The Heroics of Juxtaposition

To an extent this program was getting at more than just superheroes. The juxtaposition of these two stories makes this clear. One is about a self made hero. Somebody who worked impossibly hard to get where she was and ended up getting what she wanted. The other tells of two children who were thrust into a roll of power, a role of supposed wizardry where they alone had the power to command an army. And yet while both certainly commanded power, there was something fundamentally different between the two. This is how they react to their positions of power.

Because when, in act 2 they are interviewing Zora about how she felt about her life as an investigator she had this aura of strength about her. She always seemed to exude confidence and even when she was admitting that even she occasionally had fears, she accepted and  reflected on them. She was very to the point.

The complete opposite was true in regards to the twins. When asked about how they felt regarding their positions of power, they beat around the bush. They act as if they have powers but due to the current circumstances, can’t show them off. In fact, it is only after the war is over that they reveal their true colors. They were never intending to do what they ended up doing. They were doing it because it was keeping them alive. All this when in reality, they just wanted their mother.

The difference between them then, what initially set these two apart was how they started. Zora chose her path and stuck to it. She knew where she was going and how she was going to get there. In the end she became a true hero. The twins were forced into their situation and through this, never got the chance to gain the attributes a self made hero would posses.

In fact, this story I believe is getting at a broader topic. How to be a true success you cannot simply inherit power, you must earn it. For somebody thrust into power or success may be able to fake the qualities of a self-made man/woman however they will never truly posses them. Because to posses them you have to go through the challenges associated with becoming what said person wishes to posses such as Zora’s list. A self-made hero can then take those experiences and apply them to situations in the future. An inherited hero has nothing to call upon and is extremely ineffective.

Clearly this point is hit home through the use of juxtaposition in this broadcast. This is due to the fact that if it had been just the story on Zora or just the story on the twins, they would have been just that - a story on Zora or the twins. However, the fact that they were positioned closely in the broadcast provides a stark contrast which brings the ideas I have discussed into the picture. It is  seeing such a difference in two people that each hold power which leads one to question what set them apart. This is the power of juxtaposition.

A Picture is Worth 1000 Words.

After finally finishing Persepolis and ultimately seeing Marji escape a possibly horrible execution in Iran, I had felt like I had just finished a 300 page book. An everyday book with text on every page. But shouldn't this feel different? I mean this book is under 200 pages and littered with photographs. Shouldn't I feel as if I had just finished a book of Calvin and Hobbes? I mean sure, they are complete polar opposites in that Calvin and Hobbes is a humorous comic and Persepolis is a fairly dark comic. But they are just that. Comics. Or that is what conventional wisdom would tell you, at least.

This just shows you how comics are purely a medium of writing. They are not a genre as many people come to understand. If fact just the other day a friend of mine asked to see what book I was reading. In response I showed him Persepolis  and was fairly surprised to have him respond by saying “why are you reading a graphic novel in AP lang. As if somehow the class should be above this medium.

In fact, in just my last blog I described the effectiveness of comics at getting information across, however this time I want to present it with some evidence. To prove my point I went to Wikipedia and then to the summary section for two books: The Kite Runner and Persepolis. Both are books with similar themes and plots. And both delve into fairly dark themes. And when I scrolled down to the plot summary section, even I was somewhat surprised. The Kite Runner had a fairly lengthy summary, around maybe 3/4 of a page. This was to be expected.

What surprised me though is that Persepolis, the comic had a summary twice as long. Incredible. This being a book which has maybe 1/1000th the text that Persepolis contains and yet it took longer to summarize Persepolis.

Clearly this shows the depth to which the combination of visuals and texts can display information. It is almost as if there is a multiplication sign in between the text and accompanying visual. If there are 10 words by a frame, then clearly the picture is a multiplication factor of 100, leaving a value of 1000.

Reading Through the Eyes of a Child

I’ll be honest. When I first picked up Persepolis I was expecting to be hurled into an alternate reality I had never before experienced. I was expecting a journey in which I would unearth the secrets of how life would be like growing up in Iran. However, this is not what I received. Not exactly at least. And this is, in my opinion, what gives this book so much power.

Obviously the whole point of the book is to show the revolution in Iran in a way that us ignorant westerners can understand. This is a tall task. However, author Marjan Satrapi is up to it. And in fact, not only does she succeed in shedding light on the revolution in a way that westerners can understand. But instead she successfully bridges the gap between two cultures which on the surface may seem extremely different.

And yes, I understand that this is partially due to the reason that Satrapi was fairly wealthy. She being of that status, at least to begin her life, may have had more  similarities to those of us in western cultures. However, this does not detract from the fact that through her writing finesse she is able to erase the boundaries between readers and is able to then tell the story of her life.

She is able to do this through focusing on the general. Satrapi, in her book is able to focus on aspects of childhood, of innocence. Traits that are not race-specific but rather traits of the human race. And through this perception of innocence she is able to convey her feelings for her country in a way which seems natural to us. Sure, pretending to be Fidel Castro may seem messed up in our eyes. But when she tells of her dreams of  dictatorship, it feels strangely natural.

Juxtaposition... More Than Just a Cool Sounding Word.

Ever since I began to learn about how comics work, I have started to think of them as movies as much as I consider them books. And while technically they are neither, they incorporate aspects of both which come together to make this unique medium. For like books, comics can be read at your own pace and it is fairly easy to go back and re-read something. And like a movie, it relies heavily on visuals and sequences of events to tell the story. The main difference between movies and comics is the use of space in comics vs the use of time in movies. Because of this, in movies, events can take longer to transpire because unlike comics where one panel often has to carry tons of emotion, a frame of a motion-picture does not have to carry so much weight because there are a lot of them . However, in a comic, this is not the case.

In a comic, the author must use dramatic imagery, as well as clever use of juxtaposition (the way in which the pictures are aligned with each other) to show heavy amounts of emotion as well as dramatic transitions in very small amount of space. I mean imagine if a comic took as many panels to show a thought or emotion as a movie does frames. Thing is, comic authors only have a said amount of space.


As seen in the frame above, this does not stop authors such as Persepolis author Marjane Satrapi from delivering powerful emotions.

What we can see here is the authors use of juxtaposition to show the dramatic clash of the two worlds Satrapi is experiencing at the moment. The top picture shows a gruesome image of a man being cut to pieces. However, this quickly shifts to what Satrapi is experiencing in her life at the moment: a nice and easy life as part of a wealthy family. But through these three frames the author does so much. First of all, the use of such a dramatic transition shows not only the situation in her country but how oblivious she had been to it. It also foreshadows that things may not stay perfect for her in the near future as hinted at by the close positioning the two pictures have to each other

Also, touching on how powerful pictures can be in comics is the fact that in this medium,, authors have the added advantage of being able to use their art style and text together to create an even more powerful expression. 

As can be seen hear, the dramatic story of a man having to be separated from his wife is lost on Satrapi, who at the moment is a child and responds with a somewhat confused remark asking if he  "has any more stories like that?" (Satrapi, 58). This contrast between the somewhat serious images and innocent text evokes sympathy in the readers. And whats most impressive is how it again is done in just a matter of a few frames.

In conclusion, I have gained a lot of respect in regards to the medium of storytelling that is comics in recent days. For it has been recently that I have realized that the combination of doodles and text can accomplish so much more than evoking a few laughs. I have been made to aw by just how much more efficient comics are in terms of getting a thought through than movies and books and just how much the  correlation between text and panel can affect the feel of the story. In terms of comics, consider me a fan.