What was that, like eight people spoke up in yesterday’s class? Nice. I am hopeful even more will do so. It makes class run, just like the film clips I am trying to assemble for next week’s class. Speaking of which…
There are new notes for our discussions of the graphic novel for next week. If you’re not in-the-know yet, check out the webpage for an intro to our topic. There, you will find these new notes, which will be generically applied to graphic novels and films (in general). I will bring some novels to class to peruse. You’re encouraged to do the same. In sum, we will be discussing the differences in “meaning making” between graphic novels and cinema.
In a concerted effort to be more teacherly, I offer the following: Let’s be sure in our written responses (those you turn in rather than post on this blog) to push as fully as we can in our investigations and analyses. Particularly, we need to be mindful when we are writing about a film that we are actually writing about that: its cinematicness, its filmic qualities. If we are not doing so, we might as well be writing about a novel or any other form of storytelling.
I also point you to my other to brief posts about film club activities, which are good and worth your participation and attendance.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I never got into graphic novels (or comics). I'm not sure what the draw is. I prefer to read novels and some non-fiction. It's hard for me to follow and figure out the sequencing of the boxes to follow the story.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that Ghost World was a graphic novel first. I did not know that. And while watching the movie and a little after I tried to visualize it as a graphic novel and couldn't. The way the story was told and also the story itself I can't really imagine it as a graphic novel.
I guess I need to view film and the meaning or writing of graphic novels slightly differently than I have been. And also add to my limited knowledge of graphic novels and their film adaptations.
The thing I found most interesting about graphic novels is the fact that the illustrations seem more important than the written word. This is similar to film and television. Graphic novels act as a story board for a film, showing the most important details of the scene with a representation about what is being said in each seen. However, in graphic novels the inner thoughts of the characters can easily be expressed by the written word unlike in cinema where either the actor's expression or a voice over of some type.
ReplyDeleteI think the problem that some people may have that the graphic novel doesn't tell people new to the graphic novel experience how to read it. Instead newcomers may need help from veteran graphic novel readers in order to fully comprehend what is happening within the strip.
Sherry is on to something with the ease in which graphic novels can take you inside the head of its characters. This is a distinct narrative advantage over film because voice overs can often be very sloppy, ineffective or not cohesive; for some reason I'm reminded of Mel Gibson's voice taking over at the end of Braveheart, though he's not the narrator in the rest of the film. Truly funny or enriching voice overs like those from Adaptation, Hannah and Her Sisters or High Fidelity seem to be pretty rare, to me anyway.
ReplyDeleteI'm not too familiar with graphic novels but picking up Watchmen I did notice how easily it is able to slip in and out of the minds of the characters. From that standpoint, it has some of the advantages of your basic novel without sacrificing its ability to tell its story visually. I think Ghost World is an effective film in terms of characterization, mainly due to the droll acting style of Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi being, well, Steve Buscemi (I mean that as a compliment). Kind of curious now to see how Enid's personality is portrayed in the graphic novel, though I'm skeptical that some of her one-liners can be as funny as they are in the film.
The thing about the comic "Ghost World" as opposed to the film is that--very substantial differences in content aside--the medium itself is less immediately MOVING in the obvious ways. Daniel Clowes admitted that himself in an interview he did about a year ago ("Comics seldom move me the way I would be moved by a novel or movie...it's not an operatic medium. I hear other people talk about being moved to tears by comics. I can't imagine that.") and I'd have to agree with him at least to an extent. Comics as a medium isn't as imposing or immersive as cinema, but shares certain advantages (I'm thinking specifically about Eisenstein and Kuleshov's ideas about montage, only with the images juxtaposed in space rather than time). Personally, the film had a more immediate, visceral effect on me than the comic, because film is a much more overbearing, multisensory medium than comics; however, the comic was more...haunting, I guess. The stylized, iconic characters are if anything *more* expressive than human actors, and comics force the audience to fill in the blanks--not necessarily literally--between panels in a much vaguer sort of way than cinema.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to go more in-depth with this in a response paper (this stuff is ), but my computer's been in the shop for over a week now and I've had few chances to use another; would I be able to submit a paper on this a couple days late? In the meantime, I've got a bunch of "literary"/"alternative" trades to bring into class, if anybody wants to take a look. Dan Clowes, Chris Ware, Jaime Hernandez, Alan Moore, Alex Robinson, etc.: all really notable artists, and great examples of why their chosen medium deserves to be viewed on its own terms (rather than as books for the barely-literate, or movies for the deaf, for instance).
Enid's character in Ghost World is sterotypical for most women in graphic novels. She's extravagantly dressed, often in a gothic-style sort of way, with combat boots, odd eyeglasses, and wildly colored hair; yet, comes across as sexy due to her bustiness and overall appearance. The sequence of events in the film is like that of a graphic novel. Narration of the comic and that of the film is similar in that they are not narrated per se, but by the dialogue of the characters. Enid unknowingly narrates Ghost World.
ReplyDeleteMany graphic novels feature difficult translation, in that the content does not transfer as well in film. As it seems that imagination, though given a sliver to work with on page, is so much more eccentric in mind than one can ultimately put to screen. Yet, the anticipation of those characters being put in motion stirs us still. It is interesting to understand the process of graphic novel adaptation because often times the look and aesthetic of the characters and their environments then become the prime focus in its adapted film. For example, Sin City's original graphic novel was literally used as the storyboard. As if snippets where plucked off the page. The transfer is tremendous; you definitely understand the difference when compared to other films in color, dramatics, and story board feel (as if the page comes alive). However, Ghostworld lacked that comic book feel to me. When I think of graphic novels, my mind jumps to fantastical stories involving superheros.Is Enid one? If so who is she saving? I want to hear from someone who got their hands on the print copy.
ReplyDeleteI'm not very familiar with graphic novels. The only one I've ever read is Watchmen, which i like. I guess I have always associated graphic novels with "super heros" so i had a time making any connection between Ghost World the movie and Ghost World the graphic novel. I read some things about the graphic novel and realize that the Ghost World movie is very different in terms of plot then the orignal graphic novel. I think it would help me to understand and make a connection if I had more experience reading graphic novels, other than the super hero variety.
ReplyDeleteHey everybody! I think Scott McCloud might have something to add to what I said about comic-panels-as-montage, but I left my copy of "Understanding Comics" in the car. I'll have it in class, though.
ReplyDeleteLook, you guys...if I could take a class devoted entirely to comics, I'd be all over that shit; you don't even know.