Oh Ester, Where fore art thou!

Megillat Esther.  That's right, I said it.  Megillat Esther.  The first half thus far is a particularly brilliant rendering of the story.  The minutiae details represented would spend me writing and observing for the better part of a year and surely some brilliant scholar much better versed than I on the Old Testament will applaud this endeavor the fullness it deserves.  Where to start...

Well starting with the plot would be basic.  Anybody familiar with the Old Testament would surely know the only fictional story included in it.  I'd prefer to start with the level of art.  The art is strategically drawn, carefully, so as to show that the comical nature of it should be taken with a grain of salt.  It is a serious story with serious implications.  But also to be taken into part is the beauty of the Hebrew script throughout.  Some would argue that this is a distraction to the overall art.  I beg to differ.  The script is just as beautiful as the art itself, not only because it is written in a very flowery sense, but also because of the level of complexity it engineers in the plot itself.  "Surely on that day I will hide my face for what my people have done."  The Hebrew everywhere just as much as the inclusions of Saul and David seek to make the public realize the depth of the Old Testament story.  The inclusions render much of what the actual story describes as being accurate.  Oddly enough, given the reading of the massacres in the actual book, they seek to take a different road compared to Saul and David.  David decides to spare Saul.  The Israelites choose to take the road less traveled, or more traveled in those days.  I feel it serves as a stark contrast to changes in conscience.  Why react that grotesquely when you can solve most quarrels through simple actions and speaking.  The author is clearly attempting to grasp at certain straws and commentaries that nobody in the graphic novel world has yet encountered.  That kind of social criticism, especially given several contemporary references in the piece, truly stands as a shining literary accomplishment and will surely be given its due credit in the near future.

Waltz with Bashir!

Beautiful, enigmatic, moving.  I felt more viewing this fantastic display of cinematography than I have during any of the graphic novels we have encountered.  The stylistic representation and the beauty beyond it really dramatized it in a way that would put "Lost" fans in their chairs with awe.  The story drew me in to the point where, during the break, I couldn't stop thinking about what I was watching.  It wasn't just the cell-shading style.  It was the intrepid plot and the dynamic characters miraculously well explored in the short time that the movie takes.  When the machine gunner actually dances with his gun, amid total gun-fire, the most gripping point of the movie takes hold when realizing the sheer desperation enacted upon each of the characters.  Moving on to the amnesiac memory of forgetting a traumatic event, one can truly visualize why one would want to forget about the horrors and atrocities witnessed after that key event.  Nobody wants to take part in a massacre, but according to dissolution of responsibility, given greater numbers, people would think they took less and less part in the actual massacre.  The level of realism especially given the actual autobiographical content was inspiring.  I particularly enjoyed how it all started from such a little thing.  Craving the memories you lost and realizing if your exact memory was truly captured, which it clearly was not, but essentially your mind would not let you realize what you were doing for fear of it being really bad.  And the only thing he remembered were the dogs he had to shoot down.  I have already suggested viewing of this movie to all of my friends.

Jobnik!

I fully appreciate the depth and curiosity of this novel.  I feel that, to it's core, Jobnik! reflects the basic experience that an American born Jewish individual would have over in Israel.  Although incredibly sexual, I did reference in class all of the things I appreciated about the novel.  Unmentioned was my criticisms, since I felt like agreeing with Dr. J more than disagreeing on this particular day.  So I will allow for my grievances to be addressed in my anonymous blog.

Particularly disturbing to me was not the graphic intensity of the sexual adventures, but rather how Miriam appeared to base her whole life surrounding them.  Her adventures in a foreign land were not consistent with her interactions with the natives as much as her interactions with the "douche-bag" stereotype of men she interacted with.  I felt like this took away from the novel on a greater whole.  I think that she, in essence, used it as a way to vent about her situations and, kind of, spit in the faces of the men that wronged her.  Not that there's anything wrong with her getting the last laugh among her acquaintances over there, but really I had hoped for a more mature out-look on this kind of life.

That was the only criticism I had for Jobnik!  However, I would like to stress how much I enjoyed and approved of her creative essence, especially during the funeral for Bashir (sp?).  I felt like this was actually the most moving, and visually appealing, scene in any graphic novel we have encountered, barring none.  The direct impact not only on the community as a whole but on every part of the life situations she has encountered couldn't even be hoped to be grasped, but through thorough word play, she seems to attempt to encompass the general feeling.  A man they based their lives around was assassinated and it was definitely going to impact them down to the core.  It still is impacting them today.  This allows me to generally interpret the feelings at a minimum and really feel the kind of core impact that she encountered through this dramatic event.

Maus Pt Numbero Dos and Rabbi's Cat

I did already comment on Carlyfries comment lower, which may have some of the same stuff as this regarding mouse, but not much since I already went into slight detail on it.  The character's strained relationship with his father seems most shocking to me.  The part that really got to me for some reason was when the focus shifts from when it's supposed to be on the holocaust and instead shifts to his relationship with his father.  It was like Art was living in the shadow of a brother that never existed every day of his life.  I wonder if he felt any amount of major anguish from that, because I know I would.  I think that's why he seems to have cut his father off from him at some point.  But the switch amazed me.  Whereas in my last post where I was taking some of the fatherly moments for granted and trying to pay attention to the holocaust memoir part, now I'm suddenly reading it for the father-son relationship.   I thought it was absolutely brilliant from both perspectives.  Maus I and II really blew me away in total with the depth of the storyline and plot.   I very much enjoyed the way Spiegelman intertwined so many different storylines and clarity into the text.  Very good read, overall.

