Back Where We Started
At the beginning of yesterday's class we began with a discussion of the five key elements of creative writing and short stories, those being exposition, composition, crisis, climax, and resolution. With the exception of some occasional differences in the details of the setting, Tatsumi's stories all seem to present nearly identical expositions: A melancholic, male or female protagonist living in a grim/unappealing setting who is saddened by their irreversible major life decisions. The only things that seem to differ across all the stories are the specific details of their complications, crises, and climaxes. However, despite these differences, after reading two or three of Tatsumi's short stories one quickly gets a feel for the ebb and flow of all of his stories and realizes that they all lead the reader in the same direction. From then on, after the first page or two the reader can more or less infer how the story will end up, which leads me to next point.
For me, at least, I quickly began to realize that Tatsumi's stories all lacked a significant resolution in comparison to the ways we've seen thus far this semester in other comics. In The Adventures of Tintin, Tintin always ends up putting the bad guys away, likewise with Superman, in The Mysterious Underground Men John defeats the human termites and saves all of humanity, and the list goes on. In all of Tatsumi's short stories, however, the protagonist never seems to arrive at a solution or change that addresses their problems: they always end up where they started. To give an example, in the last short story, Good-bye, the protagonist of the story, a prostitute, begins in the company of a male soldier, proceeds to conflict with and sleep with her father in an effort to try and overcome her internal conflicts, and in the final panel of the story is seen in the company of a new male soldier just as she was at the start. It is unclear to me exactly what Tatsumi's message is in his lack of satisfying resolutions, but perhaps he is trying to tell us that no matter how hard we try, we cannot change the past.
I think you make a great point here but I think the lack of resolution may be more of a commentary on the state of Japanese society in the post WWII era rather than on the individual. I imagine that a country that faced the devastation Japan fell victim to would struggle to regain its sense of direction and may feel stuck in time in many ways. The seemingly cyclical nature of Tatsumi's comics may be a reflection of this general sentiment.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of your comments here. I noticed though that some of Tatsumi's conclusions seemed a lot more clear than others. For example, "Hell" had almost a Crime Scene-esque end to it; the main character must live with the guilt, and potential legal repercussions, of killing the man all for nothing. Additionally, even though "Night Falls Again" has that cyclical nature to it, I believe Tatsumi wanted you to critique the life of the pitiful man; that his loneliness is of his own doing.
ReplyDeleteBut then there's the others... "Sky Burial" and "Rash's" stories made sense to me, but I couldn't really make a conclusion of the last panels in each of these stories. I think Tatsumi was going for a "bang," but I just couldn't figure it out...
I agree with both of your comments here. I noticed though that some of Tatsumi's conclusions seemed a lot more clear than others. For example, "Hell" had almost a Crime Scene-esque end to it; the main character must live with the guilt, and potential legal repercussions, of killing the man all for nothing. Additionally, even though "Night Falls Again" has that cyclical nature to it, I believe Tatsumi wanted you to critique the life of the pitiful man; that his loneliness is of his own doing.
ReplyDeleteBut then there's the others... "Sky Burial" and "Rash's" stories made sense to me, but I couldn't really make a conclusion of the last panels in each of these stories. I think Tatsumi was going for a "bang," but I just couldn't figure it out...