many people who are so many who are wanting to become American because it is usually thought that USA is the best. I found this very interesting because I never had thought about wanting to be American, I’ve always been proud of being Canadian. I find it very weird and quite sad that some people want to be American, and not their own nationality.
There were many things that really made me think of interesting points between Perspolis and Safe Area Gorazde. And it has changed my perspectives on things.
HI Patrick! I enjoyed your comparison of the drawing styles in Persepolis and Safe Area Gorazde. Beyond the observation that Sacco’s drawings are much more detailed, I think that the way each author portrays people is very different. While reading Gorazde I was struck by the way that Sacco did not always depict the characters in the most flattering way. There were many scenes in which the characters were sloppily drunk, drooling, or just not looking too hot. I thought that this style of depiction was a very interesting choice. The effect of his unflatteringly depicted faces to me was a rejection of romanticism. When we consume historical or foreign content we often tend to romanticize, or think of the situations as idealized. By portraying his characters in unappealing ways, I think that Sacco guarded against the potential fantasies that his readers would have about Gorazde during the Bosnian War.