Childhood and gender are huge factors in the text. I think they're good points we need to address in our discussions since they have so much weight to events that play out in the story.
I personally think that anybody who says comics are mainly for children are just being totally ignorant of reality. Walk into a comic shop and find just one comic in ten minutes that's okay to give to your 5 year old. It's going to be incredibly difficult. Comics mainly target 18 through 35 year olds, and very very rarely create something for all ages. So from my point of view if Marjane wasn't a child in this story, nothing would have changed for me since I don't even consider a childlike audience to be a factor in comics ever, because it isn't a factor. It's just an incredibly old stereotype from the action comics days that people won't let go of. But Persepolis certainly is a coming of age story as you've said, and that's certainly a different factor than the age assumption of the viewer.
I think generic hybridity is central to Persepolis and I really like the way Satrapi has combined styles such as memoir, history, fiction, and bildungsroman. I would agree that Marji’s story is definitely a coming-of-age tale, not only in the sense that she is growing older, but also because this was clearly an important and formative stage in her life. It’s particularly interesting to see the events going on in Iran from the perspective of a child, because we can see the factors that influence and help shape her attitudes and opinions. It’s interesting to see someone whose ideas are not fully formed, because we can see how they change and develop as the story progresses. Children view what goes on in the world around them with a sort of open-eyed innocence and I think this idea is really central to Persepolis.
Children are immediately empathized with, regardless of what their background is, they are immediately relate able and their ignorance feels natural to the reader.
Persepolis seems more candid than Maus in my opinion. Persepolis is a story that I feel I can understand, its modern and many of the issues covered within it are things that I see today. I empathize with the character as someone I see a bit of myself within, someone that I would befriend today. It really draws me into the story in a way that has made it difficult for me to put down.
Gender equality has been a strong focus and I love the way that it is handled within the novel. She is strong in a country where the cards are turned against her. You find yourself cheering for her as a reader. It is certainly empowering to this point, even as a male reader.
Childhood and gender are huge factors in the text. I think they're good points we need to address in our discussions since they have so much weight to events that play out in the story.
ReplyDeleteI personally think that anybody who says comics are mainly for children are just being totally ignorant of reality. Walk into a comic shop and find just one comic in ten minutes that's okay to give to your 5 year old. It's going to be incredibly difficult. Comics mainly target 18 through 35 year olds, and very very rarely create something for all ages. So from my point of view if Marjane wasn't a child in this story, nothing would have changed for me since I don't even consider a childlike audience to be a factor in comics ever, because it isn't a factor. It's just an incredibly old stereotype from the action comics days that people won't let go of. But Persepolis certainly is a coming of age story as you've said, and that's certainly a different factor than the age assumption of the viewer.
ReplyDeleteI think generic hybridity is central to Persepolis and I really like the way Satrapi has combined styles such as memoir, history, fiction, and bildungsroman. I would agree that Marji’s story is definitely a coming-of-age tale, not only in the sense that she is growing older, but also because this was clearly an important and formative stage in her life. It’s particularly interesting to see the events going on in Iran from the perspective of a child, because we can see the factors that influence and help shape her attitudes and opinions. It’s interesting to see someone whose ideas are not fully formed, because we can see how they change and develop as the story progresses. Children view what goes on in the world around them with a sort of open-eyed innocence and I think this idea is really central to Persepolis.
ReplyDeleteChildren are immediately empathized with, regardless of what their background is, they are immediately relate able and their ignorance feels natural to the reader.
ReplyDeletePersepolis seems more candid than Maus in my opinion. Persepolis is a story that I feel I can understand, its modern and many of the issues covered within it are things that I see today. I empathize with the character as someone I see a bit of myself within, someone that I would befriend today. It really draws me into the story in a way that has made it difficult for me to put down.
Gender equality has been a strong focus and I love the way that it is handled within the novel. She is strong in a country where the cards are turned against her. You find yourself cheering for her as a reader. It is certainly empowering to this point, even as a male reader.