This looked like a great book when I first saw it, but I had no (and still have no) idea what it’s all about!!?? O.o I agree fully with Caroline’s Sunday post that the binary of visual and literary is ultimately a false one, not the least in comics, but it remains central to contemporary comics discourse, and critical approaches that do the form justice as a synthesis of word and image have yet to develop beyond pubescence. Caroline rather cavalierly accuses Mazzucchelli and his critics of missing the point by perpetuating this pernicious binary, while bluntly claiming that the book “pays disproportionate attention to one side of the binary, the “visual.” I mentioned Lyonel Feininger, Cliff Sterrett, Geo Herriman as modernists of sorts. But they were primarily commercial artists working for the newspapers. If bringing together low and high art is a sign of post-modernism that’s what they were. While the author’s language includes elaborate observations concerning the patterns and doubles in one man’s life, the illustrations effortlessly demonstrate what the prose so tortuously covers. The clean, blue lines of Asterios’s form render a man interested in neat definitions and tidy explanations, but Hana’s cross-hatched, pink portrait depict a woman concerned with contradictions and the sensitivities of feeling. The drawings make the charming insight that these qualities, though seemingly contradictory, overlap seamlessly when the two lovers meet. Their styles complement each other. Dopo la separazione, alla soglia dei cinquanta anni, la sua vita perde altri pezzi: anzi, va letteralmente in pezzi la notte in cui il suo appartamento prende fuoco e dall’incendio riesce a recuperare solo tre oggetti, un accendino, un orologio, un coltellino svizzero.

Asterios Polyp Quotes by David Mazzucchelli - Goodreads Asterios Polyp Quotes by David Mazzucchelli - Goodreads

So anyway.... what does any of the above have to do with Asterios Polyp. Well, there's barely any violence at all in this comic. Really, not much happens, but at the same time a lot of things happen. I think this is up there with some of the best serious literature I've read. Sometimes when I read things I like to imagine why the person who created it did so... so the more unique a piece of art the more I start to wonder this. Why would anyone want to make such a well crafted and carefully thought through graphic novel about an architect struggling with his preconceptions on the nature of duality? Being able to ask that question is a wonderful feeling. Asterios Polyp is a perfect marriage of words and pictures. Every drawing, color choice and panel layout is pregnant with meaning.”— Columbus Dispatch Therefore, “Asterios Polyp” is a unique, unparalleled experience of storytelling. It is a comic book that transcends the usual storytelling within the genre. Through the color scheme, the author categorizes the characters and also gives them emotional coloring. Careful choice of color helps the reader to feel the changing mood of the narrative entirely. Color rendering is one of the primary means of storytelling, making the comic so unique. Works CitedAs ever, Mazzucchelli keeps both the visual and storytelling fireworks coming…This is a work that demands to be read, re-read, analyzed, and discussed.”— Comics Bulletin Mazzucchelli experiments with numerous art styles and pushes the envelope with challenging digressions into philosophy, religion and mortality throughout Polyp’s tale. The engrossing effort culminates with a bombshell that will leave readers reeling.”— Toronto Star

Asterios Polyp Characters | GradeSaver Asterios Polyp Characters | GradeSaver

Matthias, you say in this that you do not think Asterios is an example of delayed modernism. But in the earlier essay you say “ Asterios is perhaps the most self-conscious manifestation so far of the notion […] that comics are currently experiencing a kind of delayed modernism.” Did you rethink it since the original piece? Zanimljiv je to i provokativan strip koji spaja bogatstvo tradicionalnog romana s najboljom modernom umetnošću.“ – „Boston gloub“ Questi due modi diversi di vedere il mondo, ordinato e caotico, reale e ideale, empatico e cinico si riflettono nei diversi comportamenti di Asterios e della moglie. Meet Asterios Polyp: middle-aged, meagerly successful architect and teacher, aesthete and womanizer, whose life is wholly upended when his New York City apartment goes up in flames. In a tenacious daze, he leaves the city and relocates to a small town in the American heartland. But what is this “escape” really about? E' ossessionato da una visione assolutamente dicotomica delle cose, che vengono viste sempre e comunque come distinte e in contrapposizione: marito e moglie, maschile e femminile, astratto e concreto, reale e ideale, architettura teorica verso quella creata, linea e forma, solido e liquido, presente e passato.

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Was there anything I didn’t like about this graphic novel? Hmm… yes the ending. But that would be telling. It did close the story off and added an unexpected twist to it. I just thought it was too… real life?? Conclusion In other words, I don’t believe it. Mazzucchelli however feints it like an expert. That’s what I was trying to say in my piece on AP, but it was perhaps unclear. Sorry about that. I see this as a love story, and - among many other t As the story unfolds, moving between the present and the past, we begin to understand this confounding yet fascinating character, and how he’s gotten to where he is. And isn’t. And we meet a sweet, smart, first-generation Japanese American artist with whom he had made a blissful life. But now she’s gone. Did Asterios do something to drive her away? What has happened to her? Is she even alive? All the questions will be answered, eventually.