(Focus particularly on specific scenes, panels, or techniques that we didn't talk about but that relate to things we did talk about. Or, focus on new (or revised) ways of thinking about specific scenes, panels, or techniques that we've already talked about.)
(Image from womensmemoirs.com.)
What also stood out to me in this excerpt was the panel structure on page 275. The way the top panel of Bechdel’s father throwing the cup is structured on top of panels of him showing his family kindness puts a sense of irony in the excerpt and demonstrates how psychologically unstable he was. Also, above the shattering cup in the panel on page 275 is a loaf of Sunbeam Ranch bread. This foreshadows Bechdel’s father’s suicide later on in the graphic novel.
ReplyDeleteI also liked the structure on page 269 where Bechdel juxtaposes herself to her father and how she gives examples of how her and her father were complete opposites in some ways. Also, the panel that contains Bechdel throwing a wad of paper at the smiley face trash bin could be a symbol of how her life with her family misses the mark of complete happiness due to her father’s abusiveness and coldness towards his family.
Illusion plays a large part in the excerpt as well. In the opening sequence with Bechdel playing “Airplane” with her father, we are tricked into thinking that the novel is about the life of a normal family. However, it is later revealed that all was not well in the Bechdel household. Also, we see that Bechdel’s father loved to work on interior decorating and design. Unfortunately, we later learn that this is only an illusion that he uses to conceal his homosexuality.
We briefly discussed the bottom panel on page 261 where Bechdel’s father resembles Christ during His passion. I thought that this was an interesting allusion that Bechdel put in her story. Also, I thought that it effectively described her father’s obsession over restoration. Although her father loved his craft, I think that it also caused him to sink deeper and deeper into the despair, anguish, and insecurity of his dark secret, causing him pain and suffering and to lose trust in his family, which led to the indifferent and vituperative attitude he frequently showed them.
For the past week, our class has continued a very insightful discussion on Alison Bechdel's, “Old Father, Old Artificer”. We have already covered how her images do not always depict her commentary, but usually infer something of a deeper meaning. Also, we have discussed how and why she weaves in the story of Daedalus and Icarus, as well as how she presents her father's homosexual tendencies to the reader. I believe our class is doing an excellent job of analyzing her memoir.
ReplyDeleteThere is only so much time in each class, though, and I have more commentary I'd like to add to our discussion. First off, I am curious as to how my peers interpreted Bechdel's remarks on page 269. She refers to herself in ways very opposite to her father, and shows pictures of him becoming aggravated with their differences. This can be especially seen in the second sketch, where she is “modern to his Victorian”. Is Bechdel attempting to blame their lack of a relationship on their differences? And does she see their conflicting views as a reason her father cares so little for her, and so much for his hobbies? I believe this is one of the first times Allison Bechdel admits to being very little like her father, and shows hoe much it upsets her. She could have just skipped talking about their differences entirely, but by doing so allows the reader to understand that they had no bond, or object to connect over.
As a class, we discussed how the story of Daedalus and Icarus plays into her memoir, and which character was which. I agree with Elizabeth's comment that Allison and her father switched on and off from both characters. At the end of the memoir, the reader may come to believe her father is Icarus, and his entire life was a plunge into the sea, as to speak. I believe she thinks of herself as Icarus on the bottom of page 266, though. She says, “Was Daedalus really stricken with grief when Icarus falls into the sea? Or just disappointed with the design of failure?”. Alison Bechdel has come to terms with the fact she is not perfect, but her father can not seem to do the same. I believe that in this quote, she does not believe her father would care as a person whether or not she succeeded, but instead only cares how her failure makes him look. Alison does not see her as her father's daughter, but more as a playing piece in her fathers idea of an “ideal” life. This concept is devastating, and makes me sympathize what Alison and her brothers went through growing up. Imagine to always want, but never fully get your father's love and praise?
Finally, I noticed that throughout the memoir Bechdel uses alliteration. She uses it on page 262 with “scabrous shingles”, on page 265 with “blithely betrayed”, and again on page 277 with “smelling of sawdust and sweat”. There are many more examples of her using alliteration, too! I wonder what effect this has on most readers, and what people believe her purpose was in doing this, for it surely was no accident.
