I was a little hesitant about this novel when we first started because I had never read a graphic novel before and I was not a comic book fan as a child. I was surprised that I actually enjoyed the layout of the book. It was entertaining to pair the dialogue with the pictures. That is definitely a major thing I have gotten out of this class; expanding my book genres. Although I was not as big of a fan with the content of the novel as the format, it was still an engaging read.
Alison's relationship with her father was definitely the main pillar of this novel to me. She seemed to have a love-hate relationship with him. For one thing he was the same as her in a way. They shared this bond of homosexuality, that however present it was in her mind, always seem to exist there. For example, they shared a love for men's clothing. It was quite entertaining to see Alison and her father picking out his outfits together. Alison's hatred for female clothing was apparent as well. Interestingly this is the one thing they really discuss when they have their conversation about Alison "coming out" in their car ride. Her father admitted to dressing in girls' clothes as a child and she exclaimed, "I wanted to be a boy! I dressed in boys' clothes!" This is a funny way for them to relate. Do you think this was because it was a concrete, tangible example that they both could bring up?
Alison's father's love for books was ever present in this story as well. He literally based his entire life around them. For some reason it made his character more likable I feel. Did anyone else feel this way? I mean in the real world if you heard about a man engaging in activities with underage boys it would be very difficult to find him at all a likable character. His disillusioned love for these fictional characters though gave his craziness a breeding place at least. It also gave Alison and her father another reason to bond. Even after Alison was annoyed with her father's interest in her English class in college, she later admitted to missing it. Also, it was Alison's father who gave her Colette to read. She later asked him if he did this on purpose, which he said he was not conscience of.
Another thing I just wanted to throw out there for opinion was Alison's relationship with her siblings. I found it so odd that she did not mention her siblings more. Most children are highly influenced by their brothers and sisters. They typically share a lot of memories with them and they form each other's character. Alison hardly mentioned them though. Do you think there was a reason for this? Were they just not important figures in her life?
Last I want to touch on the end of the story. The very last page ties back to Alison's relationship with her father. I think this last page illustrates what Alison's father meant to her. Yes, he did end up dying, giving up. At the same time though, while he was around, their stories intertwined and he was there for Alison. He grew up in a very different time, where going to Gay rallies and dances and meeting at the Union in college was not as acceptable. He hid his true self. Alison on the other hand was able to free herself and be who she really was. I think in a weird, twisted way he helped her do that and she is acknowledging this at the end of the story. Any thoughts?
I too was a little hesitant about this book because I have no experience reading graphic novels or comic books at all (unless you count the "Peanuts" and "Garfield" comic strips in the Sunday paper, but that's about the extent of my cartoon edification). Anyways, I've never really considered them to be "real" novels I guess. This may go back to when you reached the age that if you were still reading books with pictures in them you weren't considered as "smart" as everyone else in the class, who had moved on to more intellectual works such as "Goosebumps" and "The Boxcar Children". I might have had some biased against comic books or graphic novels for this reason, I've never really thought about it before though because they have never really enticed me. However, all I have to say is that this novel showed me how wrong I was about the genre. It's a work of freaking genius!
ReplyDeleteNot only is Alison Bechdel an amazing cartoon artist (and an amazingly detailed one at that...OCD really paid off there), she can weave a story brilliantly as well and make the disturbing aspects of it humorous! Page after page, I was impressed by her wit, attention to detail, and sharp ability to draw parallels with her father's life and literary works.
I want to respond to your question, though, about Alison not mentioning her siblings that much. I agree with what Alex said in class today about them being present through the drawings. They are definitely drawn quite a bit, despite not being mentioned all that often. There were two instances though that included her brothers that really struck me. One was when she goes home after finding out about the death of her father and she and her brother exchange grins. To me, that seems to imply that she and that brother probably have a somewhat close relationship because their response to their father's death was similar - they found it somewhat absurd and funny. The other time was the story about how her younger brother wandered off in New York by himself and was confronted by that. Her dad legitimately freaked out about that, but was quick to forgive and forget for once. I think these are some of the only times she includes stories that involve her siblings more because they are stories that have had an impact on the story she is trying to tell about her and her father. One of the reasons she may not have incorporated more of her brothers and their feelings is because she may feel like it's not her story to tell. Their experience with their father was probably quite different.
I agree that the ending page reflects Bechdel's true feelings towards her father. We talked in class about how the book heavily relates Bruce Bechdel to both Daedalus and Icarus, from Greek mythology. I think the images at the beginning (of Bechdel and her father playing "airplane") and the end (when he catches her in the pool) are very important. Though at the end, Bechdel compares her father to Icarus, saying that he "fell into the sea," or gave up and died, I feel that the images also show him as Daedalus. In the myth of Icarus and Daedalus, Daedalus invents the wings that allow him and Icarus to escape from the labyrinth. In the opening picture, her father is balancing Alison on his feet, helping her to fly, an obvious comparison to Daedalus. And in the end, he is catching her as she plummets into the pool, which I think shows him as Daedalus, a father figure. Does anyone else have any thoughts on who Bechdel most closely links with her father, Daedalus or Icarus?
