In the first section of Fun Home, Bechdel uses the myth of Icarus and his father, Daedalus, to get us into the mystery of her family life and the role of her father in it. We know from the beginning, the "airplane game", that her father and their relationship will be at the heart of the book. She uses the backstory of the Daedalus myth--the father fashioning wings for his son Icarus who then disobeys him and flies too close to the sun thus melting the wax that binds the wings which then causes the son to fall to his death--to form the early backdrop for the narrative of family life. She is not claiming a position in the family myth but says: "For if my father was Icarus, he was also Daedalus" (7). We only realize later that she is intimating that her father will "fall"--die at some point in the memoir. We are led to believe that it has something to do with his passion--for his craft (fixing up the house but not much to do with his job of teaching HS English)--but also "passion in every sense of the word."
Let's look more closely at the panels on p. 7 because many of the themes of the book are revealed in these drawings and words. The two panels at the top of the page are a unit. If you read what happens inside the panels, it is a story of a Bechdel's child rejecting her father's choice of wallpaper and him bushing aside her distaste with the juvenile remark: "Tough titty." They are both doing two different things in the panels. He is holding a curtain to the window and she is holding up a roll of wallpaper. The commentary above the panels talks about Icarus and Daedalus and how he, Daedalus, "answered not to the laws of society, but to those of his craft." It is Bechdel's adult/writer talking matter-of-factly from a distance.
The action and words inside the panel are from the perspective of Bechdel's child. The effect of bolding "hate" in "But I hate pink! I hate flowers!" is a small, strident cry from the child that her likes and dislikes should be taken serious. And he isn't even looking at her in the panel when he says: "Tough titty." He's seeing if the curtains match. The commentary puts another spin on the scene by talking about "laws", laws of society and laws of craft. Laws are being broken here but laws are also being upheld.
Thus the core ambiguity in the memoir between her father's desire to sublimate his sexuality into a practice of craft is revealed, sort of. Society here is the wider society of the fifties that does not approve of homosexuality but also the society that is the typical family unit comprised of others like Bechdel's child who are governed by rules that the "Old father, old artificer" chooses to ignore, too. He ignores them on both accounts for his craft but in the case of the first, his homosexuality, his craft is symptom of something hidden, while in the second, his family, sees this craft as part of an overweening pride that is an inflexible mask over the same seething passion.
We're not sure how Bechdel comes down on the craft vs. society divide. We know that her child wants her father to play by the family societal rules but he refuses. And it becomes clear that as the memoir goes on that the child in the panels starts to learn her father's nature only by fits and starts. So what is the role of the top-panel commentary then? I think it acts somewhat like a Greek chorus that knows the truth but has a precarious position in that they cannot reveal too much of it because their role is fixed in the drama. They provide ideas such as the myth of Daedalus and later Joyce's Ulysses as archetypes that provide veiled commentary that helps describe what is going on under the surface of family life where there is very little that actually happens or very little that is actually said about the true motives of family characters. Oh, we hear about the fights and the silences between her parents and we see her mother's passive aggression but we don't really see her father as a victim of passion. He hides it. Everything about his sexuality comes out slowly as Bechdel's own sexual preference become clear.
In the end, we can say that Bechdel needs the commentary--the Greek chorus/stage director talk--because there is so little going on as far as truth telling in the family. Her family uses language to hide the truth. (Similar to what Howard does with elocution and the Attitudes.) But the top-panel commentary can't be too revealing; it can only talk in myths, stories, and riddles. That's its role. And that's fine because it gives the reader a chance to figure out the puzzle of this family as Bechdel leads us through a maze of events and motives that reveal the truth by and by. The narrative dynamic of a wise but reticent chorus layered on the portrayal of a child struggling to know the truth, keeps us reading and it keeps us involved in the story.
Note: For your response to this post please take a series of panels from the book and explicate them from a writer's perspective as I have done above.
Hey guys! [Waves]. I'm choosing page 95 because it exemplifies perfectly the benefits of "double-majoring" a work into the spheres of both literature and art. The text above every single panel on this page works hand-in-hand with the image, crafting something more personable than the scrawling or drawling alone. The first panel, especially, displays the benefit of a dual medium. At the top of the page, in broadened length, is a panel that adheres to Bechdel's running commentary, but is bolstered extensively by her drawing. The scene is lent greater momentary richness by: text positioned near musical notes insinuating lyrics (a song playing), boxed bubbles differing from those of speech, offering extra relevant information, and the expressions on her characters' faces. While the music playing helps put the reader/onlooker in this current place, the boxed tidbits allow for callbacks to other pieces of pertinent info. One tells us Roy has desert boots, of the very kind that Bechdel wanted. Another highlights the speakers that Roy installed into the eaves of their porch, giving us a clearer picture of, ahem, one of the kinds of manual labour Roy does fo' Bechdel's daddy. Each person's face conveys their interests; for example, this is one of the rare panels in which Alison's father doesn't look begrudged or perturbed, and guess what he's doing(?), doting on "a hot young thang." The rest of the panels on the page serve to offer detail to the same effect, putting Bechdel's childhood memories into clearer focus. The little details (the album cover, the toy gun, the Cat in the Hat, her father's posture, etc.) add information that might be tedious to describe, but is easily absorbed visually.
