Midterm

Ok before I start I just have to say this is one of the crummiest days ever! So to top my horrible day off I come to my neighborhood which is gated, I drive up to the box where you punch in your code.... and no matter how many freakin times I punch my number in it says it is invalid! Well then, thats great. Not only am I in the truck stuck outside the gate but so is my 11 month old who wants out of his carseat!!! So after about 15 minutes a car pulls up and wants to use the box... so I move out of their way... then circle around to pull behind them... well apparently they didn't like that! They didn't want some woman in a big ass truck following them through the gate so they went as sloooooooow as possible... so if I were to have gone through the gate it would've smashed my truck up. Gee thanks overly cautious jerk. So then probably another 20 or so minutes go by (I've tried the box a million more times... I'm no longer even in the directory!!!) and FINALLY someone else pulls up. Thank goodness! And they were much nicer and let me tailgate them through. All the while though my son is unhappy because he is sick and tired of sitting in his car seat... and I'm cranky coz I need to get home and do my midterm! Well ok so I guess here goes... Oh yeah and I left one of my books at work. Woo freakin hoo. :) Yay for great endings to great days. On top of all that my son has been waking up like every 20 minutes since we did get home... about an hour ago due to teething.... will it ever end???


1)Describe the different art and writing styles of graphic novels you have examined so far. How are the styles similar and/ or different? You must use McCloud and your packet on literary terminology for this answer.

I've only read two GN's to date. Although they are based on the same event they have some major differences in art and writing styles. The art style of The 9/11 Report resembled realistic people and graphics. In The Shadow of No Towers jumped around throughout each spread, going from realistic, to artistic, to very cartoony. The writing styles is where I saw the largest difference. The 9/11 Report discussed facts and gave back ground information on the events leading up to 9/11 including information about the indavidual terrorists. Where as In The Shadow of No Towers was based on the author's (Art Speigleman) point of view from that day. I also found No Towers to be very scatter brained and random (very non linear), but Report was very linear. The 9/11 Report even included time lines of each flight that was hijacked on 9/11.



3)We have examined several controversies in the world of GNs to date (body representation, racial representation, etc). Discuss a controversy that occurs in one of your graphic novel choices. What about the example makes it controversial? Defend or denounce/ agree or disagree with this controversy, providing specific examples.

In the GN In The Shadow of No Towers I didn't notice much racial representation in the art. However, there is a spread where a "crazy" homeless Russian lady is shown yelling at Art Speigleman on his way to and from work. She has always yelled hateful things at him for being a Jew, but always in Russian. After 9/11 she began cursing him in plain English. Accusing him and all other Jews for the events that took place that tragic day.
I'm having a hard time defending or denouncing this event because it is a real event. I'm not saying it was right, because I don't agree with the woman in anyway. But based on what the question states I don't think I can explain what makes it controvesial. Other than it being someone's opinion, somone's wrong opinion. I'm part a little under a quarter Jewish, I had no part in 9/11. Well now we know that no Jews did, that it was Arabs (Al Queda to be exact...). My best friend is Arab, she speaks fluent Arabic, but she had nothing to do with 9/11. It isn't right to wrongly accuse someone for something that someone did just because they are the same color or same race or even same gender.



5)How do graphic novels not only address, but aid/ problematize our understanding of history? Are they even historical texts? Discuss how this representation of history from one of your graphic novel choices fit into the work of other graphic novelists. Are the representations similar/ different?

The 9/11 Report has done a fantastic job on aiding in the understanding of the events of that day, and the events leading up to it. I would consider this GN a historical text, it gave me more information on 9/11 then I think most modern American History textbooks would. Plus it also gave you illustrations to aid in the understanding. I felt like it showed me exactly what I would be trying to picture in my head. The inclusion of time lines, though they may be conceived as a little juvinille, did a fantastic job at showing you what was happening simultaneously with each of the hijacked flights. As you already know The 9/11 Report and In the Shadow of No Towers are based on the same event, the terrorist attacks on our own American soil on 9/11/01. I found their representations to be quite different. The 9/11 Report was more factual versus In the Shadow of No Towers which was more opinion based. They are similar in that they do both tell you that yes plans did crash, and yes sadly many people died.