As a writer, I am always exploring language to find new ways of describing emotion, perception, beauty, tragedy and more often than not, find the details of hope within the crevices of injustice that humans inflict on one another. Many written mediums from novels to poetry offer an unlimited realm of research, composition and enjoyment. And to strengthen my expression in writing, I look at other art forms to infuse passion and heartbreak into my work.
From film to theatre to visual art to music and now graphic novels.
From the visual art side of the graphic novel, one panel can strike a person much like a poem: leaving the reader with one taste, one idea, one feeling that connects to the overall concept. Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” did this to me on the first flip-through of the book. I have no idea what the story holds for me as a reader when we get to it at the end of the semester, but the imagery has already touched my emotions.
As for the language part of it, I believe graphic novels are more universal in the fact that as far as poetics go, the symbolism is etched into the storyline and the characters. There’s not as much sifting through seemingly isolated symbols or digging into meaning of a story that can only be unearthed in a comparative literature discussion. In my opinion, the language of comics comes directly from the characters and they tell it like it is. Or rather, they tell it and the reader relates to each character as a person talking, instead of sifting through superfluous “narrator” voice. (Not that I have anything against the narrator voice -- I'm a prose writer, after all!)
But do graphic novels really “tell it like it is”? Does any art form? Novels, poems, plays, songs, works of art? Certainly the violence, blood and guts in superhero graphic novels are taken with a grain of salt. And social awareness graphic novels have unique artistic licenses that seem to take harsh reality and make it no less harsh, but tint the edges with expression and universality.
I guess what I’m getting at is that all art begins from a very real, human place. Emotionally, psychologically, socially. But infused in these studies of the human condition is a little bit of human control – hope – that lets us show a piece of ourselves, a piece of beauty, a piece of proof that we work for something better.
I think Friedrich Nietzsche said it best: “We have art in order not to die of the truth.”
‘til next time,
-PVB
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