I would like to disagree with the point Pauline made about Bechdel’s father using interior decorating and design as, “an illusion he uses to conceal his homosexuality,” and revisit the point I had begun to make on Wednesday toward the end of the block that I was not able to complete. For a man who was looking for a hobby to conceal this type of desire, interior design would not be an appropriate one. Stereotypically, a man who cares about things such as interior decorating and needs everything in his home to be perfect would be called gay in today’s society. I think this may have been her father’s way to express some of the feelings that came along with his homosexuality that he may have normally had to keep bottled up inside. This was something that was not so blatant and that he would be able to get away with without it really being a problem or issue. I think it served as the one way he could do something that he was able to share with others that might bring him happiness.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Danielle’s question, I do agree there is a part of Bechdel that believes some of why their relationship is so weak is a result of their many differences. However, I do not believe that her father’s hobbies are like her replacement because she is an important part of the perfect family image he seems so intent on achieving. I think that her father tries to keep his family and the work he does on his home as separate things in his life and that it may relate to why he becomes so frustrated when they interfere and something goes wrong with what he had worked so hard on. If there was no bond between them, it makes me wonder how difficult and surprising it was that she still showed sympathy for her father towards the end of the excerpt. The relationship had many levels of emotion that could not always be so easily seen and had to be examined carefully in Bechdel’s writing.
I agree with Katie's opinion on Bechdel's father and his use of interior decorating. He really wouldn't be hiding much by decorating the house because as Katie pointed out, this is one of the major homosexual stereotypes. Sometimes when something is building up inside someone it has to emerge somehow, so that would be the perfect way for him to release some of his secret which he might not have even fully understood since he lived in the 50's and there was a near zero knowledge or tolerance for homosexuality in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI also wondered if anyone caught the book title Bechdel chose for her father to read on page 269. In class we talked about how briefly she mentioned her father's secret, but the book he was reading was "The Nude" by Kenneth Clark and showed the torso of a man on the cover. When I first saw this I immediately thought that this was alluding to his homosexuality even before we found out he slept with teenage boys. I looked up the book and found out it is more about art than anything else, but I thought it was an interesting choice to draw, given the context.
Finally I wanted to expand on something I said during the class discussion in response to Zoe’s question on why the mother seems gone from her childhood memories. I think it’s sometimes the harsh memories we remember the most, and conjuring the beatings Bechdel got in her mind is probably much easier to think of in detail than a hug her mother gave her. Sometimes it takes neglect to create a memory too. You can have only a handful of good ones, like Bechdel getting a bath from her father, and that will be enough to want more since that’s what you’d want more than anything. She missed the father who was kind and wanted things to feel that way again.
As was discussed in class, Bechdel refuses to both illustrate and describe the most painful, cruel aspects of her father, and depicts his violence that's unmentioned while simply stating the fact that he's a pedophile, and not going into deatail. Aside from the reasons for this that were discussed, the knowledge without detail dropped as if by accident by the author gives the reader a sense that there's so much more that isn't mentioned and it lends more weight to Bechdel's statement on the preceding page that "He appeared to be an ideal husband and father [...]" because we know that the author knows that this isn't hardly true, and that, as is shown on the next page, page 273, her father's artifice, his image, his passion, is so successfully executed that her father as she knew him when she was young was only an icon, like the Elegant Lady or the Bishop, and is not meant to be understood as a person, but as a figure who is hollow, like the aspects Bechdel reveals earlier (those that are not part of her father's artifice) suggest; all of which makes more sense of Bechdel's meaning on page 269 of juxtaposing herself and her father--that his perfection suggests a lie that leaves his self undiscovered by the author who then, realizing as she matures that her father is not his artful arrangement of house or family, tries to understand her father as the opposite of herself but later (as she keeps suggesting at in her constant statement that her and her father's roles are often inverted) tries to understand herself through understanding him.
