In the Night Garden

While I thoroughly enjoyed In the Night Garden, I do have a complaint about her gender roles. I understand why she chose to switch gender roles, of course. It was very interesting to see a story in which women were heroes and men were damsels and/or antagonists. However, I noticed that many people said that she had discarded or ignored gender roles by allowing this to happen. I do not agree with this.
It seemed to me that she took a fully stereotypically feminist stand on her story. A stereotypical feminist is defined in this blog as the feminists that are represented in caricatures: stubborn, butch, and completely hateful of all men.

Rather than being strong or heroic, men are completely helpless. They need women to guide them and they are usually completely idiotic. For instance, the young prince who had to find Beast's skin: He believed that everyone would take care of him and help him along his journey, but when he actually had to do things for himself, he was completely incapable. The only men who were not represented as horribly were Beast and the Marsh King, both of whom had very feminine characteristics, rather than attempts at being masculine.
I think the story would have been more interesting had gender roles been discarded. While I will note that the majority of readers would likely assume that the heroes were male and the damsels were female, I think it would have been a refreshing change from a story in which there are relatively rigid gender roles.
Even more interesting would have been mixed gender roles, where women were antagonists, damsels, and heroes, and men assumed the same roles, depending on the character and the situation.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the story. However, I have grown tired of stories which many claim have pushed gender roles, when, in reality, they simply seemed to have replaced every "she" with "he" and vice-versa.

Turritopsis Nutricula

The theme of morality is prevalent through Catherynee M. Valente’s In the Night Garden. It is a common motif in mythological literature and fairy tales, to subjectively portray characters as either inherently evil or inherently good in relation to the culture of the story’s origin. Valente transcends such a motif and privies the reader with personal histories, circumstances, and thoughts of the story’s antagonists, “‘You stole her from us!” Imogen cried out miserably, like an infant bird falling from the nest. “She is our mother, not yours, and you took her away! We were happy before we came to this awful place! And now she has another baby- she will forget us completely!”’ (In the Night Garden 131). Iolanthe’s two daughters, Isaura and Imogen, are upset with Magadin, because their mother spends more time with her stepdaughter than her biological daughters. Isaura and Imgoen are not inherently evil for betraying Magadin to the wizard; inflicted with irrationality resulting from their feeling of abandonment, they do what is necessary to omit the source of pain in their lives. Whether or not morality is innate or relative, is a problem philosophers have attempted to answer since the formulation of the question within the human mind. And I believe it can be said with certainty every human being, at some moment in their life, has pondered the question.

The idea of eternal return is an idea which Nietzsche calls “the heaviest of burdens” for it states that, “‘All that is straight lies,”… "All truth is crooked; time itself is a circle…. "Behold," I continued, "this moment! From this gateway, Moment, along, eternal lane leads backward: behind us lies an eternity. Must not whatever can walk have walked on this lane before? Must not whatever can happen have happened, have been done, have passed by before? And if everything has been there before – what do you think, dwarf, of this moment? Must not this gateway too have been there before? And are not all things knotted together so firmly that this moment draws after it all that is to come? Therefore – itself too? For whatever can walk – in this long lane out there too, it must walk once more,’” (Nietzsche, Zarathustra).

The idea of eternal return is indeed burdensome as it excludes morality. According to such a philosophy we cannot condemn any action as all things are momentarily in transit and will return; however, if every action we make is bound to reoccur, it inflicts upon us a responsibility of extreme weight. If circumstances within Valente’s In the Night Garden are addressed with the idea of eternal return, in what manners do our opinions on them differ as opposed to an initial reading with no premeditated goal of action?

Valence addresses morality within a monarchy, “‘Oh, my son, my son. How do you think I became King? I, too, cut out my father’s heart while he slept…”… And so we all begin, determined to better our father’s performances, knowing we can change the very nature of humanity, make it better, cleaner. But then daggers strike in the night, and peasants revolt, and all manner of atrocities become as necessary as breakfast. Only Princes believe in the greater good. Kings know there is only the Reign, all things may be committed in its holy name, “(In the Night Garden 205, 222). The king cares not for morality and is in allegiance to Machiavelli’s quote, “‘It is much safer to be feared than loved because ...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.”(The Prince).The King acknowledges he too sought to change the world for the better but in the position of a ruler it is necessary to disregard morality for the sake of one’s ruling territory. What would occur if the King or the Prince accepted the doctrine of eternal return?

Nietzsche asks, "Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: "You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine." If this thought gained possession of you, it would change you as you are or perhaps crush you. The question in each and every thing, "Do you desire this once more and innumerable times more?" would lie upon your actions as the greatest weight. Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?"

