Lillian Smith’s One Hour (1959) is a complex novel that examines a myriad of societal and existential questions from the influence of racism and patriarchy on one’s psyche to the ways we remember and think about death. The novel centers around what Smith calls a “minor plot.” David Landrum, the Episcopal Priest at All Saints Church in the town, narrates the story, writing about the events, … Read More Memory Creates Life: Part I
Last post, I started discussing Nate Powell’s “Conjurers” and the ways that comics provide a unique medium for bringing the past, present, and future together in a singular manner. Today, I want to finish that discussion by looking at the latter half of “Conjurers.” I’ve written about that the ways that comics flattens time, specifically in connecting the past and the present. Powell does … Read More The Past, Present, and Future in Nate Powell’s “Conjurers”
I’ll always remember sitting at the table in my grandparents house and the smells that would float through the room as my grandmother whipped up food for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I distinctly remember the salmon cakes and the vegetable soup. However, the one treat that always makes my olfactory nerve and taste buds perk up, sending electric impulses to my brain and triggering … Read More Connecting Generations in Nate Powell’s “Conjurers”
+ george takei, graphic memoir, graphic novels, memory, photographs, The Best We Could Do, they called us enemy, Thi Bui
Over the last two posts, I have looked at the ways that Thi Bui deploys photographs in her graphic memoir The Best We Could Do, exploring how these photographs function not only in relation to the narrative but also in relation to the construction of memory within in the text. Today, I want to finish my examination of photographs and memory in Bui’s graphic … Read More Photographs and Memory in Thi Bui’s “The Best We Could Do”: Part III
In my previous post, I started writing about photographs and constructions of memory in Thi Bui’s The Best We Could Do. Over the past year, I’ve been drawn to the ways that graphic memoirists use actual photographs within their work. Occasionally, they use actual copies of the photographs, but for the majority of the texts that I have looked at, creators reproduce the photographs, … Read More Photographs and Memory in Thi Bui’s “The Best We Could Do”: Part II
Interminable Rambling 