ReplyDeleteSomething that I noticed and is made more clear in later chapters when Bechdel speculates on her father's relationship with the town, is that her father and the house are tied closely as if part of one identity together with the town, which feeds into his reasons for being closeted. The house was built in the towns one boom of prosperity and was restored by Bechdel's father. He not only obsesses over the house, but over his self and projected a scene that did not exist. Bechdel describes the house and the minotaur's labyrinth, so the house's perfection hides his identity, his lies, as well, Bechdel notes, with its ornaments and frills, the functioning of the family, making her hate embellishments. The house is old and rotten, but He restores it to its perfect appearance, likewise, having been raped and now seducing kids himself, Bechdel's father sees himself like the house, rotten, only appearing perfect--which is why he is obsessed with appearing to be what he is not.
Also, like the way her father makes the house and family appear to be what they are not, Bechdel describes her father and their relationship through stories and through anything other than itself in order to understand it, and this is Bechdel's artifice.
“Old Father, Old Artificer” is a very complex graphic memoir. Alison Bechdel uses the technique of allusions to tell her story rather than flat out saying what she remembers. Not only does Alison create allusions with her words, but with images as well.
ReplyDeleteThe first allusion that really jumped out at me was the mythic reference to Daedalus and Icarus. In the myth, Daedarus and his son Icarus are jailed and Daedarus constructs his son wings out of wax and feather so he can escape. Daedarus tells Icarus not to fly too close to the sun, or his wings will melt. He also tells him not to fly too low to the ocean, or his wings will get wet. Icarus doesn’t listen to his father and he flies to close to the sun. His wings melt and he plummets into the sea. Alison feels like this myth relates to the relationship she has with her father. Alison sees her father as Daedarus and herself as Icarus. I agree with her thinking because Alison’s father is so self-absorbed that he doesn’t take Alison’s feeling into account. On page 266 Alison says, “Was Daedarus really stricken with grief when Icarus fell into the sea?” This quote explains the relationship between Alison and her father. Alison wants to bridge the distance between them, but because of her father’s personality, it is very hard for her to do so, which leads into the next question of why his personality is the way it is.
Alison’s father is trying to hide his homosexuality. He does this by creating himself a “perfect life.” He tries very hard to have the perfect house with the perfect family and appear as if nothing is wrong. He goes about this by doing a lot of home decorating and restoration (which as Katie said, maybe this isn’t a very good cover-up.) He tries to improve the things around his so outsiders don’t have any suspicion. The graphics also create allusions to his homosexuality. For example, on page 278 in the first panel, there is a picture of an open closet. I connected this picture with the say “in the closet” that people often use towards someone who hasn’t yet revealed their homosexuality to other people. I think the picture of the closet was put there for a reason. It implies that his homosexuality has always been apparent; nobody has noticed because of the “perfect life” that he has created.” I also thought it was interesting how Rachael brought up the point about some of the pictures being completely shaded in. I decided that every image that was colored black had something “wrong” with it in the eyes of Alison’s father. On page 278 Alison’s father is yelling about how the vase was too close to the edge of the table. Alison was too young to understand why he is yelling, but it is because he puts so much work into decorating that it is a problem when something is off centered even the slightest bit. Alison’s father is often shaded in too, which represents that he is having issues, which are apparent throughout the memoir. I also thought that the shading could represent the distance between Alison and her father. Mostly he is the one that is shaded in because Alison is striving for his approval and it is his wrongdoing for not giving it to her. But on the last page, Alison is shaded in. This shows that Alison has stopped seeking her father’s approval; although they live in the same household, they just do not have the bond that Alison once wished for.
I really enjoyed reading the first chapter in Fun House. I like the strategies the author used to make the story more intriguing; I’d like to read the full memoir.
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ReplyDeleteIn “Old Father, Old Artificer” by Alison Bechdel, I really enjoyed the pieces of the memoir we read. I would also like to disagree with Pauline's opinion about the fathers obsession with interior design being a cover for his homosexuality. In my opinion, I see it more as a hobby. He truly enjoys making houses look good, and would like it whether he was gay or not. I think Bechdel chose to give us this information about his interior design craziness only to make us think about the concept of gay men. What Katie also said, is that its stereotypical to assume a man is gay if he enjoys interior design. I am against stereotyping.