The King and the Prince could be changed or crushed; hence the idea of free will is irrelevant within the idea of eternal return. I don’t believe the King would be changed drastically, as it seems he already has a loose understanding (unarticulated) of the idea of eternal return. It is the Prince who would be changed or crushed. In his action of attempting to murder his father for evil committed, it can be inferred he acts upon a sense of morality. But if free will does not exist, morality is dead, and time is a loop, would his actions differ? I don’t believe so. Not only is his sense of morality thoroughly ingrained in him, it is logical to argue although theoretically morality may not exist, it exists within our world and one cannot escape it as one cannot escape aging.

How does our opinion on their actions change within the idea of eternal return? In my opinion, in relation to the idea of eternal return, neither of the characters are inherently good or evil and neither of their actions are good or evil; their actions are ephemeral and pre-prescribed. The idea of eternal return allows us to transcend morality and focus on other issues often eclipsed by thoughts of morality. I would personally focus on a searching for identical actions previously committed in history, if the idea of eternal return is true and the world has existed long enough for its implications to be seen.

The idea of eternal return cannot be proven, but it is a fascinating one to ponder within any piece of literature whether it be a typical or queer text; any circumstance whereby action is committed, is capable of being looked at in relation to morality.

What do you all think? How does your opinion change of the characters in relation to the idea of eternal return? And if it doesn’t change, why is it? Would you live a different life, if every action you commit has been committed and will continue to be committed throughout time? Or would apathy grow? Is it possible the world can accept such an idea? What might the world look like? Would it be changed or crushed? Would it change at all?

In The Night Garden

I wouldn't say that In The Night Garden was a horrible book just because I didn't like it. There's no way that I can say it was badly written and it was a waste of my time to read because it was complete opposite. It was nicely written and it wasn't a complete waste of my time to read. It was hard for me to get through mainly because of the flowery figurative language. There were so many metaphors and smilies that I wasn't use to hearing that it took me while to get use to having to read them and stop to think about what Vilante meant by it. The way the stories intertwined together didn't make sense until someone pointed out during one of our many discussions that maybe the girl was telling stories about royalty in order to teach the prince something. When that point was made everything just sort of clicked for me and I somewhat began to like the book as a whole. At first I didn't like it because it was based off of Arabian Nights but I couldn't see any connections and once that connection was made I began to like it.

Irony

The traditional fairy tales of the Western World and overwhelmingly male driven. They reflect the norms and standards of gender relations of the time they were written. Valente subverts these norms to ironic effect.

One thing that is mocked is the traditional hero archetype. This is the basic flow of the vast majority of our fairy tales. Much simplified, a hero goes on a quest, faces obstacles to fulfill his destiny, and causes good. At the end, he (as they're always male) defeats the antagonist, reaches apotheosis, and then returns to where he came. Scholars have posited that this plot is nearly universal in our culture's myths.

Valente takes this and turns it on its head. For one thing, most of the protagonists are female, and most of the antagonists are male. This causes irony at scenes like on page 122 where Knife, upon reaching a tower to rescue a damsel cries, "Woman! Come out! I have-' She looked down at the bloodless grass, embarrassed. 'I have come to rescue you,' she finally said, as if admitting that she were covered in boils." This scenes causes humor for the reader because it is highlighting the disparity between what the reader has been trained by our culture to expect, and what the book depicts.

Another irony in the book is that the women are often portrayed as wiser and more rational than the men. Reason is an attribute that has been usually considered male; women were historically considered irrational, impulsive, and hysterical. In fact, hysteria is derived from the Greek word "hystera" which means uterus. Hysteria was considered a female trait.

In Valente's book In the Night Garden, the males, especially the rulers are generally portrayed as less intelligent and wise than the women. An example of this is when Prince Leander impulsively leaves his castle and blindly goes on a quest. He happens upon the home of Knife, who is the one who must inform him and give him purpose. Another example is when King Indrajit unwisely conquers the acolytes of the Serpent Queen. She decides to use him, but he fails to follow her only preconditions and is destroyed because of it. It also did not help that he trusted the counsel of an inexperienced and male Omir the Wizard.

Valente uses her book to bring us fairy tales that are not nearly as male dominated as we are used to. This causes irony, and sometimes humor as we read them.

In The Night Garden

  In the Story The Night Garden, Valente includes many different characters with many different personalities in all of the stories, some good and some evil. But what i like most about her writing is how she puts all of the personalities of the characters and makes a connection to all of them through out the all of the stories. The short story i enjoyed the most was The Goslings Tale.