ReplyDeleteI was also hesitant about reading this graphic novel because I had never heard of "graphic novel", and I am not a comic book reader. Despite my uncertainty, the read was surprisingly pleasant and enjoyable. I found my self paying attention to every bit of detail that was humanly possible. I agree with Hope that this graphic novel did prove me wrong about the genre. I found it interesting that she mentioned "The Boxcar Children" because I too was a huge fan of that series and could have been biased because of this. Overall, I am not sure if I would read another graphic novel, but I thoroughly enjoyed this read.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the layout of "Fun Home" makes it seem like it is not a serious novel. However, it was very obvious that the subject matter and overall tone of the graphic novel is a very serious one.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most prevalent things I noticed throughout the book was the use of allusions to other literature. It was very interesting how she was able to make connections to books with the situations occurring in her life. Ideally, a well read person could trace the chronology of novels listed within the novel and have some sense of understanding as to the writer's life. However, the major emphasis of this point is "well read." As I read the book, I came to resent all of these literary references to books I had never read or never even heard of. Though a close read could decipher the significance of the passages mentioned, I found myself wanting to skip over these aspects, and therefore Bechdel's overall purpose for this effect became lost on me.
I agree that the main thematic thread throughout the book is the relationship between her and her father. This relationship is especially eerie and reinforced, in my opinion, through the ways in which Bechdel created her images. Since she took pictures of herself as each character, she herself became the character. She was her father, her mother, her lover, and her father's lover. This fact, at least to me, adds an extra depth and dimension to the graphic scenes created.
I wanted to further comment about the statement surrounding this idea of vaguely describing her relationship with her siblings. As the initial post suggests, the novel centers around the relationship of Alison and her father. Consequently, the novel stays on task and rarely strays from this topic. Nonetheless, I feel a lot can be derived about the siblings throughout. As suggested by Alex and reiterated by Caldwell, the picture frames actually include several images of her siblings and give us some sort of visual identification with them. Also, presumably many of the same perspectives of her father were shared by her siblings. Their father commanding to do things and his feminine qualities were most likely evident to all of the children since they were all exposed to it for a while. Bechdel confirms this when she thanks her siblings for encouraging her to write this novel.
ReplyDeleteTruthfully, it might boil down to some more basic things as well. There might be some hesitation on Alison's part to analyze her relationship with her siblings in great depth considering they are all still alive. In-depth analysis leaves a lot of room to potentially offend them. Also, it might simply be an issue of length. The novel is already fairly long and the elaborate process that went into making each frame would mean the project would be extended months to make a few side stories about her siblings.
It's terrific to see you dealing so directly with the concept of form in this thread: how some forms will put you off, how different genres invite different levels of expectation. Jennifer's reflections on the end of the story are insightful and speak to the way Alison's relationship with her father was so many--sometimes contradictory--things...
ReplyDeleteFun Home was a novel completely different from any of the expectations that I originally had for a “comic book” just by merely looking at it. I guess that the first problem that I had was to think of it as a comic book not as a graphic novel. I agree with the above comments about the seriousness of the actual content. I actually believe that this is what makes the book great; it gives you an explicit look at her life when you (by you I mean me) were not expecting it.
ReplyDeleteA major point of the novel is of course the strained relationship between the author and her father. Just when it seems as they don’t have anything in common literature and their homosexuality come into play. This is strange and understandable because one of the few things that they have in common is exactly the thing that keeps them apart. The secrecy and lies keep them apart, I can’t help but think if her father had come clean decades earlier, the route their relationship could have taken if everything was made clear. If as a child, the author had someone to talk to before going to college, she could have found her self, who she was, a lot earlier and probably with a lot less confusion.
I liked the way that she depicted her father, I feel as if it could have bashed him a little more if she desired considering his background with his students and employees (babysitter & yard boy). But I think she showed the respect that she had for him despite all conflicts by not playing up these points a little more. This could be fro respect or maybe because she was limited by her genre to go into explicit details.
Finally I have to mention the immense amount of time that she actually took into completing the graphical portion of this book, to me it gives the book more value.
Similar to everyone else on this thread, I also really enjoyed this novel. This was my first experience with a graphic novel. At first, I thought the storyline was a little difficult to follow with the pictures and text explaining things at the same time. After I got used to it, I enjoyed the way in which the text and words would sometimes be saying the same thing and other times be saying completely different things.
ReplyDeleteThe relationship between the author and her father is the most important relationship in the novel. I think that this story really emphasizes the difference between growing up gay in the 1950s and being gay in the 1970s. Alison had the benefit of "coming out" at a time when it was much more socially acceptable. She was far from the only individual doing so on her campus in the 1970s. She even contemplates how much different her experience would have been in the 1950s. I think that the contradiction between her experience and her father's experience highlights how much more accepting society is now compared to in the 1950s.