No Funny Business, This – Spiegelman’s take on humour

Who’d have thought laughter had such scope for theorizing. “But theorize or perish”, as all foolhardy people say.

So that’s how it is with Art Spiegelman. When you reach his stage of penetration and possession of one’s art, then you try and add to the art’s longevity by adding to its understanding. When you’ve taught your dog all the tricks, then you are left with nothing but to sit and talk to it.

Before I go into the specific interest I have in something he has to say, let me first advise you to read a book of his called ‘Breakdowns’. It is now available in India, and surprisingly cheap at that (Rs 499, distributed by Penguin India) (believe me that’s cheap, and original, printed price is ₤20, or Rs 1600) (and it’s a large hardcover).

The book, trippy ride through S’s hammering, blasting, and piercing of the medium of comics, or ‘sequential art’. Reading this book is like watching a Bunuel movie, nothing is as we expect it to be. So the same frame is repeated with minor/major variations just to experience a range of reactions to essentially the same framework: different ways of seeing/saying the same thing.

But the section that is most enlightening is a graphic lecture “Cracking Jokes: A brief enquiry into various aspects of humour”. It is an enquiry into the definition and application of joke theory. And the most significant point he makes is that jokes, however refined, is a form of aggression. Do you agree?

I am swayed to, as jokes always have a punchline, do they not? Somebody gets punched. “Some buddy a gonna get-a hurt real bad.” What we have is a ‘skilful balance between aggression and affection” S slips into some Freudian sections, that are hard to accept and yet hard to accept, I will leave it at the “iski toh kat gayi” response to a joke at someone’s expense, and you fill in the blanks with Freud.

The other thing that he achieves, apart form the joke’s malignant nature, is the joke’s inherent technique that requires mastery which is invisible behind its delivery, and is yet a specialization. An art (pun not intended, but welcome). Jokes aren’t thoughtless words, casually spoken, but deliberate steps, paces, and a final jump that either crosses the bar or falls flat.

I leave you with this quote by another comics artist/theorist, Scott McCloud: "Comics is a powerful idea, but an idea that's been squandered, ignored and misunderstood for generations. No art form has lived in a smaller box than comics for the last hundred years. It's time for comics to finally grow up and find the art beneath the craft."

Battered Ol' Betty

I don’t think I can ever blame Indian stories (in movies, TV serials etc) of being overly dramatic and emotion-laden, any longer.

This reaction, or rather revelation, comes after I have read the latest of the Archie Marries Veronica series (Archie #601), which is part 2 of 6. And things are surely getting messy.

In ways this episode is taking Archie and his friends on an interesting adventure, something of an experiment where the Archie universe is being governed by rules of the real world. Time, as we know it, is actually progressing for them as it does for us.

So what we have is a group of batchmates graduating school, suitably anxious about life at work or in college, and again about life after graduating college. Jobs, career, responsibilities, shifting cities, shifting friends and the biggest whopper of all – marriage.

But with this paradigm shift is a shift towards real life dejection, pressure and bitter letdowns. So while marriage is everybody’s reason to celebrate we have obvious concern for Betty, and the whole marriage has a doomed to fail sense about it, which is not what the Archie universe usually deals with. Point to note is that Archie proposes to Veronica, not for a lifetime’s love or passion, but out of a sense of requited responsibility that he feels he must prove to himself as he gets older. And as days lead up to the big day, he is markedly blasé and almost funereal about the impending occasion.

Once the marriage is concluded he settles into life as the Lodge scion, working hard as VP of Lodge Enterprises and coming home to his palatial house and glamourous wife. Of course, before all this there is a single panel honeymoon scene, where we are outside closed doors with lots of pink hearts exploding. The most eerie Archie panel yet. After a year they are also pregnant.

Maybe everything else is just life and both the readers and characters are trying to get used to it. But where this comic has unnecessarily hit below the belt is with Betty. Betty is in New York City now, working, independent, everybody’s best friend. Yet she is demolished to a weak, withering lady in mourning who has been rejected by her white knight and is just trying her best to live up to her goody image. Please, Lord, give her some teeth and let her not pull her punches. I mean enough is enough with the receiving end of the most famous, exploitative love triangle in 20th century history. The icing on the cake is Archie’s sensitive walk with Betty where he is trying to explain her importance to him (emphasis all from the comic book):
“Betty…you were my first friend when I moved to Riverdale. We were kids.”
“I’ll never forget that day. I thought you were funny. And very cute.”
“And whenever we dated, I had the greatest time. But…but…”
“Veronica came along. I know, Archie…”
“No, Betty. When I finally grew up, I realized I loved you unlike any other girl! You were…are…to me, the sister I never had!”
““Sister”?”
And so on.

I haven’t seen a more poorly imaginative, unsatisfying, egocentric, androcentric line in a long, long time.

I hope that the rest of the 4 issues remaining in this sextet story will redeem the direction it is taking. The reason behind creating it eludes me. Is it a move to wrapping up the series, or is it a move to making it more mature for today’s more mature readers? Or is it just to boost sales? For the most contrived part of this whole exercise is that none of this is presented as actual events. The writers have worked all of this into the premise of a reading-the-future plot. These events are occurring as Archie takes a walk up (not down) memory lane. So maybe it will all end as one big joke.

Wink. Wink. Nudge. Nudge.

The Way to a Nation's Heart

Chicken With Plums is the newest work by Marjane Satrapi that I have read. She is best known for Persepolis which is in turn best known for being a movie, rather than a graphic autobiography.

If I were to try and put my finger on what aspect of Marjane Satrapi’s work is her greatest achievement, it is that she has made the most alien of cultures the most warm and inviting place. It is one of the greatest banes of our times that we are simultaneously expanding horizons while shrinking perceptions meaning we are probably as bad or worse than preceding generations when it comes to knowing neighbouring cultures.

India and Persia (or Iran, which is where she comes from and where she writes about) are joined at the hip in many ways, more than just playing Prince of Persia. Yet I feel I know so little of the country, and am guilty of holding the same stereotyped images of countries in the middle-East as anyone else. This is where Marjane Satrapi comes through with a metaphoric serving of chicken with plums for her readers.

What do I mean by that?

Have you ever eaten chicken with plums? I haven’t. But now I know that somewhere in the world there exists such a dish and that is loved by many. I also know that just as there is a chance it will not appeal to my taste buds, there is a chance that it might. The important thing is to know that some people like it, just as they like cigarettes and music, low cut dresses and celebrities, and teenage crushes and, well, you get the picture.

The idea of literature is to share. Simple. We don’t write to conceal but to reveal. And the idea of reading is to understand. We don’t read to just not let what is being said enter our brain and mind and soul. This is why it is important to read a book like this. Learn about Naseer Ali Khan and his wife and children. About Iran’s cultural revolution. And about Marjane Satrapi who is the greatest myth-busting, a-stereotypical comic book creator that I have come across.

And try chicken with plums someday. If I try it before you I will tell you how it is.