Blog 4 Graphic Memoir

Graphic Memoirs are something that I was not introduced to until this class. It is interesting new way to read and interrupt stories. The idea of a graphic memoir to me, can sometimes take away from the creativity of the writing or enhance it in certain situations. In the graphic memoir Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi she uses a unique way to tell her story. At first when I opened up the book I was a little annoyed- I read a lot and I really look forward to reading descriptive words and making my own story in my head. As I continued to turn the pages I started to get into the memoir. I started to enjoy the idea of mixing words with images. At some point it gave my mind a nice break from trying to create my own images- Not to mention (I didn’t day dream as much). Before I knew it I had sailed right through the memoir in one sitting! Although, in the graphic memoir called Fun Home by Alison Bechdel- I was a little more intimidated while reading it- Bechdel’s piece. The reason why- was because her pictures were so much more detailed! My mind was constantly flashing from the picture to the words, from the picture to the words- and it was hard to take it all in. Bechdel’s pictures were much more detailed than Marjane’s. Marjane had pictures but they weren’t as detailed, so you could just skim over them and get the idea. I don’t exactly know where the idea of graphic memoirs came into play- or who exactly started them, but I do this that this is a nice new way of telling ones story. Since the author provides pictures for you- your idea of the characters are made for you. Is able to picture the characters as exactly as they want me too. So, for telling a memoir I think the graphic memoir is a good idea! I am sorry that I did not include any quotes- I feel like if anything I would want to include a picture to demonstrate the differences, since I feel like they had more of an impact to me than the words. So I am including one page from Persepolis and one page from Fun Home, between the two images you can tell the difference between, the amount of detail they want to get from each character. Graphic Memoir’s was a unique way of telling a story, and I would like to try and read another one in the future. - Thanks for introducing that type of work to me! J

Emma