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Health & Fitness

Why Graphic Novels?

Blog written by Fiona Vidal White at Construct Learning

As we start thinking about recruiting members for next September, we decided to offer one-day events in subjects that different members of staff have an interest in.  I will begin with a day on graphic novels, on Wednesday March 5th.  (See the homepage of the website for more details.)  

I have always been interested in the intersection between words and art.  I love children’s illustrated books, and particularly illustrated poetry books.  The work of Tim Botts, a calligrapher who has developed a modern style that originates from, but is wholly different than, the monks of the 7th century onward, does beautiful work that really speaks to me.  And so it was natural that when I discovered it, the graphic novel would become a passion.  

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A graphic novel, for those of you who are not familiar, is a book in the usual comic book form beloved of super-hero fans everywhere, but both the art, and the text, are raised to a level consistent with the best illustrated books and novels on the market today. Like many people, my first experience of modern graphic novels was Art Spiegelman's Maus, the memoir of his father’s experience of the Holocaust, with the Jews portrayed as mice, and the Nazis as cats.  The book is both approachable and harrowing, and is used in schools today to teach about memoir, the Holocaust, and family psychology.  Memoir is a common strand in graphic novels, particularly memoirs about different families, countries and cultures, as the images are so evocative of setting.  Persepolis, set in Iran, Fun Home, set in a funeral home, Stuck Rubber Baby, about racism and homophobia the South in the 60’s, Vietnamerica, about being a child of the Vietnamese war immigrants growing up in America - each of these books takes us into the stories and images of a new world.

Actually I had an earlier experience of the communicative power of comics when I simply couldn't handle a course in philosophy in grad school, and found Philosophy for Beginners, by Osborne / Edney.  The  images of Occam’s Razor, Archimedes leaping out of his bath, and Socrates’ cave helped me through.  Then my husband brought home Larry Gonick’s Cartoon History of the United States, followed by his guides to genetics, statistics, economics - there’s quite a list. Not to mention graphic novel adaptations of the classics - Shakespeare, Homer, Virgil, Fahrenheit 451, Sense and Sensibility, Dracula - a whole lot more fun than Cliff Notes!

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One more form is the non-fiction graphic novel.  For those of you who see graphic novels as too Right Brain, how about a graphic adaptation of On the Origin of Species, Clan Apis, about the life of bees, a biography of Richard Feynman, or the ultimate nerd graphic novel, Logicomix, about great mathematicians, Bertrand Russell, Kurt Godel, and Wittgenstein?

If this has piqued your interest, come join us on March 5th. I have a huge box of books to share with you, and I look forward to reading and discussing Graphic Novels with you!

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