Thursday, November 12, 2015
Repetition
Tatsumi's short stories are definitely the darkest we have read this
semester. There are persistent themes of isolation, impotence or
emasculation, and the taboo, as well as a general feeling of being
trapped. Tatsumi pursues a similar strategy to Tezuka in the use of
stock characters in multiple short stories, both in terms of characters'
faces and their situations (for example, repeated stories about older
men dealing with some form of emasculation or shame). The repetition of
simple faces casts these characters as everymen and implies the
commonality of the negative emotions and bad situations experienced. It also adds to the general bleak tone of the collection. Faces repeat just as themes tend to repeat, without a break in the cycle.
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I agree with what you are saying. But at the same time I believe that the stories have some form of continuity to them. For example I think the characters in Just A Man also showed up in Rash. But just like you mentioned I believe it adds to the idea that there is no break in cycle and the bad situations experienced are repetitive circumstances.
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