I really loved how music was integrated into this weeks
reading. Both the music and the art styles seemed to twist and flow together in
one moment of nonlinear expression. It’s like you could feel the culture of the
time, dripping out of its conventional constraints through any and every available
crack or gap. The religious experience of Phillip K Dick, was really intense. I've heard a few people talk about his experience before, but had never realized
that it was centered on Christianity. I also really enjoyed some of the
underground stories and art styles in the Mothers Oats Comix. The pinnacle of
this particular reading experience was listening to In-a-gadda-da-vida, while
flipping through “The Dope Dealer”. I also really appreciated the diversity of
style and storytelling, in “Gay Comix”. It was pretty awesome hearing about
different things people had experienced, and seeing the individual ways they wrote
about and expressed those experiences.
Barefoot Gen was a really heavy way to begin this class. The perspective was both tragic and very humbling. It hurt to watch, but I’m glad that I was exposed to it. Even though the medium of animation doesn’t typically handle heavier topics like that, I think that the story accomplished what it set off to achieve, and was probably able to convey the story in a more palatable way than a live action version would be able to. I’ve always appreciated Manga, (my gateway to the world of manga being through FLCL) but I think its safe to say that my appreciation has been greatly increased, at times forcibly so, since my time studying at Ringling. Building on what Scott McCloud wrote in understanding comics, I think its ability to be so expressive through various levels of magnification and representation makes it an extremely powerful style, and one that is extremely adaptable, handling both serious and entertaining topics alike.
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