In the short story, The Gosling's Tale, The goose has to deal with being an outcast. The Goose knew she was not a bird, she just tried to fit in with the others that were "normal." Being an outcast she had to teach herself how to survive because without no mother or friends, eating and living was an everyday struggle . That all changed one day when " A bird bigger than any other, bigger than a falcon, found me up in my tree, my wings pulled up over my head." the Firebird inquired what was wrong and offered her the opportunity come with him so neither of them would be alone. The Goose lucked out but the Firebird, who is also known as the "Zhar-Ptitza" and they were "the best of all possible birds. I really enjoyed how the Firebird opened up the the goose and put the goose under its wing. He cared for the goose showed her and helped her learn new things while also telling her stories. I enjoyed how the Firebird took on as a leader and looked out for the Goose. In addition, I feel that I can relate to the Firebird my my life by being a leader and captain in hockey for many years of my life. Similar to what the Firebird had done for the goose, I had to take first year teammates and take them under my wing showing them the ropes and daily routines. For example, I would drive some of them home because they were not old enough to drive and i also would invite them to hangout with me and the older guys on the team to help them, make them feel welcome, and introduce them to new people so they could make new friends.

not only can i relate myself to the Firebird, i can also relate our group discussions in class. During our group discussions we always have five main contributors to the discussion. These five help and guide the others would do not contribute as frequently (myself included) by simply asking our opinions of the topic at hand. I believe this helps in the way that it breaks the ice to the quite people in class (and to the people who may not have read) by them showing their interest in our opinions. Them asking us questions gets us involved and makes up more involved in the discussions.

Marsh King and Leucrotta's Relationship

In the story In The Night Garden, Valente slowly reveals how each character is related to each other. She shows the reader how each of her characters interact and how they are important to each other. Their relationships are abstract which fits into the rest of the stories, yet you are surprised by them constantly. There are several instances where the relationships might be what you would think of as queer especially between Leucrotta and the Marsh King.
The relationship between the Marsh King and the Leucrotta is especially odd. In class we had the discussion on whether or not their relationship was more than just a friendship. In the Marsh King’s reaction to Leucrotta’s love for the Witch you can see that he has feelings for him. He says, “At any rate I think you like her better than me. I don’t recall you ever giving me your skin, even when I wanted to kill that wretched salamander.” You can hear his jealousy because the Leucrotta is in love with the Witch who is a human being and is unnatural. Though the Marsh King has those feelings for the Leucrotta they are not returned in the romantic way. He views their relationship as more of a deal where they take care of each other. He seems to be more willing to keep the Marsh King satisfied by saying things that keep him at bay. When he says things like, “Poppet! You know I like you best of all. I chose to be your courtier.” With the nicknames he throws out he shows that he genuinely cares about the Marsh King. Then he follows up with the statement that he chose to be his courtier, which is a person who is often in attendance in the court. So he views their relationship as more of his commitment to serving him and respecting his rule. There is obviously a difference in their tone of how they view each other.
The relationship between the Leucrotta and the Marsh King is just one of the many that are odd in this book. There are many other instances that you might not expect from an interaction between two people. The Leucrotta and Marsh King was one that especially stood out to me because of their living arrangements and how they react to each other in a bantering way.

In the Night Garden

While reading In the Night Garden I was intrigued by all of the different stories. When it changed from story to story I wanted to keep reading in order to find out what happens next. It reminded me of a movie with multiple main characters. The challenge of following every story and how they related to each other really motivated me. At some points of the book it was hard to follow every tale. The most confusing part for me was when Knife's grandmother was telling Knife the story of the wolves. I was hoping to find out what happens with the girl in the garden telling the stories. I didn't read the whole book, so I wonder if the short stories come back and relate to the girl in the garden at the end of the novel.

Growing up you always hear of fairy tales where the man is the hero who saves the women in distress. I found it quite interesting how the roles were switched in this book. When the prince kills the goose (Knife's daughter) it was his duty to journey off and fix the situation. Also, from the Native American myths that I have heard it is always the men who see the magical visions. Comparing this to In the Night Garden, Knife's grandmother has the vision of the fox and the wolves. This is when she gains the power to transform Knife's daughter into the goose. It did not bother me that the roles were switched. I found it rather interesting to see it from a different perspective. I wonder why she felt the need to switch the roles around, when the common myth has the male as the hero.

After we discussed the pictures in class, I went back and took a second look at them. My imagination drew up a completely different image of the horse and the fox while reading the text. I was confused in this part of the story so the image helped me understand what was going on in the text. The reading described the women as a fragile and scared person when she encountered the massive horse. In the picture it was almost as if she was fasinated by such a beautiful creature, and it looked like she was fearless. The images were a small part of the book but in someway they helped me. Overall, I really enjoyed the reading.

