Movement

Comic books are organized in a strange way in which I wasn’t used to seeing. The different sized boxes, with some dialogue or no dialogue at all follows a sort of zigzag pattern that strangely my eyes are able to follow with no problem. The dialogue and image blend into one creating a sense of movement rather than stillnes, like the feeling when I read a book.

I have pondered about what I enjoy more, a comic or a novel and I haven’t been able to decide, both of them have their pros and their cons. When I read novels I am able to imagine the setting and the characters, which is one of my favorite parts. Its nice when I read a book such as The Great Gatsby, and it comes out in theaters and I can compare of what I imagined them to be like, and how they are in the movie. Imagining all of the characters, settings, and moments of a novel are the magical and unique sparks of reading a book. But when it comes to imagining the characters in the comic it’s a little more difficult. At the beginning of the comic I was immediately introduced to Satrapi and her family. Although the comic introduces me to their physique, my imagination leads me to picture their movement. Due to the images and the dialogue they create a sense of movement that I can picture perfectly in my head. It takes me about 30 seconds to read and observe the pictures and texts of the page, but it doest seem like it because I sense a feeling of a film rather than of a book. The great thing about reading a book or a novel is that my imagination is on a roll when I am reading either of the two, that’s the fun part.

As mentioned in my previous blog, Persepolis tells the story of Marjane Satrapi, a young girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. This was a very hectic and sad time for the Islamic people, specially the revolutions like Satrapi’s family. I had studied this time in Global Studies and saw how terrible it was, but its crazy to think that in that comic book I can picture everything, and feel as if I was their with Marjane accompanying her in her every move. I was with her when she had to put on her burka, when she went to the riots, but most of all I continue to be with her because I not only think of her when I am reading the book, but at times of the day when I give thanks of how lucky I am to have the freedom I have.  Satrapi demonstrates these times of her life with the different images that express her emotions as well as the actions that were taking place. Again it seems more like a movie than a book, because all of the images connect to make one story. As obvious as it might seem, it’s unbelievable.

 This page is an example of how I can sense the movement of the story. Here, a friend of the Satrapi's who had been in jail is telling stories about how they tortured people at the Prison. As I read it I felt as if it was a movie rather than just a book. I could imagine what his voice sounded like, and how the faces of the family was stunned. How they would move around the room shocked, as well as the reactions of the prisoners when they were tortured. Here we can also see the effects of the different sized boxes in the comic. They are small when its more like a sequency and just speaking, but when a big image as the one there appears, its because it is more important, or it is taking us back in time.