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Justine Lutzel (no login)
Posted Apr 24, 2007 9:37 PM
I found the references to “time” in both graphic novels to be interesting, especially when compared to our last reading: “Windows on the World”.
Spiegelman says continiously: “On 9/11, time stopped.” Yet, Beigbeder’s novel is completely dependent on time progressing. To what can we attribute this discrepancy? Can time stop for one person and progress for another (at the same moment)? Or can we merely blame it on Beigbeder’s novel being a work of fiction?
The graphic version of “The 9/11 Commission Report” contains many timelines…both pictorially and narrative-ly. In fact, this is one area that I think the graphic novel succeeds over the (primarily) word-based novel. The graphic novel has an economic, easily comprehensible timeline of what happened on 9/11 – which one merely needs to glimpse at to understand the events of the morning. Comprehending the written version, though, requires much more time, dedication, and curiosity for/to/about 9/11.
Something else that surprised me about these two novels was the way that the comics were placed on the page. I’ve read many graphic novels, and found most of them very easy to follow – meaning I knew “how to read” them – often just right to left on the page, like a “regular” book. However, I found the “Report” and “ITSONT” to be much more disjointed than the usual graphic novel. Is this because of their subject matter? Are the artists mirroring the events? How much, then, is art an imitation of life? Are the comics trying to represent the national confusion felt after the events of 9/11?
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