Creativity At It's Finest

As mentioned in other blogs, a lot of us have different opinions or conclusions as to how stories or certain parts of stories should be interpreted. For example, in class we discussed Megillat Esther on page 96 and the meanings behind it. Haman’s heart is drawn outside of his body and the next couple of frames show the chambers of the heart. At the end of the chamber there seems to be a person. As mentioned in class, could this be Haman? Professor Levine even made the reference that it almost looked like the chamber was a water slide and he was sliding down it. Because at the end we see him in a pool of what looks to be like blood or filth. With my first glance at this page, I was completely clueless as to what was going on, so I skipped over it. However, in class we focused on this scene and many people had different opinions of what it was supposed to mean. Maybe because Haman was such a greedy person, it was showing that on the inside his heart was filled with filth? Regardless of what is supposed to be interpreted through this scene, I think it’s pretty brilliant how imaginative people in our class are. Professor Levine’s comment about the water slide particularly interested me because I would have never looked at it in this way.

I think how the class was set up was really important to understanding and interpreting different perspectives of graphic novels. I enjoyed hearing other people’s thoughts as well as considering my own. I would suggest having an open discussion like this for previous classes dealing with graphic novels and comic books.

On a side note, for anyone using Twitter, I found JT Waldman’s twitter page if you’re interested (The picture I have posted above is actually his profile picture on Twitter. I was wondering, could this be as self-portrait?). It’s kind of cool to see a different side of him, as he posts pictures, articles, and even lets his fans know where he will be guest speaking next. I’ve included his Twitter handle below.
JT Waldman: @peartree4

J.T. Waldman

I’m still up in the air as to whether or not I enjoyed Megillat Esther. I deeply enjoy and appreciate the art provided in the novel, but the story itself didn’t do much for me. It’s possible that I had a harder time with this novel because it took more than just a glance to get through the book. Normally the comics we read, don’t require as much time to get through because they’re so short, but Megillat Esther, although the same in length, gave me a harder time. Throughout this novel, especially the second half, I was a bit confused as to where my eye should draw across the page. In the second half I understood that the book had to physically be flipped upside down, but then I was uncertain as to whether to read each frame from bottom to top or right to left. Because of this uncertainty it made most of the novel not so enjoyable to me, so I basically focused on the graphics. Doing a little more research about the Book of Esther on my own would have been beneficial to me.

In Waldman’s Foreword, in our BOS book, he explains that he had to do a lot of research and planning before even sketching for Megillat Esther. This gives me some influential insight when dealing with novels. Although I am not writing a novel, doing a lot of background research can help in any instance. In my case, just reading the Book of Esther was not enough research in preparation for reading Megillat Esther.

“To obtain an authentic voice for my retelling of the tale, I needed to learn Hebrew and begin extensive research. Three years passed before even one sketch for the project appeared”(BOS, x).

Megillat = Scroll

I really like coming to class after reading the assigned novel and getting background knowledge about the novel. It constantly gives me that moment of "Aha! I get that part!" I think reading the novel and coming back as a class to interpret it is really cool way to understand it. By giving us the background after we’ve read the book, it challenges us to figure out the parts we don’t understand when first reading it.

Both interludes in Megillat Esther flew right over my head because I didn’t understand the references. Discussing them as a class allowed me to appreciate the interludes and understand why they might be in the novel. However, this makes me question the people that do read the comics who don’t have the large support group that we do to discuss what certain frames might mean. Maybe reading comic books is an acquired skill, and after understanding what type of story you’re getting into, comic book readers do their own research or background of the story if they don’t already know how to interpret them.

The artistic detail Waldman displayed in Megillat Esther is something to be admired. Although I mentioned my appreciation for the detail of the art in my last post, I still hadn’t picked up on some details that others had. After our class discussion, I’ve decided my favorite frame has to be on page 58 displaying those who had been hanged. With the footnotes as part of the ground, it really forces you to look deeper into each picture. Someone brought up the fact the footnotes on the page, can be taken as literal footnotes, as those who were hanged are right above this piece of the frame. I think interpreting art, like those displayed in comic books, in your own way (like the footnotes) is a really cool aspect of graphic novels.

I can’t wait to flip the book and see what other details I can pick up on.

Esther

JT Waldman’s retelling of the Book of Esther in “Megillat Esther” was both new and interesting to me. Although I did not have much knowledge of the Book of Esther before reading it for this class, it seems like an appropriate topic to discuss in our class. Because Waldman was able to transform the book into a graphic novel, it gives the story a different feel. The adaptation of the story allows us to also take other themes into consideration and focus on other aspects of the story by putting emphasis on certain frames.

