I had to read the graphic novel Fun Home for my class on graphic memoirs. I spent a few hours reading the first half, got bored and ended up reading American Born Chinese (which was actually removed from the curriculum because of delays) and finishing it in less time than I had spent reading Fun Home.
The difference was that I had really liked American Born Chinese.
I have a theory as to why I so dislike Fun Home, and Alison Bechdel makes it so apparent in the work: Her rampant use of Joyce inspired imagery and constant, overbearing and obvious allusions/references to Fitzgerald, Proust and Camus are just annoying. It feels like I'm reading Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man again, except a comic book version of it, and that's something I'd really not rather half-read again. I wouldn't mind so much these literary allusions, as I am ALL for that kind of crap, but, like, instead of using the medium of the graphic novel to create some kind of tension or use the visual elements of a graphic novel to tell things that words can only spoil, everything is narrated by the author in a pretty sterile manner. The author's voice is so disconnected and matter of fact-ly, that it makes me wonder why I should even care about her story. All of the clever elements of her story are undercut by the paragraph of text on each page explaining why her dad's death was ironic. Is it really irony if you have to tell me it is?
P.S. I know I probably sound all kinds of ignorant for not "getting" James Joyce, but I think his work carries so much pomp with it that it makes me angry just reading it aloud, so I don't care
No comments:
Post a Comment