In the Night Garden and Omir the Wizard

The novel In the Night Garden, by Catherine Valente, there are many different characters. The reader is allowed to understand almost all of the characters very deeply and intricately because of Valente's descriptive language and the time she takes to use said language to describe each character. This being said, some characters can be known more than others, and some characters can be found more interesting. The character that I found the most interesting was Omir the Wizard. Omir is a very manipulative and possibly evil character. However, Valente gives him a relatable and interesting past that makes the reader not only more interested in his character, but also more empathetic towards him.
The chapter on Omir's childhood is entitled "The Tale of the Boy Who Found Death". It is quite the disturbing chapter. Valente describes Omir's illness quite brutally, and in less flowery fashion than the reader is used to from her previous descriptions. When describing the Wizard's condition, she writes; "From the time I was born, my skin peeled and paled, sloughing off as though I could not wait to be out of it..." I find this hard to imagine, and when I do, I become grossed out. Regardless, Omir the child suffers with this terrible illness, and his mother ties him to the wall because of it. Through this suffering, Omir believes he has become to know exactly who and what death is. As a child, he will take every metaphor about death that his parents say literally and he will subsequently have outlandish perceptions of death. Omir believes death is a man, that has always been close to him. Because he believes death, the man, has always been near him, he believes that death should have taken him. When he does not die, he thinks that death owes him. This is the beginning of Omir's "power trip" so to say. It is the beginning of his power trip because he feels he is owed something and this therefore gives him power over death. When he travels to find death and instead becomes a "doulios" for another collared wizard, his power trip grows. This is because he is learning to manipulate nature and subsequently feel power over it. Through these power trips, Omir's evil grows. Yes, he did come from a very humble and ill background. However, the power he finds at the end of his illness and through his training causes him to become evil. He is evil because he manipulates people, and physically maims and harms them. He starts small, by simply learning to help people. However, throughout the novel the reader learns of more and more crimes he comits and lies that he tells.

In the Night Garden

It is obvious that Valente tried specifically to go against what is considered normal in writing In the Night Garden. She makes the main characters and the heroes of the stories female, as opposed to the traditional male character hero. The male characters who have some sort of power tend to exist just to make blunders and to be antagonists to the plot. Prince Leander screws things over by breaking his half-sister's neck, King Raja walks in on the Snake Star and ends up killing her and all of his children. The women in these stories make up for these blunders and end up being the heroines. Knife teaches Prince Leander a lesson and also revives her daughter, and the Snake Star removes King Raja from power by killing his feared army. Valente's In the Night Garden goes against the traditional fairy tale formula of "the Prince saves the helpless Princess and they fall in love and live happily ever after." Valente purposely discards gender roles for the sake of breaking fairy tale norms.

Short story reflection

When reflecting on the short stories and comparing it to Fun Home and Persepolis, I found there are big differences between the texts. Starting with Fun Home and how its about Alison s life, what she encounters throughout her life, and how she overcomes and deals with those encounters. In addition, Persepolis is also about Margi's life story and the assortment of things that she encounters during her life. Both of these novels are about individuals different encounters in their own life experiences. Unlike those two novels the tales from arabian nights was about an assortment of stories. Not only was it about different stories, all the stories connected in a way and  portrayed a message or lesson that contributed to the previous stories. I really enjoyed reading the Tales of Arabian Nights of its story change and how it connected most of them to each other while given a life lesson or point across there point across. This kept me intrigued because you had to pay close attention to not only understand the stories but to keep track or the wisdom and lessons being told. You have to pay close attention because the lesson or wisdom that you read might be from another previous story. Fun Home and Persepolis are two similar novels because of how they are about ones self encounters in there life. On the other hand the Tales of Arabian Nights is multiple stories that are combined and woven together to get a better understanding of each of the stories.  

Fun Home Reflection

While reading "Fun Home" I was very uneasy with Alison's father. I do not think it is right at all what he was doing with other boys. This part of the story ruined the whole book for me. Besides that, I could kind of relate to Alison and her fathers relationship. My father always told me stories about his childhood. He was never extremely close with his dad, but he always wanted the love and approval from him. Alison shows this in her text when she wants to kiss her dad, but she only could muster up the courage to kiss him on the hand. This is a sad part of the story, because I could not imagine going a day without a hug from my family when I was that young. When Bruce dies Alison couldn't show any emotion at the funeral. Due to the fact that Alison wanted this love from her father, I feel like when her father past away she felt he had let her down.

The way Allison goes about portraying her family also interested me. Of course the text was mainly about her and Bruce's relationship, but I think that the pictures of her mother and brothers in the background showed some symbolism. Maybe they were scripted there for a reason. One way to look at it could be, Alison's mother was always there when these terrible things were happening such as, her father not showing Alison any love, but her mother never did anything about it.