I enjoyed reading parts of “Megillat Esther,” but I had a hard time following it as a whole. It’s possible that I had trouble interpreting it because I don’t have much background with the Book of Esther. I found the graphics in the novel to be extremely detailed which caught my attention, but it was a challenge for me to follow the story. It seemed like I had to search for the text on each page and I wasn’t exactly sure where to begin reading, if it even mattered. I also had a hard time interpreting what some of the pictures displayed because I think there was just so much going on in each scene. Not to mention the fact that the text was also translated in Hebrew, which I thought was really cool but just too distracting for me.

I’m interested to see what our class discussion holds. I think after we talk about the underlying themes of the story and the concepts we are supposed to understand from both stories, I will better appreciate them.

A Significant Waltz

I really liked “Waltz With Bashir.” Although much more graphic then I previously thought it would be, it was quite enjoyable. I think by animating the story, it gave us a different view of such a tragic event. It does not necessarily make the story easier to view, but it puts it in a different light, giving us an artistic appreciation of the events that took place.

I specifically liked the way the film was animated. Again, it reminded me of “Waking Life,” because of the stiffness the characters had, but realistic at the same time. In class someone mentioned the scene which the woman jumps in the water off of the boat, holding the soldier. This particular scene stood out to me as well because you saw each droplet of water appear after the splash. I think I liked this type of animation so much, simply because it was something different. The basic colors that were used put forth a certain mood of each scene, so that numerous colors weren’t needed.

I agreed with professor Lavine, in that the two most shocking scenes were the beginning and the end, particularly the beginning for me. When the film first began it showed a group of vicious-looking dogs running through the street. The color tones as well as the sounds just made that entire scene completely eerie, which I thought was a pretty intriguing way to start the film.
Finally, I thought the last scene with the live footage to be quite crucial to the film, as most other students thought. I think the real documented footage was a way to tie us back into reality from the animated version we had just seen. Although extremely graphic and depressing, it was important for people like me to see that video at the end because it made me understand the story better as a whole.

Overall, a really excellent film that I would recommend showing again in classes related to this topic.

Pre: "A Waltz With Bashir"

Looking at this week’s schedule I noticed we will be viewing a film entitled “Waltz with Bashir.” Frankly, I was a bit confused when I first read this and tried to figure out which book we had to read! Finally after rereading our syllabus again I figured it was a film. So, I did a little research.

“Waltz with Bashir” is film that portrays the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. An Israeli film director interviews veterans from the invasion in order to remember his term in the service during this time. "One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of beasts. The two men conclude that there's a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early eighties. Ari is surprised that he can't remember a thing anymore about that period of his life. Intrigued by this riddle, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world. He needs to discover the truth about that time and about himself. As Ari delves deeper and deeper into the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images."

While viewing the trailer of the film on YouTube I was reminded of the film “Waking Life.” Not because the film is animated, but the way in which the characters and scenery are drawn, give us that life-like feel, although animated.

From the trailer it seems like the film is going to be quite violent and graphic, which should be pretty interesting because of the animation. I'm interested to find out why the title has the word "waltz" in it as well.

Below I have provided a few links: One where you can watch the trailer of the film and the other is a site I found some information on where you can watch clips, check out photo galleries, and other fun stuff.

Click Here To Watch The Trailer!
Check Out More Info On The Film!

Miriam Libicki: Ok, I'll give her another chance

In my last post, I expressed my disinterest in Jobnik! However, after our class discussion, I have a new appreciate for the novel. Although I did not necessarily enjoy the novel, I now understand it better because of the discussion we had in class. I think it really helps when we cover background information about the books, but I think I would have liked to absorbed the background about Israel before I read Jobnik!, so I wasn’t so lost.

Because Jobnik! was the only book I haven’t really enjoyed in this class, I decided to do some outside searching to try and convince myself otherwise. Although I can still say that I did not enjoy Jobnik! I am excited to say that it’s not Miriam Libicki that I do not enjoy, it is just this particular work. At first I was taken back by not enjoying the book, but I think that’s healthy when reading any style of writing. You’re not supposed to like everything, and that’s ok. After reading a bit on her blog, as well as a few article reviews, I have decided that I am going to go beyond the class syllabus by reading other works created by Libicki.

Below, I have provided a link to Libicki’s blog as well as an article that featured a question and answer segment for Libicki. As discussed in class, Libicki is quite interested in nude drawings. One of the questions asks her what advice she would give for any aspiring cartoonist and her answer was to do a lot of live figure drawing. Although live figure drawing does not necessarily have to be nude, it reminded me of our discussion in class. Regardless if the drawing will be nude, I think Libicki was right to encourage artists to use live figures to really grasp an idea of how a cartoon should be illustrated.

Article: http://tinyurl.com/2ezypt7
Libicki’s blog: http://www.realgonegirl.com/about.html