Monday, November 9, 2015
Well That Escalated Quickly....
I didn't really know what to expect going into this reading. The only real manga I had read was The Mysterious Underground Men a few weeks earlier so I guess I was thinking that Tatsumi's comics would be relatively similar. From a story perspective, they were not and it really took me by surprise. After the first story, Hell, I could tell that these comics would be more mature and deal with some real life themes. I did not think that I'd be exploring complex issues in sexuality, however. When I turned the page to Just a Man, I knew I was in for a different sort of story and a few pages and a few nude images later, I found out how different. This was just the beginning as the themes and stories got progressively darker and more complex. A lot of the stories involved an older man and some form of perversion, and by the end of it all, I was wondering what exactly Yoshihiro Tatsumi had experienced in his life. Maybe it was the relatively tame nature of our previous readings but I was genuinely shocked at some of the themes and images. Nevertheless, it was interesting to view more realistic stories, dealing with adult themes and concerns grounded in reality, something that we haven't really seen in previous readings.
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Jacob,
ReplyDeleteI was really surprised by the explicit images too. Are readings have been so tame in the past, that I brought this collection of comics to work with me to read at the desk. I quickly realized this was a mistake! Nude images, even if cartoons, were definitely not appropriate in Hamilton's Admission building!
Although the images and themes were explicit, I enjoyed the change of pace from our previous readings. I found myself thinking about the stories after I put the book down, which I had not been doing with our previous readings.