ReplyDeleteAnother point I made in class the other day about the father sometimes being shaded in , almost as if he is in a shadow. I feel like he is shaded in when he is most insecure, or his secret is not being well hidden. The father gets uncomfortable with himself, and around his family. You can tell by Bechdel's writing and graphics that he struggled throughout her early life. He didn't know how to deal with punishment for his young children, or how to take a joke. This, in my opinion, is because he was so unsure with himself, he could never really enjoy life.
It's interesting how Bechdel would write one thing, and the picture did not always match what she was talking about. I think it might be because some things she dealt with were too hard to write down so she instead drew a picture of it. Or, she could be saving her father in a way. This meant that Bechdel did not want to "throw her father under the bus", she did love him, and some of the things he did to her were forgivable but still had to be shown. Her father was a big part of her life, it makes me so sad to think of how she felt when he killed himself. While reading this memoir though, I fell like she isn't completely surprising. Sad, but not surprising. What I got out her memoir was she felt deeply about her father, but there was always something that was holding her back. I would like to read the entire memoir as well.
This past week our class had been discussing a very interesting and unique memoir. Unfortunately there isn’t always enough time to discuss everything we noticed, and some things were left with no discussion.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I had noticed and discussed with Zoe after class is the something that the pictures had revealed about the father. Not only did the author’s drawing portray major point in the story, but they also reveal little details about the characters. When I went back and looked through all the pictures, I notice that she had her dad dressed in a very strange way. When working on the house he would wear very small, distressed, jean shorts. The father also came across to me as extremely metro sexual. After reading the story completely, I found that these images were little red flags indicating his sexual orientation.
Another thing we talked very briefly but I found interesting was the image of the father carrying the wooden post. The first time reading through the story I noted that picture as reminding me of Jesus carrying the cross. I realized that I must have missed the connection, and didn’t bring up that point earlier in discussion because I thought I was just imagining things. I found this image really powerful in the way that is shows the way Allison views her dad.
I also felt very strongly about the discussion we had on whether or not the father was using interior decorating to hide his secrets. My feeling on this is that this hobby of his was not used for that purpose. I believe that Bechdel used this important detail about her father because it showed that he knew how to be passionate and love something, but that he just wasn’t sure how to show that towards his family. He was a perfectionist and I truly believe that the father tried to make his children perfect in hopes that he would love them the same way he loved his furniture. I also think that the children were very much aware of that, and in hope of gaining their fathers love they too tried to be perfect.
This was an amazing book that really opened my eyes to the various ways crucial messages can be displayed. I am currently searching for the whole book to read, and I know that even reading this chapter will help me to write my own personal story.
Matt C
ReplyDeleteI’d like to revisit the idea of repression in the graphic novel because I think that we didn’t spend enough time on it during class. It seems to me that this repression is the cause of all of the troubles in the house, and it shows up in most of the story. For instance, there is the first example that this gay man who has at least some idea that he is actually a homosexual, has married a woman and had children. This is clear repression, only one of the multiple instances of his repressive lifestyle that he leads. The author writes on page 270 that “He used his skillful artifice not to make things, but to make things appear to be what they were not.” His outbursts of anger are classic examples of repressed emotion, and he appears to only have two emotions, boredom and anger.
And on the subject of those emotions, I think the illustrations of the family can give you an idea of what the day to day life of that family was like, even without looking at the words. You see one smile throughout the entire selection, and when you look at the kids faces the two emotions you see are boredom and fear. The boredom shows up the most, with the kids shown with hooded eyes and a straight line for a mouth. The father also shows about two emotions, determination and anger, or some combination of the two.
But there is one instance that has a new emotion, but the emotion is embarrassment. This time, Bechdel decides to kiss her father good night but because of the nature of her relationship with her father, has no idea how to go about it. So instead of kissing him on the cheek like most kids would have, she decides to kiss him on the hand. This rare display of affection does not seem to improve anything, and the father’s face, with a look of indifference, says all that needs to be said.
