Scott McCloud’s lecture unleashed a bounty of ideas and knowledge relating to the comic book art form that now sheds new light on Marjane Satrapi’s methods of creating Persepolis. What appealed to me especially was the idea that comics are sequential art, temporal maps. Throughout history, as early as the ancient Egyptians, humans have possessed this innate and basic inclination to represent versions of reality through series of images that use space as a means to move through time. These two dimensions are inextricably linked in the human mind, and we are able to extract all five senses, emotions, and memory solely through the visual. The brain has a “desire” almost to find connections and patterns through images to relate to a broader understanding of the essence of reality. It does this through recognizing resemblance and through abstraction. There are certain ideas and images that are innately known to us, such as that of a face, and there are some that are known only through experience, learning, and exposure. Either way, the art form of graphic novels allows the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the story and experience through using this intrinsic faculty of the mind to recognize a different facet of the image without reading the captions or knowing the context. It is also through this faculty that we are able to connect these images using the space between them. Our imagination and subconscious understanding fills the blank and allows us to become a part of the story. To McCloud, the frames on the page of a comic book become windows through which we are able to escape our present reality and reenter the world from a different perspective. This in turn gives us a multi-faceted, complex, and comprehensive understanding of truth, reality, and the world.
All of these ideas are present in Satrapi’s Persepolis. The images arranged on the page give the reader a sense of time and sequence. She interestingly manipulates the space on the page to convey varying intervals of time or, sometimes, the absence of time or eternity. One example of this is on page 71. After she finds out that her beloved uncle has been executed, and she argues and rejects God on page 70, she escapes her physical world and floats in space. This feeling of eternity and lightness is depicted through the use of the entire page for one frame and the use of space within the frame, making her seem small and lost in the vast universe surrounding her. An example of Satrapi using the image to evoke the essence of the event or action taking place through the use of recognition and abstraction on the part of the reader is when, on page 36, she portrays her younger self and her Mehri sitting on the bed with shadows of the slaps they were given by her mother. While the marks were not literally left on the girls’ faces, the image stirs up the sense of touch, emotions of shame, sadness, and pain, and perhaps memory of similar experiences for the readers, allowing them to reach a higher level of understanding of the situation. The reader is also involved in the story when he or she fills in the blank between two frames on a page. An example of this is on page 145 when Satrapi’s mother becomes angry with her for disrespecting her religion teacher and risking imprisonment. In the second to last frame on the page, her mother is shaking Satrapi, and her face is wrought with anger. However, in the last frame, her face is consumed with sadness. The reader imagines the change of expression on the mother’s face and understands the true fear felt by her. In all, Persepolis gives readers throughout the world a new and very personal perspective on the history and current state of Iran. Through her use of the comic book art form, Satrapi does this effectively, providing readers with a window into a world removed from their own.
You present many strong points, Neli, but I do not agree with all of them. You write that we get a "multi-faceted, complex and comprehensive understanding of truth, reality, and the world" by abstracting when reading comics. As I see it, the impressions we get may be stronger and more personal, but hardly any more comprehensive. What we get from reading Satrapi is a nuanced narrative of how it was growing up in Iran. We do not get a comprehensive idea about how society worked in general or any other broader topics. I agree that our abstractions make the story come to life and that the graphic novel evokes strong emotional respones in that sense. Our abstractions, however, are flavored by our culture and experiences, which make them effective in understanding a story but less so in understanding the full picture, at least in the case of Satrapi. As McCloud also said, this does not always hold true (think of his story about explaining complex computer science topics for Google). However, Satrapi's descriptions of Iran are so closely tied to her own experiences, that detaching the two becomes difficult.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I have not yet seen McCloud’s presentation, I did read his book Understanding Comics and the two seem to cover similar themes. As Neli mentioned, comic artists often utilize the space between the frames and allow the reader fill in the gaps in the story. Satrapi’s choice of which parts of the narrative to depict and which to leave for the reader to “fill in” reflects the youthful innocence of young Marjane. This is evidenced in the first three frames on page 125. The actions “spotted,” “arrested,” and “executed” are clearly depicted while any emotional responses are left to the imagination – perhaps because Marjane was too young to understand much beyond what she was told about Niloufar.
ReplyDeleteYou mention, Neli, that comics "represent versions of reality through series of images that use space as a means to move through time." Comics often reveal their story in consecutive frames. But one thing I found interesting about Satrapi's book was how she occasionally included a temporal dimension in a single frame. For instance, on page 131, Marjane is depicted rocking out, her head drawn three times to indicate her motion through space and time. This frame does not just show a single moment to be strung together with other frames. Rather, it shows a series of moments that can stand alone as a narrative. Satrapi also utilizes this technique several times on the next page, in the frames depicting her purchase of forbidden music tapes.
ReplyDeleteThe point I felt was most interesting was how Scott McCloud states that the heart of comics lays in the way that the comic artists place images together through a systematic layout of frames that creates a temporal landscape – as you move through the pages you move through time. Already stated, Satrapi is an advocate of this method because, as we see in the book, we are able to understand and seek information more clearly through the movement of time in the frames. An exception (Pg.29) we see Satrapi’s dad taking pictures of the demonstrations going on in the streets, however he seems to be excluded from the frames so as to represent that it was numerous amount of instances, and not a single instance in time where he was doing this. It is particularly interesting how we overlook these details sometimes, arguably because of the sense that we dwell and escape ourselves from our present reality. Even though Rasmus points out that the abstractions we have ingrained from our experiences don’t give us a full picture of what’s going on, I think the purpose of this graphic novel and of comics isn’t for us to comprehend everything, but to evoke in us a change in our present reality to reenter, as Neli says, into the world with a new perspective.
