references

Getting a closer look at some of the literary references that Bechdel uses in Fun Home was definitely helpful for me. When I first read the book, I didn’t like that she used this method, but now I understand more her reasoning behind it. I still can’t make myself like the fact of it, I guess. It really limits her audience, for one, even though she tries to give an overview of the stories she’s using. But when I was posting on Blackboard and found the line where she explains why she’s using the references (“I employ these allusions to James and Fitzgerald not only as descriptive devices, but because my parents are most real to me in fictional terms. And perhaps my cool aesthetic distance itself does more to convey the arctic climate of our family than any particular literary comparison,” pg. 67) – I don’t know, it makes me feel more sympathetic to her cause, maybe? Because this is really the only way she knows how to relate her story, so how can I hold that against her? But I suppose just because this is a comic doesn’t necessarily mean that it can’t have a limited audience. I doubt anyone lower than college level could get through this, and (it must be pretty obvious by now) I don’t even have a firm grasp on it. Not that that’s a bad thing.

I feel I’m in danger of not making sense anymore, so I’m going to bed now.