So, I have no clue what to write about. It’s AMAZINGLY frustrating, feeling like this. Am I the only one incapable of sitting down and writing something of substance or is this a common phenomenon? Maybe I should try hypnotherapy or drinking Smartwater or something. I hear it’s done wonders for Jennifer Aniston! Oh wait…no I haven’t….
I’m not beating this whole 300-word-count thing, am I?? *sigh*
I suppose this is something like what Art experienced in Chapter 2, albeit to a much lesser (and less important) degree. I guess I could write about that: the struggle, turmoil, and frustration inherent to expression.
Then again, there isn’t really that much about it in the book, and then my essay runs the risk of becoming nothing more than the convoluted, melancholy whining of an angsty teenage “artist.”
Hey, what about those Scott McCloud articles! Maybe I could discuss comics’ function as a storytelling medium, like what makes it work and what makes it difficult (I found those articles very intriguing). Then, I could also discuss why Art struggles so much with drawing Auschwitz in comic form.
While I’m at it, I could analyze how Maus successfully conveys the author’s intent through the comic devices pointed out by Mr. McCloud (maybe I should find that book and read the whole thing…). I suppose I could consider how it’s ineffective as well. Nah, better not; don’t want to bite off more than I can chew.
Ooo, I liked Spiegelman’s use of the animal “masks” he has all the characters wear (and why he then calls attention to their, er, “maskiness”). He seems almost self-conscious through out this book as a storyteller. Almost self debasing. A very postmodern attitude, in my opinion. We feel kind of like we’ve seen it all, like we know so much and are so aware of the “tricks of the trade” in storytelling that it we feel the need to let the reader know that we know that they know what we’re doing, and that we can all have a good laugh at our trying to be smooth.
Yeah, this could work…(Wow, I’ve become a big fan of elipses recently…I should watch that…)
Or I’ll end up writing about something else entirely.