Maus

I find few things more interesting than the Jewish Holocaust of World War 2.  I don't know why, maybe it's due to the extreme loss of life and maleficent corruption of the Nazis during the time, or the general idea of the will power of man to survive those accosting events.  Either way, Maus intrigues me for a different reason.  The way it depicts the story of a father-son relationship, as strained as it already is, while it continues to become more and more tense is truly beautiful.  These stories of the father surviving the Holocaust are not the highlight of this book.  I didn't realize that the first time I read it through.  But upon rereading it with the perspective of the stress in their lives, especially with the last line saying "Murderer," I can see the greatness in this writing.  It is every son's dream to be able to live up to the standards of his father, and to be as great a man as he views his father to be.  But here is a father-son story where the son almost despises the father because of his irresponsibility apparent malice for the son's birth mother.  Essentially the way I see it, Art views his father as the man that killed his mother even though she took her own life.  He felt like he was a major contributor towards that unfortunate event.  The writing and storytelling are superb and I truly cannot wait to see the way it plays out on Maus II.

And because she's awesome, here's a shout out to Carlyfries and her lack of smelly breath.

X-Men

Alright.  Keep this nice and simple.  Magneto = Jew from Auschwitz.  Magneto = trying to prevent another time where humans destroy what they do not know.  But Magneto wants to exterminate the other humans for not being a meta-human.  He already views it as he is stuck in a perpetual holocaust.  He thinks he knows human reactions to everything that he is doing and that they will try to kill him and all the other mutants simply because they do not know them or what they are.

Magneto misses one thing in all of his assumptions.  Even when the Jews were interned in camps, they had somebody to eventually rescue them.  Annihilation is not the only option and I don't actually think Magneto realizes that since the Mutant Registration Act perpetuates every bit of negative thought Magneto has ever realized.  Only when you realize that because of Magneto's actions, the rest of the world reacts negatively.  It is my personal belief that if the antagonist had never destroyed humanity's faith in mutants then the end result would have been far more positive than the negative results that came from him.

That was very wordy and complex.  But I really think the Magneto is a weak character.  I do follow X-Men comics occasionally and, in the end, he never becomes more than he is.  His motives never change.  And I think there is something flawed in that.  I feel like he is a dynamic and fluid character and that his past would not keep him so stagnant and hell-bent on changing other humans into homo-superiors, as he puts it.  That's just my thoughts on the topic.

Superman!

I've been thinking quite a bit lately on the creation of superman.  How unbelievable that he went through that many transformations to finally become resolved as the formidable comic book giant that he is today.  It makes sense in hindsight that the characters aren't just born so creatively as to remain solid forever, but rather to develop very dynamically through time.  But it still creates basic flaws in the concept of the character from a reader's stand point.  It's like suddenly this tower of so many fundamental (albeit non-human) truths emanating from such a powerful character even though fictional is destroyed.  Not the truths, more like the symbol for the truths.  More on the lack of Superman to come I'm sure because I highly doubt that this rant is over just yet.

The Thing!

I would like to center this week's post around The Thing.  I think that The Thing has many similarities to the Jewish people, whether through design or, much less likely, through chance.  The Thing knows he is different and that he appears no longer human, but rather much more like a golem, as we established in class.  That being said, the Jewish people, hassidic anyways, look different that other humans and are judged due to their appearance, much the way The Thing is.  Another side point in comparison, The Thing is a rock.  Technically speaking, his organs are made up of rocks as well now, so he is literally a moving rock.  The Thing has survived circumstances that would destroy any other being, exception being Wolverine, and has been able to withstand different pressures, usually on a daily basis, that would end the lives of almost anything else.  I would like to draw a stark comparison to Jews with this analysis.  Jews have endured pressures that would have, and sometimes have, eliminated other religions.  If any other group, Christians included, had been presented with a trial and tribulation such as the Holocaust or the Crusades, then I doubt they would have had the integrity to survive.  Some would have survived, sure, but to say safely that the religion would be more or less unchanged is idiocy.  Jews have proven time and time again, much like the Thing, that they will come out of almost any situation unchanged and continue striving towards survival more and more.  Resiliency is their main similarity. 

A Contract with God

Perplexed.  Mesmerized.  Enthused.  Many words come to mind when I think of how I felt after a blistering 2 and half hours of reading A Contract with God.  I literally couldn't put it down.  People called me and I told them to wait because I had was on a voluntary mission to finish it in one sitting.  After the first story, I wanted to know what happened to the new good, young man who picked up the contract and signed his name.  Also, I thought the way the story was crafted to show him gradually becoming more evil and more wicked with every step he took towards blasphemy was beautiful.  The depictions only got deeper and more cruel, as did his animation of his face.  I could barely tell what he looked like underneath that beard, then suddenly you realized how torn and cruel he was after the loss of his daughter.  Even when he becomes so twisted and misconceived as to think to have a new daughter and name it after his old daughter, his face almost writhes off the page.  The others, while they were also phenomenally well done, couldn't compare in the awe and subtlety that Contract had.  It was by far my favorite story and I think reflects quite well on an opposing story of Job.  Like what if when everything went bad in Job's life, he decided to make a contract and stick to his guns; but it started to go wrong again and again.  As it dove closer and closer towards blasphemy, he finally through away all faith and went his separate way to eventually find his way back to where he started to redeem himself.  I thought it was a counter story to Job in that if some actions had been different and his faith had been stronger, then it would have ended differently for him.  Interesting thought I suppose, but I'm going to re-read both stories (Biblical and graphic novel) to compare and contrast any possibilities.