This whole book is all from Alison's perspective, so its hard to make the assumption that her father wasn't a loving father. From all the information that I had gathered for my presentation, Bruce was portrayed as a loving, caring man. Alison could have something burning up inside of her from her childhood that makes her resent her father. The rest of the family must feel uneasy with all this personal business that Alison released out to the world. Her father was a private person for a reason. It is not right how Alison ruined her fathers image, even though I don't agree with what he was doing.

analysis of Fun Home

While reading Fun home a lot of questions went through my head. the main one being that why isn't the mother and brothers rarely brought up in the novel and why would you stay with someone you don't love or have any attraction to?

If you looked closely to the pictures through out the book you will notice how her mother is always in the background or off to the side.  I think Bechdel does this to show and give us an understanding on the difference between Alison's and her father's relationship and Alison and her mothers. One picture that really shows and expresses their relationship in the same setting is on page 230. This is when Alison is being pulled though the water by her father and meanwhile Alison's mother is in the background, outside of the pool reading with sun glasses on.

When thinking about Alison's three brothers and why their opinion to anything was not added to the text really confused me. for example on page 52, in the picture of the three brothers standing by their dads coffin with no facial expression, there was no emotion portrayed. why is this? I want to know why her brothers opinions were not even stated in the novel, they just stood there looking lost or confused.

In addition, during the reading of Fun Home I learn more and more about how Alison's father is gay and does not show any love or affection to his wife. I feel Alison's mom is always the odd one out when it is compared to Alison and her fathers relationship, it is always Alison and her father together doing things. It also only shows Alison and her dads perspective and outlook on all the situations.

The Central Ideas.

While I was reading Fun Home the main thing I picked up on was the idea of Alison and her father both having something that the other lacked but yet they were still mirrors of each other in ways.

The idea of Alison trying to make for the masculinity that her father lacked by becoming butch and doing all the things that he didn't to is coupled with the idea that her father is vicariously living through her. He tries to force her to the feminine and girly things that he was never allowed to do as a child.

I can understand both of their sides but I don't agree with the father forcing something on to his daughter that she clearly didn't want. When I think about the main idea a few particular picture frames come to mind. On page 97 where Alison's father is forcing her to wear something girly in her hair and she doesn't want. That scene shows the main idea clearly: Alison rebelling against her father's rules and wanting to be everything he isn't and her father living through her and forcing her to do the things that he never could.

With the glasses of Freud

Although she mocks the contrived symbolistic interpretations of literary works on page 200, this must be considered facetiousness, as she engrosses her work with such symbols. She gives characters Freudian motifs such as the phallus for her father Bruce and the vagina for Alison herself.

Perhaps the phallic imagery in her portrayal of Bruce is the most obvious. The first such image is on page 7, where he is portrayed carrying a column (phallic) over a silhouette of the house. This represents his struggle of carrying his homosexuality within the house. On his face, one can detect feelings of sorrow and bitterness from his struggle. Another example is on page 30, where his grave marker is revealed to be a giant obelisk. This image is described as his favorite shape. Another image containing this imagery is on page 189. In it, Bruce is standing in New York City next to Alison. Next to his head is the Empire State Building which acts as a phallic image.

Alison's image is the vagina. On page 137 this is shown in the middle right image. On the surface she is simply putting two shoes together, but on closer inspection it becomes clear that between the two shoes is a vagina. Her hands are holding on as her thumbs extend inwards. Additionally, vaginal imagery related to Alison can be seen on page 18. On the table lies a vase that is obviously in the shape of a vagina, but there are no flowers with their long stems penetrating inside. Alison is accused of messing with it, and is punished.

Fun Home is full of sexual imagery for the person courageous to look for them. Primarily, he used vaginal images for Alison and phallic images for Bruce.

Central Ideas of Fun Home

One of the central ideas of Fun Home that I immediately picked up on and identified with was the idea of sexual shame. This is of course referring to the fact that Bruce chooses to hide behind the facade of "married life" instead of having pride in who he is.

This goes hand in hand with the truth that Alison chooses to not be ashamed of her sexuality and chooses to live her life truthfully in contrast with her father's life choices. Bechdel highlights especially that there is something wrong if you have to feel ashamed of how you identify sexually.

I agree with Bechdel that sexual shame is something that isn't right. We live in a society in which people will judge you on every single aspect of you, and if they find something that isn't "normal" about you, they will ostracize you for it. This isn't fair. We should create a society in which everything is okay. Nobody should have to be ashamed of who they are just because other people don't like it about you.