During the class-led discussion Zoe asked the question "Who is Icarus and who is Daedalus?" One thing that I wanted to mention, but didn't get a chance to was on the bottom of page 261, where Bechdel's father resembles Christ. Within the panel is a small box which contains the words: Libidinal, Manic and Martyred. This panel answers Zoe's question that he is both Icarus and Daedalus because the word “martyred” reveals to the reader that he is killing himself voluntarily, which is exactly what both of the mythical characters did, Daedalus set up a design and Icarus’s death was a result of the failure of the design.
ReplyDeleteAt first, I believed that Bechdal’s father tried to hide his homosexuality by dedicating his life to restoration, he set up an illusion to make it seem like him and his family were perfectly normal and more. Evidence of that is on page 259 when Tammi, Allison’s friend, calls their house “a mansion.” Allison thinks that it is actually unusual how perfect her house is. Katie made a comment in class that today people would call a man gay for caring so much about interior design and such, which made me think twice about him making an illusion and someone else said that it was just a hobby. The bottom panel on page 259 is a good image to use as evidence that decoration his house was just a hobby because it shows that he uses old curtains he found in Mrs. Strump’s attic in his own house. One of my questions would be who is Mrs. Strump and why was he in her attic? She is only mentioned once in the memoir and I wondered if she had any significance to the story. I considered if it could be the mother of one of the teenage boys Bechdal’s father slept with.
In class, we mentioned a lot of examples of how Allison reveals her father’s insecurities. Someone mentioned his random outbursts of rage and that is a result of him hiding his homosexuality. I disagree with that statement because I believe that his rage comes from his obsession of him/his house having to look perfect.
Fun Home is a graphic novel filled with layer upon layer of careful, and I believe strategic, use of text and drawing. Unlike some of the other personal memoirs we’ve read lately in class, I felt that while Bechdel did write this for herself, and we learn a great deal about her "character", the reader also learns a lot about the man her father was, at least in her eyes. In the first few panels, Allison has drawn her father-playing airplane, and though her text simply describes the opening theme of Greek myth (Icarus and Daedalus) the illustration brings light to his stiff posture, and slowly grows into dialogue that introduces us to his need for perfection.
ReplyDeleteOne interesting aspect that we explored somewhat in class is the physical appearance of Allison's father. One thing I noticed particularly, and am still speculating on the reasons behind, is the way her father seems (to me at least) to age throughout the chapter. Although Allison displays some difference in age in herself as well, in her father his wrinkles become more prominent, and his posture different. It is on page 276 when he bathes her that this strikes me the most. In contrast, he looks youngest when he is outside working on the house. This connects to another aspect of appearance that Abby and I both noticed. The shorts. Whenever he is working outdoors, Bechdels father is depicted in some shorter than average jean shorts that lend a whole different air to his appearance, and to how he is perceived in my mind. No longer a buttoned up schoolteacher.
I greatly enjoyed the first chapter, and have since enjoyed the rest of the book. The complexity and care put into its creation astound me, and I can't even imagine analyzing the whole book, every nook and cranny of depth and meaning. It feels a bit like reading Where's Waldo in the best way possible: every detail means something
The thing that caught my attention about this memoir the most was the choice to delay mention of the death of the father until the end of the chapter. This was mentioned in class but I believe a major part of the logic behind it was missed. In class many people agreed that Allison Bechdel chose not to emphasize or even mention this too much was to prevent the audience from feeling bad for the father. While this may have been a purpose I feel that there was another purpose in the placement of his death. I believe that by putting it at the end and only mentioning it once she is showing that it was just another event in the story and it was not all that traumatic. If it was mentioned first or multiple times I would have got the message that the story was mainly about the death and remembrance of the father. The reason that this was not a huge event rather just another panel in a comic strip is because the father was never really there for the kids, an idea directly stated in the memoir. Because he was living a lie he was never open to his family and therefore Allison did not feel the connection that kids usually feel to their parents. By placing this idea at the end of the chapter Allison is able to make a whole argument without even writing anymore but just by using arrangement of non chronological events. I believe this idea is central to the whole chapter as many things are “out of order” but were placed there for some reason to make an argument or force the audience to feel one way or another.
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