Contemporary Lit: Asterios Polyp

This week I re-read Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli. I read the Asterios Polyp for the first time almost by accident--I was waiting for someone in a library and grabbed it to pass the time, and was very surprised at what a great work it is. I enjoyed re-reading it with a more analytical mindset.

One thing I found unique about Asterios Polyp is how well Mazzucchelli visually shows the psyche of characters. When characters fight, they begin to become more visually different and more in their own worlds of thinking the less they are in tune with each other. Without the narrator expressly telling us, we understand how the characters are feeling in relation to one another. This way, the writing and art can work together to keep us very engaged because we are not being told the same thing twice--we're learning something new from both the writing and the art. Showing the raw lines of the characters helped nail down the existentialist nature of the comic as well--people are visually reduced to the simplest core of who they are.

I also really enjoyed how Mazzuccheli also uses visuals to show changes to those character relationships over time. One of my favorite moments in the story was when Hana and Asterios are reconnecting after being apart, and the tails of their text bubbles wind together instead of one stacking on top of the other, as it did earlier in the story. This really brought together the self-discovery angle of the book for me.

One thing I was a bit worried about when reading Asterios Polyp was that, given that Asterios is the one needing to go on the journey, Mazzuccheli might end up skewing the book too much in favor of the organic mindset that Hana represents, instead of ending in a balance. I think that showing at the end of the story how Hana made her art stronger with geometry helped keep the story from becoming too biased.

This was one of my favorite comics we have read this semester, and I am very glad I had a chance to re-read it--Asterios Polyp is definitely a comic whose depth merits more than one trip through.

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