The Allure of Prose

In Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, Bechdel's literary allusions, graphic panels, and abundant themes eclipse the vigor and quality of Bechdel's personal prose. Prose is a subject that is not often scrutinized; a novel's “point”, plot, or story is consistently conversed and given homage to in academia. However, in the words of Vladimir Nabokov, “ For me style is matter”. Alison Bechdel is an author of more worth than the reviewers apparent label of “graphic artist”; she is a writer whose aesthetic in prose is as worthy as the three stylists she alludes to:Marcel Proust, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and James Joyce. These three writers are known for other qualities aside from their prose, but prose is a significant amount of their renown and should be as well for Alison Bechdel

In the academic articles we read for FYSEM on Fun Home, the scholars wrote (very scholarly like) about Modernist literary allusions and the boundaries of story, tense, and genre in Fun Home. Bechdel's prose was highlighted in the beginning of Freedman's article, but it was soon left in limbo to linger, as the article moved forward into allusions of modernist literature, particularly James Joyce's Ulysses. Ulysses is a major motif throughout Fun Home that is crucial in understanding the purpose of, for full comprehension. However, Bechdel's unfaltering prose is not a motif; it is a constant entity the reader cannot escape in thought. And the brilliance of Bechdel's prose, is that it isn't pretentious. Bechdel does not choose words to sound scholarly. and she mixes in humor and common language with her poetic nature. She writes in a panel, “ And despite the tyrannical power with which he held sway, it was clear to me that my father was a big sissy,”. Bechdel writes with diligence, a tight command of language, and like her father is a person of aesthete, but her use of the word “sissy”, is a contrast with the remainder of the sentence. In an omniscient first person tense, Bechdel writes with aesthetically pleasing prose, but in her first person tense ,omitting her omniscience, she writes like one would speak, “I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like a child,” (Vladimir Nabokov). It is through differentiation of extradiagetic and intradiegetic style and humbleness, Bechdel's writing surpass any homage to any author.

Bechdel's graphics are conversed about far more in frequency than her prose, which is crucial to literature, because graphic/illustrated/comic novels are relatively new. It is true writers such as William Blake wrote in such a manner, (and others before him) but the recognition of merit for a graphic novel in academia ,is seen far more today than it was in the 1800s. The inclination of voicing the merit of writing aesthetic, has been expressed as far back as the origin of words. And before an aesthetic of writing existed, it was the storyteller who had a great aesthetic of speech that was acclaimed. It is paramount to give more than credence to Fun Home, because the recognition of merit in a graphic novel is lesser seen than that of prose. However it is for this very reason, the appreciation of Bechdel's prose is dwarfed by her illustrations.

Fun Home contains themes of sexuality, fatherhood, identity, suicide, literary allusion, fantasy, reality, perception, consciousness, acceptance of self, puberty, coming of age sentiments, love, etc. The book submerges the reader into a life of a person, and therefore the many themes of life. The problem lies in the theme of prose; what is good prose? And the answer unfortunately is terribly ambiguous and relative to a person's preference of taste, stemming from their experience in literature. It is easier to discuss the morality of Bechdel's father, than the methods in which she writes. It is difficult to articulate, outside of literary descriptive terms (allusion, symbolism, allegory) the description of an author's style. From personal experience I don't always know why an author can write. I feel it throughout my body; my pupils dilate as I turn the page in a frenzy of ferocity. But because it is difficult and frequently impossible to articulate the beautiful, should we refrain from doing so? Or should we invest our time and write in emulation and inspiration, to devise a superior understanding of the particular text and sentiment of prose?

Bechdel's Fun Home is a text of literary merit, because of its many themes, literary allusions, and graphic panels. But Bechdel's aesthetically gratifying prose should also be recognized in merit and philosophized about. It is my duty to pay homage to Alison Bechdel for writing such a work of art and therefore... Fun Home is a ravishing book of thrashing vitality, cerebral design, and fucking beautiful artistry.

Taty's Blog about Fun Home

In the book Fun Home, Alison Bechdel displays how her family was affected by human sexuality. Not only did she come out as a lesbian, her father was a closeted gay man. Their contrasting expression of gender is shown throughout their lives and as portrayed in the novel.

Alison throughout her novel shows how she denies her feminine side. She displays several circumstances where she challenges societies stereotypes on how a young girl should display themselves. Although her father tries to project his femininity on her, she rejects every one of his suggestions. Her hair style, clothing choices and actions throughout the text show her progressive increase in her masculine side. This is especially highlighted in the fact that she “cross-dressed” in her fathers clothing. It not only rejects her fathers ideals of how a girl should dress, she takes the most masculine clothing out of his closet to dress herself up in. The progression of her denial of her feminine side allows the reader to relate to her coming out as a butch lesbian.

In contrast to Alison’s masculinity, she focuses on her fathers femininity. The way she writes about him, the reader discovers that he is not a stereotypical father figure. He is obsessed with decorating their home in high fashion styles. Alison takes up a whole page in the book to show how there is evidence of her father dressing in a woman’s bathing suit. In this, she says that he has a grace about him, that although he should look awkward he looks natural. He bends the definition of what a man/father should be in our culture through his feminine expression.