ReplyDeleteI'm focusing on the mini episode developing on pages 43-45 (mostly on page 44). This is where Bechdel recalls a time when her father called her into the inner sanctum and asked her to hand him a pair of scissors. This seems like a mundane memory on the surface, but Bechdel's commentary and illustrations bring this memory to life. The top of page 44 shows her entrance and her father working over the body. She comments, "The strange pile of his genitals was shocking, but what really got my attention was his chest, split open to a dark red cave" (44). This highlighted Bechdel's ability to tie her writing and drawing ability. Much like her younger self, when I read the page I first noticed the man's cavernous chest and didn't even notice the graphic nudity. The rest of the page is filled with simple character movements and insightful reflections. She was trying to connect this memory with those her father may have had with his own father. The illustrations show the distance between Bechdel and her father, while her commentary reveals their similarities.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I could not put this book down. I don't identify with the subject matter, but I absolutely adore how there is an equal balance of foreshadowing and just letting the ideas flow. We are given enough substance in the characters, without giving away the entire tragicomic. What I personally enjoy and hope to emulate in my imitation later on, are the flashbacks that Bechdel does. She constantly gives us a childhood memory, back to the reality; the past back to the present; the negative, to the good.
ReplyDeleteTo bring the ideas together, Bechdel lets us into her mind through the selection of short sentences, along with the images. One of my favorite parts, is during the beginning of Chapter 3, specifically 58-59. In these pages, Bechdel realizes her father's troubled past through her mother. During this part, I like to think of it as being an epiphany as to why her father acted the way he did, why her parents were so distant, why she was distant from perhaps the most important man in any girls life. In the midst of this, though she had years of disconnection with her father, she realizes that she is similar to him. He was gay, and she is a lesbian. One of my favorite lines in these 2 pages is, "I had imagined my confession as an emancipation from my parents, but instead I was pulled back into their orbit." She realizes that no matter what, her father is her father, and that they may have more in common than she thinks. At least, that's my own interpretation.
I personally do not enjoy reading comics, but I found this to be admirable because it's an art that doesn't need to be explained; it explains itself perfectly. This is shown throughout the book, but I want to focus on pages 28 and 29. Since reading is such an important part of Bechdel's family--and more specifically, her father's life--she adds in pieces of books he had read. I really like how she does this. The first panel shows a highlighted section out of a book her father had read, and the caption says, "A fitting epitaph for my parents' marriage." This says so much about how she grew up and how her family worked without her having to actually say anything. The quick caption and the fact that the highlighted section deemed important to her father says it all. I also appreciated the use of the slip at the bottom of page 28. The slip says everything the reader needs to know about how she found out about her father's death without her having to spell it out. Quickly, the reader understands that she received this slip at college letting her know that she needs to call home because there has been an emergency. The larger panel on page 29 also suggests that there was more to the conversation she had with her mother, but she leaves the reader with the most important details--"I think it was something he always meant to do"--and moves on. My favorite panel on this page is the last one where she is bent down next to an obelisk and her father says, "It symbolizes life." The reader is already aware that this shape is his headstone and we're left with this taste of irony. This idea of writing a memoir as a comic has opened so many possibilities. As a writer, you truly can show the reader things without using words, and that is why this could be forever analyzed and discussed. It just adds an entire new level of meaning.
ReplyDeleteTowards the beginning of chapter 3, Bechdel describes finding a likeness between her family and the Addams family (sorry I don’t have a page number I have it in electronic format). In a series of panels, Bechdel juxtaposes images of her family with Addams family cartoons to intensify this connection to the reader. By making this comparison, Bechdel leads the reader to seeing the home in a gloomy but yet mystical quality. This is similar to her child self, who she describes as “[puzzling] over a book of Addams cartoons” when she was still unable to read. In the first set of pictures, Bechdel presents two practically identical scenes of the two families inside the home. Using these images lets readers to literally see the Bechdel family as the Addams family in a much more powerful way than with description alone.
ReplyDeleteShe does this again in the next two frames, when she presents the frames of herself and Wednesday. They both appear seated and at the center of the image, which has that same effect of making the two seem equal. The next image frame further reinforces this idea by presenting Bechdel looking gloomy in the black dress for her school picture. These three images work together, along with the captions, to present an image of Bechdel as Wednesday Addams. By placing herself within this context, readers view Bechdel through that specific lens of darkness and morbidity.
I also really liked this scene when I was reading through the book, in the print version it is about half-way through chapter 2 and starts on page 34. I agree with you that the comparisons Bechdel draw between the Addams' and her own family help show the reader that she thinks of her past as dark and gloomy, while still maintaining a drawing and quizzical charm of sorts.
