Monday, October 26, 2009

Fifth Class

Oct. 26

Seth:

-specific strips at key moments

-examination of strip used on midterm

is this Seth at the time of the skating or Seth in retrospect of the occasion?

existentialism > finding some sort of direction or purpose in life

angst / joy > struggle

response to continuous situations with a plethora of choices

-woodstock and snoopy and relation of reading

-woodstock slashes in comparison to snoopy with characters in relation to the reader

bad faith

-putting a sense accomplishment in something that can't exist

-the never get to situation (peanuts)

-a guarantee in failure (goal oriented living is a doomed existence)

interest in the everyday

-exploring the everyday

slapstick / body humour

-the fall in the skating strip (schadenfrende > not you)

(jackass > obvious stupidity)

-abuse or mortify the body

-low humour = satanic

the ongoing issue of laughter. linked with evil, cruelty.

the universe taking back control from the illusion of reality

> fragility of sense. life

window display and dinosaur display > pity and interest

"bad" art

aspires to, but fails

Seth and Ruthie and the dissolution of the relationship

theodore sturgeon > beating to maintain the relationship of fragility

layers of pretense upon layers of pretense

understanding in relation to others

-projection

-othering (defining difference)

-seeing the world as an expression of internal feelings

pg 44-45

finding an understanding of self through an analysis of those around


1st person PoV > doubleness of internal/external > bidirectional

back and forth with connection and dissociation

identity via relation to others

romantic individualism

flâneur

wander

separate

judge

-the child that Seth observes and is told to stop

the world is more than a personal fantasy and projection

page 19 bottom right corner two pages and again same place and again two pages later

-relating through people who are silent

"I'm special and an individual"

"I'm exactly like everybody"


Stephen - Seth's brother (kind of happy/content)

-laid back

-childish.child like

-sloppy /lazy.relaxed

-stupid jokes

-annoys Seth

too like himself, too similar

-prison/cage/box

Seth's climbing into a box memory

cardboard box / related to mother's place

-trains = temporary suburb in motion

cells/frames of comics

-routine / predictability

-greenhouse

finding and paying attention to patterns in the narrative

the start of section three

-pages without text

slowing down and looking at the reason why this section of the story is important

dinosaurs

-old

-collected

-fascinating > children

-artificial > salvage > recovery

1970s movement of recovering women's literature

reinvigorate and return to promise women's literature

-"Diving into the Wreck"

-a poem that is a conceit

-constant return; pastness

-nostalgic

projection to flesh the beasts

guesswork to assembly

-fragility and obvious artifice

something that creates verisimilitude (the creation of reality in a simulation)

Boris and the steps of health in relationship to the narrative

the anchor of monumental buildings

eroded history with the intention to monumentalize

Seth is a champion of seeking to remember was is to be forgotten

enthusiasm for decay in architecture

The casualty of Seth (talk about next week)

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Fourth Class

Oct. 5th


Detail

Closure

Line

Frame

(Postmodern) Nostalgia

Hyperreal


{Seth sat. oct 17th @ 3:30 Art Gallery of Calgary $7.50 for students}


Sequential Art & Form


desire > free floating > separate from any specific object


Tattooed Map

Hodgson's > (images) supplementary> additive, contribute, extra stuff

does supplementary imply incompletion without?

> familiar form > scrapbook > journal

> material objects/evidence/history/fragments

> piece of the place > tangible memory <>

> record > aid of remembrance

>prices/passport numbers/addresses

forget vs. remembering

-why are things recorded?

>share

> data fragment


images are generic > mass produces > readily available to anyone

only connection to the narrator is the writing

>Morocco >sketches . travel writing . poetry . maps

-an attempt to construct the place before arrival

historically remote . romanticized

hyperreal> superior to the original and a copy of itself

is it possible to see things for what they are when you see them in person : NYC example

detachment from the hype : movie going

the things that one experiences are always mediate


layered with memories/signs/cultural codes


novel by ___ called "White Noise"

most photographed barn in America


Seth

It's a Good Life....


sequential art : comics


> the use of detail

-high detail {funny drawing by Alex}

-low detail

the more detail the more specific . real . singular . external

simple / iconic . internal: subjectively

movement from high to low

the more one moves from external to internal relationship with the image

-here is someone who's sad versus I feel this person's sadness


Graphic Novel: City of Glass (read the first 10 pages or so)

relative realism, then every once and awhile a crude image that acts as a punctuation of emotional resonance


Detail > felt effect

> possible effects/uses/consequences


Closure > in the context of comics is different than that of a narrative

> filling in sequences > image . image . image > move between moments > move between scenes > move between actions

-the management of information through time


Line > emotional effect > simplicity


Frame > How does the manipulation of the images within the frame affect the story?

> shaping and placement of frames

> numbers of frames per page


FoD and Good Life....

-expectations of self


opening scene of Seth:

-typicality of action

-first contact with Kalo and beginning of narrative

relationships between connotation and denotation

the start of pattern within the story

> the search for books, what other searches are going on

-soul searching, placement, etc.

>search for comic material

>search for self positioning

>search for

{a moment told in retrospect}

memories with memories

the world is mediated through comics : peanuts opening

reality might be hyperreal

tragedy that isn't


snoopy versus charlie brown

existential: bliss versus angst


style and interest comparison of Seth and Peanuts


TERMS:


cycle

conceit

empiricism

positivism

humanism

hyperreal

irony

free-floating desire

master narrative

denotation/connotation

formal comics - elements

extratextuality

(postmodern) Nostalgia


extra-texuality > outside the text

Seth makes use of extra textuality

outside of or separate from a text (what you traditionally think is)

the book becomes a part of the actual story itself

drawings of photos > family photo album

memory

outside to shape the inside


nostalgia > fondness of memory

idealization of the past

Seth focuses on how things were so in the past

nostalgic for nostalgia > postmodern

modern vs. postmodern

nostalgia vs. nostalgia squared


what makes him special is that he loves the obscure and old

see pages 43-45

self-reflex brings us to reality

shore up and then undermine the ego