At my old school we had a presentation yearly to reduce homophobia throughout the school. In this presentation defined what gender-bending is. We would have the kids name the most masculine man is and the most feminine woman. Then we would explain how there are many people that are spread in-between the two. The main point of the presentation was to explain how gender is fluid and people fit into the spectrum in many different ways. This is shown throughout Fun Home in Alison and Bruce’s expression of their gender and how it relates to their sexuality.

A Family Affair

"Fun Home" by Alison Bechdel, is not only a "coming of age novel" about the life of Alison Bechdel, but also about her father Bruce Bechdel. Not only does Alison go through a metamorphosis of personality and sexuality, but so does her father. Through of the changes Alison goes through and the changes her father goes through, the reader is also moved to see different aspects of life in a different light.

Alison's realization that she is a lesbian in the novel is a very important realization. However, what is even more important are the events leading up to this that helped shaped Alison's personality and subsequent sexuality. Important aspects of this include; her haircuts, her attitude towards clothing, and her overall interests in life. More important to her metamorphosis would be the events in chapter 5, "The Canary Colored Caravan of Death". This all-inclusive chapter marks the beginning and end of Alison's OCD. Alison's OCD is brought on mainly by her parent's relationship- or lack thereof. This relationship causes not only the OCD but also affects Alison's life significantly. This is why the OCD is so important to Alison's life because it is caused by the same thing. This lack supportive parenting and parental-relationship-role models is something that often causes problems in children. Kids need strong and loving parents who also love each other in order to learn about life and be mentally healthy. This is why Alison had issues.

Alison's issues are caused by her parent's unsupportive relationship. This relationship is unstable mostly because of Bruce, the father. Bruce does not treat his children the way one would expect a parent to treat them. Yes, he can be loving and nurturing, but generally he treats them as pack mules and dolls. This is mainly because Bruce does not wish to be a married father. He rather enjoys his relationships with young men instead. However, I do believe that Bruce loved his children fully and was in love with Helen at one point. Bruce's sexuality does not fit into a stereotype. Rather, it is very possible that Bruce was capable of loving more than most humans- both platonically and sexually. Based on things seen in "Fun Home" it is reasonable to infer that at one point, Bruce was indeed fully in love with Helen. However, Bruce's wide range for love caused him to also love other men and subsequently cheat on Helen.

Because of the different issues in the family with Alison, the parents' marriage, and Bruce's sexuality, the reader is also somewhat changed after reading Fun Home. These issues cause one to question one's own mental issues, parents' marriage, and maybe even the reader's own sexuality. This book has the ability to change peoples lives.

Fun Home Reflection Blog

While reading Fun Home, the part which seemed the most strange to me was the fact that Bruce and Helen had stayed together, in spite of Bruce's multiple affairs and lack of attraction toward Helen.

This reminds me a lot of the stereotypical girl-falls-in-love-with-gay-man relationship. It isn't portrayed incredibly often, but there seems to often be a girl in romantic comedies who is constantly falling for gay men, and complaining about it. While I will not assume that this sort of relationship is prevalent, it did make me think about Bruce and Helen's relationship. One would think that, if two people have no feelings for one another, they would not get married in the first place.

This brought me to the idea that, perhaps, Helen loved Bruce, and he loved her, but strictly in a platonic sense (at least on Bruce's part). I cannot deny that Bruce's letters to Helen are passionate. Looking into them, it seems it could go one of two ways: One, Bruce was writing in a way that he would rather be intended for another man, or two, he truly loved Helen. Given that I would rather look at this from an optimistic standpoint, I would like to support the latter (without ignoring the former).

One excerpt of Bruce's letters that we see, on page 63, says, "Do you know I love you. That made me feel so good I'll say it again. I love you I love you I love you, you crazy wonderful girl. I know what I need a drink. This would be our night to sit and drink and look at each other." Even if Bruce feels no sexual attraction toward Helen, there must have been some sort of emotion spurring this. It would be pointless for him to have written that letter otherwise; it would have been easier not to write anything of the sort in the first place.

From Helen's standpoint, it does not seem that she would stay with a man if she didn't love him. As Alison describes her in comparison to Isabel Archer, a character from Henry James' A Portrait of a Lady, she points out that, "Too good for her own good, Isabel remains with Gilbert." While it could be argued that this simply shows that Helen does not want to make a fuss, she clearly rebuts those arguments in her actions toward Bruce. She often argues with Bruce, attempting to force him to act differently and respect her and their children. She has also shown her affection for Bruce. Alison says that she has only seen her parents engage in two acts of intimacy: a kiss, and her mother's hand on her father's back. It appears that Helen, at least, loved Bruce, in spite of his actions.

Each of these situations could be seen as their opposites, a giant facade existing only to make it seem as if they love each other, but it seems illogical for that to be the case. It would have been much easier, if they had not loved each other, to never create a relationship in the first place.

Fun Home.

