No Message is a Message – Fun Home
No message is a message. I used to say this to all my friends who had a crush on somebody that didn’t reciprocate their feelings. Besides this phrase being quite applicable in the ‘romance department’, I think ‘no message is a message’ (or in other words, SILENCE), is quite fitting in ‘Fun Home’. So what […]
Airplane & Icarus in Bechdel’s Fun Home
In Arts One last week we were discussing several graphic works, including selections from Nick Sousanis’ Unflattening, Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, and also the whole of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home. We were very lucky to have a distance lecture/discussion by Nick Sousanis through live stream from San Francisco on Monday, March 20! He spoke about […]
Questions on Jazz
This post is regarding my presentation questions from our last Jazz seminar! Yeah, I know I’m super late, I’m sorry. What is the significance of the lack parenting? What importance does the parrot that says “I love you” have? Why does Violet leave the knife in his cage? Firstly, the theme of parents affects many characters … Continue reading Questions on Jazz →
Thoughts On Uses of Graphic Vs. Written Memoirs
Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home is a memoir that has been written/drawn as a graphic novel (apparently it is also described as a graphic memoir because to call it a graphic “novel” would be technically wrong, what with it being a totally different genre but I digress). I’ve read my fair share of graphic novels and…
The Significance of Memory
Since I just uploaded my blog post on Riding the Trail of Tears, I wanted to draw a parallel between Hausman’s cyberpunk historical fiction novel and author Alison Bechdel’s “family tragicomic”, Fun Home. Both works place great significance on the role of memory in the narrative frame. Despite both pieces being entire different in genre and subject matter, the […]
The Practicality of Historical Virtual Reality
I had this blog post written out to post during our Hausman week, but I forgot to upload since I was preoccupied with writing the essay! My apologies! In Riding the Trail of Tears, Hausman poses a difficult question to the novel’s readers about the practicality of historical virtual reality. The incorporation of VR into literature […]
Loneliness and Abandonment in Austerlitz
Loneliness and abandonment are two themes that I believe pervades Sebald’s Austerlitz and help convey its striking sense of melancholy. Both of them revolve around a kind of ostracization and alienation, a sense of not belonging, which deftly encapsulates Austerlitz, who really has no idea of where his roots are before his early childhood memories … Continue reading Loneliness and Abandonment in Austerlitz
Sebald – Time, Memory, and the Human Experience
SAUDADE sau·da·de souˈdädə/ noun a feeling of longing, melancholy, or nostalgia that is supposedly characteristic of the Portuguese or Brazilian temperament. The word ‘saudade’ came to mind when understanding Austerlitz. I guess it’s because it made me think of the past and how time back then and the memories which unfold give me this certain […]
Burying the past in Sebald’s Austerlitz
In Arts One this week we read W.G. Sebald’s novel Austerlitz, and I had to miss one of our seminar meetings due to a health concern so we just had one discussion on this rich and complicated text. I wanted to share some thoughts on a few things I focused on when reading it, […]
History in Sebald’s Austerlitz
My question: How is the theme of the subjectivity of history reflected in the book I wonder if there is a link between the way Austerlitz handle information about his past and the ending of the book. History is a huge theme in this book and I wondered if the ending was an indication of […]