ReplyDeleteI like how you touched on and applied many of McCloud's points as they relate to Persepolis. I have to agree with Rasmus though about how these facets of comic narrative allow us to conceive our own personal perceptions of Satrapi's reality. Most of the effects of comic narrative that you mentioned are very subjective- the imagining of what goes on between the boxes, for example. I think it is especially dangerous to say that comic narrative can give us a "truth" especially since comic book themes aim to engage our emotions. However, I do believe that comic books are extremely powerful as imaginative tools for expanding our ability to conceive and understand situations which are very removed from our own. From my own personal experience, I was surprised how emotionally engaged I was during reading Persepolis, and the amount of sympathy that I had when finished. For me, that was an indication that, in fact, the comic book narrative has aspects which engage certain intrinsic emotions that can frame experiences which would seem alien if explained purely by fact. In this sense, I agree with your last two sentences in paragraph one.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of the desire to connect sequential images is especially interesting considering our last Friday discussion about the images on page 70. Although we would probably never try to connect the bed with god if we saw the two middle images separately, when we see them presented side by side our eyes and minds try to connect the two. This effect seems to be much harder to accomplish in words than in images. In words one might be able to use some sort of simile comparing Satrapi's warm, comfortable, supportive bed and the feeling she gets when god is near, but the connection would loose subtlety and would feel more awkward than it does in images.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most interesting things to me about comics is the idea of the space between the frames. Like you said Neli, it's where the reader uses their imagination to fill in what happened. I think this is an important part of comics because it causes you to be engaged in the story, while still allowing the author room to present their desired interpretation. In movies, everything is shown to you and there's no opportunity to introduce your own ideas. Conversely, in books, images are left entirely up to the reader. The graphic novel, however, is a medium right in the middle that steers the reader in a certain direction and invokes certain emotional responses, without being completely explicit. This is perfect for Persepolis because Satrapi wants readers to understand her point of view, and see things as she did, but she also allows the reader to interpret some things on their own, and imagine for themselves how things were.
ReplyDeleteMcCloud's definition of comics and, by extension, graphic novels as a temporal map of the events predicted does seem to give a unique approach to understanding Satrapi's intentions in the book, and how the medium allows our brain to form connections in different ways. I would disagree with Miles' analogy, though. It seems overly simplistic to describe comics as a clumsier way of conveying meaning. The two ways may be different, but images and by extension comics can be just as precise and malleable as words. To me, the true difference seems to be more one of association. Comics, images, paintings, sculpture and all visual arts are more associated with Romantic ideas of emotion and subjective perception, while words are associated with rationality and logic. It is easier for us to attribute the quality of absolute truth to the written word than the image. Yes, word and image stimulate different parts of our brain. But that doesn't mean that the significance of one or the other is somehow lessened by the fact that we process them in different ways. Words are not more nuanced but less emotional, just as images are not clumsier and more emotional. They are just different.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed McCloud's lecture and his approach to word and images. I was amazed when he said that even plain pictures have text, particularly have a message that gets to the readers without using words. The most part that I liked in his lecture and I think is related to Neli's point is the part at which he mixed different facial expressions to create new ones. Satarpi also uses this technique to connect to the readers and present the child's emotions. Facial expressions are widely used in Satarpi, and though it is sometimes difficult to depict Satarpi's feelings, like the drawing where she is flying in space, it is pretty easy to understand what Satarpi feels most of the time.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as I mentioned there are some drawings where it is not easy to interpret Satarpi's feelings through her facial expressions. Does that mean that images are sometimes misleading and confusing to understand. This actually reminds me with Blake because he thinks there is always something that cannot be communicated so though images play an essential role is helping us understand what the characters feel, still there are things that cannot be communicated.
One last point, I did not agree with McCloud wheb he stated that anything can be drawn and turned into a comic because I think there are a lot of things that cannot are not communicable.
Even before we saw Scott McCloud's lecture, I was very interested in how Satrapi used images in Persepolis. Previous to reading it, I had thought the images were simply illustrations of what the text was conveying. But why have the images if they are going to say the same thing as the text?In graphic novels, like Persepolis, it is clear that the images carry as much, if not more, weight and meaning as the words. Like Neli said, the transitions, facial expressions, or use of space on the page can give us a new understanding of the novel's meaning. I even think of this as an art form, and the artist is writing and drawing to convey a deeper meaning.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the idea that humans try to extrapolate human figures from patterns they see, like the abstract idea of a face formed by squares and rectangles in the general form of a face, I think it's interesting to ponder Satrapi's use of human images in geometric patterns that would suggest the abstraction of humankind away from from human figures. For example, when Satrapi explains the massacres that occurred near the start of the Iranian revolution, the dead are arranged in the page in a tessellated, diamond kind of pattern, with identical, almost comical death gazes. I think Satrapi exploits the opposite effect of our constant search for human images by reversing it and using humans as the basic grains for nonhuman patterns. That may have something to do with the idea that much of the book is written from an anecdotal standpoint early in her life, when things like death didn't hold as stark and grim a meaning as they would later in her life.
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