After reading the graphic novel, Fun Home, I had a lot to think about. Like for an example, I didn't think that her father was trying to use Alison has his doll because he always wanted to be a girl, dress, or act like one. But on the other hand, Alison, wanted to dress and " act " like a guy instead. This discussion in class, opened my eyes and well, of course, made me think further into details and understood the novel more, than I already had.

After reading the review of the graphic novel, this also helped me understand the novel more because of how Alison would compare her father to other characters, or herself as another person. This made me think that, maybe this novel was kind of made up, like it is a white lie.

An experience I had, was closely related to what Alison has gone through. I'm sharing this story for further critical thinking for the novel, Fun Home, but the names would be change due to identity.

When I was in second grade, I had a best friend name Stacy. Stacy and I would do everything together. Such as, go to the movies, shopping, play at recess, talk about boys, just everything. I love Stacy, as if we were sisters because I have never shared so many thoughts with someone before, and endless hours of talking with her over the phone about family issues, and such on. She loved me too, I just knew it because she has told me many times.

But then one day changed everything. One school day as recess was ending, she took my hand and told me to come with her, and as best friends we were, I went with her. I did not even stop and think. She took me to the furthest end point of the playground and said to me, " Youa, you know that I really love you. To the point of love. I know you don't know everything about me but I have a huge secret I want to share with you. " I was so alarmed, I wanted to know, thinking about stupid things like she is having a crush on some boy, something like that, but then she said, " Youa, I like girls. " I laughed and said, " You're such a bad liar. You're just messing around with me. " And Stacy said, " I'm not. I like you Youa, that was why I wanted to always be there for you. I want us to date, because clearly, I know I can make you happy. " And as a second grader, I had no idea what she was talking about, and I told her I did not like her the way she likes girls because I like boys, and she took off.

Stacy never spoke to me again. She acted as if I dropped off the end of the earth and died. I called her, she didn't answer, she stopped coming to school. I felt as if I killed our friendship. I did not know what to do, or what to say, all I knew was, I wanted my best friend back, and that was it.

As I grew up, I never stopped thinking about that day because I felt as if I just crushed her dreams and hope. I felt like, I should of said something more serious, or I should of never laughed. I felt like I was a fool, but then again, I was only in second grade, and I was only just a kid.

Years later, I met Stacy again, I did not notice her at all. She was dressed like a guy, spoke like a guy, walked like a guy, had hair like a guy, and acted like a guy. But then it was a really quick conversation because like a guy would act, she pretended like she did not know me when other girls walked by.

Till this day, I felt as if when she saw me again, all those memories back then quickly rushed back and it must of caused her some sort of pain, that was why she acted like that.

In my opinion, I think Stacy acted like Alison, and Alison's father. Not afraid to come out of the closet, but then she was mean, dead, like Alison's father.

The First One to Do Blog Entry #2 - Fun Home Reflection in Order for All Of You to Take Mine As An Example of What Not to Do

After thorough review of Bechdel’s, Fun Home, through readings, class discussions and analytical essays, I have come to the conclusion that the purpose of the “tragicomic”/ autobiography is to prove that the barriers of literary work are maliable and is a recently growing idea of interest.
Bechdel’s story included much meaning and allowed its audience to question certain content, for example her father’s suicide versus death, but her ways of presenting the story was highly contemporary/ modern to be specified by a single genre of text. Bechdel’s novel included a wide range of presentation methods ranging from a comic layout, while speaking in the present or the extradiegetic tense, as well as the intradiegetic tense throughout the time period of the book. This concept was introduced to me when reading Warhol’s analytical article entitled, The Space Between: A Narrative Approach to Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home.
Bechdel used these contemporary styles of writing to polish her creation that formed a new, or rather clustered, genre of literature. Upon reviewing Warhol’s article I was persuaded into believing that Bechdel’s intent of Fun Home was not to inform the world of her life growing up, but rather the thought process and literary breakthrough of mashing up and fusing genres in order to create a virtually new form of storytelling. If you take the time to think about Bechdel’s modernist writing process you would realize that any story could substitute hers, but still being far more interactive with the readers than if it was left alone, due to her presentation style.
For those that argue my conclusions and assume that the purpose of the “tragicomic” was to explore the author’s life growing up, or coming of age, you must keep in mind that these themes would not have been presented nearly as clear if they had been written in a normal textual matter. If this work had not included comic frames, or the diegetic characteristic tenses, there is no way these themes would have properly been explored in the text. An alternate way to think about this, is if Bechdel attempted to include the extra/ intradiegetic tenses in normal writing format, which would have resulted in utter confusion of the reader.
In closing, Bechdel’s coming of age story, or whichever title you prefer, would not have been made possible without her contemporary/ modernist process of writing into her final clustered genre identity