Monday, April 19, 2010

Graphic memoir

What did you think of "Stitches"? Did you like the graphic format?

Kim and I have talked before about how nonfiction works better in the graphic style than fiction. Did you find that to be true with "Stitches"? And why do you think that is?
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6 comments:

kc said...

I loved it! I found the story itself very moving and the drawings totally captivating. It's a great example of how using art to process a traumatic personal experience can help you safely get to the other side of that trauma and move on, enlightening others at the same time. Imagine if he had no creative outlet for dealing with what happened to him.

6:24 AM, April 21, 2010
cl said...

I haven't read enough graphic novels to compare the fiction and nonfiction storytelling, but I would agree this was compelling. The scenes where someone would lash out at him or he'd cover that lump or scar on his neck could have been told in words, but they would be hard to compare with the images he drew.

And, in a little bit of a throwback point of view, graphic novels still look to me more like children's books, and hurtful neglect and abuse are jarring in children's books.

There were so many vivid details to point out in the images. One that stuck with me were the blank glasses David's parents and grandmother wore. You do see that in cartoon/sketch characters sometimes, I guess to suggestion reflection, but in this context the glasses gave those characters a disquieting effect. From David's point of view, most of what happened was trying to read what was going on with the adults, and there were no visual cues to see what state they were in or what would happen next. (Interesting, too, as the story went on, the glasses came off more and more. Or so it seemed to me, and then you could get a better idea of the emotional state.)

4:41 PM, April 21, 2010
cl said...

Erin, I really loved the story. Great pick.

4:41 PM, April 21, 2010
Erin said...

I'm glad you liked it! (I know some people can be sort of put-off by the idea of graphic novels, so I'm glad that wasn't the case.)

Great observation about the glasses. I noticed, too, how the blank glasses made it a little harder to determine the characters' emotions, like whether they were angry or just had their usual sour look.

10:58 AM, April 29, 2010
Erin said...

A quote I found from Small:

"I know now that the graphic form was the only way my memoir could have been told. First of all, drawing is my most fluent means of expression. Secondly, it's a story about being voiceless. It demanded a visual treatment because it involved so much of that guessing game we played in our family, of trying to figure out why someone was mad at us -- someone who refused to communicate by any other means than slamming things around. If told in words -- even if I could have -- the story would have lost that visceral impact."

12:02 PM, April 29, 2010
kc said...

That quote is a good summing-up! His experience of his mother especially is so lonely and wordless. It's probably a very visual memory for him, even if he weren't an artist.

Yes. Good observation about the glasses, cl!

I'm glad that he included actual photographs of his parents and himself as a child. It's interesting to see how they "really" looked compared with how he drew them.

12:55 PM, April 29, 2010

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