DeleteTo me this section is also very effective to a reader because Bechdel uses a 'pop-culture' reference that many people would be able to identify. Many people know who the Addams' are and even if they have never seen one of the many television episodes or movies they understand the generalizations that each character represents. So by drawing a comparison to something the reader is familiar with her expressions are more understandable. I found that Bechdel uses this concept of identifiers multiple times throughout 'Fun House' to keep the readers in cahoots.
Alison Bechdel has done something that I have never seen before, a comic to go along with her memoir. Stylistically, she added a completely new element from the past memoirs we have read and that is concrete imagery. While many authors are able to give the reader a picture in their minds, Bechdel shows the reader how it actually was. I found not only did the cartoon strip aspect of her style keep my interest, but also her way of presenting her and her father's relationship through comparisons. For example, on page 15 there are four different panels that Bechdel uses to describe who they were to each other. She says, "I was Spartan to my father's Athenian. Modern to his Victorian. Butch to his Nelly. Utilitarian to his aesthete.” It becomes clearer and clearer that the airplane ride giving father in the first page may not be as loving to his family as he is first portrayed. I was surprised that Bechdel went right into talking about her father being a child molester. On page 17 Bechdel says, "He appeared to be an ideal husband and father for example. But would an ideal husband and father have sex with teenage boys?". In just that first chapter Bechdel captures her reader’s attention and maintains a grasp on it throughout the rest of the next 100 pages by putting her reader right into the scene.
ReplyDeleteBechdel uses the graphic novel format to do something a traditional memoir cannot, which is provide the scene as it happens and the reflection at the same time. Where in most memoirs the author must present the scene to us and then follow it with a reflection, Bechdel can use the panels to set the scene as it happened, while reflecting concurrently with the narration. It's a device that is unique to the format, and one of the reasons why the memoir works so well. For example, on page 14 Bechdel's father is designing the home, while Bechdel comments on top of how she felt like her father valued his furniture more than her and her brothers. We can both see how he treated her, and see her anger at the situation, while also having her directly state her emotions from a distance. The two compliment each other nicely, and it gives both the narration and the scenes more power.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the combination, on pages 10-11, of Bechdel's description of her father and the incorporation of It's a Wonderful Life. Here she suggests the commonalities between her father and the role Jimmy Stewart plays in the movie. Between her captions, the drawings, and the interjection of movie quotes coming from the television, she provides a very clever way to advance the story; giving the reader a connection to her writing, inviting them in. I thought it was a very clever and unique writing technique that was only made possible because of the pictures and quotes pouring from the t.v. Using very few words, Bechdel was able to get a strong point across about her father because of the connection to the film.
ReplyDeleteI think it’s interested that Bechdel chose to write this memoir in the format of a graphic novel/comic book type thing. It’s an interesting format. It’s not one that I would have thought of when writing a memoir nor am I a fan of the genre but I feel that Bechdel uses it in a creative and interesting way.
ReplyDeleteThe section that I found the use of the graphic novel format particularly interesting and useful was pages 21-23. On page 21 is the strip the struck me the most when reading Bechdel. It’s the bottom right picture. Bechdel is in bed; her father had just gotten done reading to her and was turning off her light. She asks me to leave the hall light on and her father is shown completely black expect for his eyes. I was so struck by this, I think, because the caption speaks of her father’s kinder moments and yet the picture makes him look sinister.
On page 22, Bechdel is getting a bath from her father. Its baths with her father that she remembers clearest. It’s interesting to me because I feel like being naked in the bath is being totally exposed and here is where Bechdel reveals that she can’t be mad at her father, even through all his craziness with his decorating and in the bath he’s getting soap in her eyes. It’s a totally exposed and raw and honest confession.
The use of creating a memoir using the comic panels/graphic novel style as used by Bechdel is a very great way to create her story. For one I couldn't put this down simply because I'm a huge comic book fan, but also because of the way interesting story so far as well as the illustrations. I was particularly interested in pages 27-30 because of the way death and the graveyard are presented. I also really enjoyed the choice of dialogue and the way speech/thoughts bubbles were presented, particularly the "pregnant with me" line on page 32.
ReplyDeleteThough Alison Bechdel's memoir is told in brief captions and panels, it seems to have the same powerful impact as the descriptive memoirs we have been reading. For some reason while reading this, I couldn't help but think of Maureen Howard description of Mr. Holton' pristine home and how it presented a facade of a fulfilled life. In Bechdel's memoir, her father creates this home with artistic furnishing to create this appearance of a normal, happy family.
ReplyDeleteThe panel that struck me the most was at the end of chapter 1, when she is seen on a tractor with her father but reveals that he later dies when she is 20 years old (she suspects it was suicide). In this chapter she has described how domineering and antagonistic her father was to her yet his death leaves this void within her. As she further describes this feeling its becomes clear that there was always this void in her life when it came to her father and that his death may have meant that it would never be filled.