{"id":740,"date":"2009-04-27T20:29:47","date_gmt":"2009-04-28T01:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/?p=740"},"modified":"2009-04-27T20:29:47","modified_gmt":"2009-04-28T01:29:47","slug":"will-the-real-spiegelman-please-stand-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/?p=740","title":{"rendered":"Will the real Spiegelman please stand up?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maybe it is because I have been reading Baudrillard and others discuss signs and signifiers for my final paper, but I couldn’t help but notice the ever-changing way that Spiegelman represents himself in In the Shadow of No Towers<\/em>. \u00a0A great example of this self-representation is on page two. \u00a0At the top of the page there is a\u00a0frazzled, red-eyed\u00a0Spiegelman with an eagle\/albatross around this neck. \u00a0In the next frame, there is a little more life-like drawing of he and his wife as they hear the plane hitting the north tower. \u00a0 From there, the husband and wife duo changed into a what appears to be an homage to an older cartoon, two boys in jackets and ruffled shirts. \u00a0The catch is that each have a WTC tower blossoming from his head. In another strip on the same page just left of center, there is a black and white cartoon of Spiegelman looking into a mirror. All the reader has is a profile, but a fairly realistic profile at that. \u00a0The last frame of the four-frame cartoon is Speigelman looking into the mirror, but instead of the human, the reader sees a mouse. \u00a0(Presumably a reference to his previous graphic novel Maus<\/em> in which he depicted the Jews as mice and the Germans as cats.) \u00a0The caption in this last frame is “issues of self-representation have left me slack-jawed.” \u00a0Finally, there is a sleeping Spiegelman on his drawing board with a human body, but with the head of a sleeping mouse. \u00a0<\/p>\n

All of these representations have left me slack-jawed too. \u00a0Certainly Speigelman is aware of his changing self-representations and calls attention to with with the aforementioned quote. \u00a0However, is the reader supposed to take each sign or representation as a different side of Spiegelman?\u00a0A different response to an element of the tragedy?\u00a0A different emotion? \u00a0I tried following the last idea throughout the novel. \u00a0Does the stylistic rendering of one Spiegelman that portrays a particular emotion reoccur when the same emotion resurfaces later in the book? \u00a0Here was how I went about it. \u00a0<\/p>\n

1)Frazzled, red-eyed. \u00a0Initial emotion: panic. \u00a0Appears on page 2, 7, 8, 9, and 10.<\/p>\n

2) \u00a0Life-like husband and wife. \u00a0Initial emotion: stunned. Appears on page 2, 3, and 4.<\/p>\n

3) \u00a0Old-fashioned boys with towers on their heads. \u00a0Initial emotion: panic. Appears on page 2, 4, 5, and sort of on 10.<\/p>\n

4) \u00a0Profile–black and white–and mouse. \u00a0Initial emotion: astonishment. \u00a0Appears on page 2, 3, 9, and 10.<\/p>\n

5) Human with a head of a mouse. \u00a0Initial emotion: \u00a0reminisce?\u00a0\u00a0Appears on page 2, 3, 9, and 10.<\/p>\n

Even though these same self-representations continually resurface throughout the book, the emotions association with each style change. \u00a0So this maze has lead me no where. \u00a0That said, the same story line does seem to continue through similar representations. \u00a0For example the stunned husband and wife on page 2 go in search of their daughter \u00a0at the UN school after hearing the plane crash into the WTC on page 3. \u00a0Similarly, the mouse\/Spiegelman representation reoccurs when he is drawing connections to his parents time in Auschwitz to the horrors of the September 11th. \u00a0So which Spiegelman is the “real” representation? \u00a0Are all of these representations just simulations of Spiegelman? \u00a0Or to the reader do they become a simulacra of Spiegelman? \u00a0Is the cartoon representation more real to us as readers than the actual Spiegelman?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maybe it is because I have been reading Baudrillard and others discuss signs and signifiers for my final paper, but I couldn’t help but notice the ever-changing way that Spiegelman represents himself in In the Shadow of No Towers. \u00a0A great example of this self-representation is on page two. \u00a0At the top of the page … Continue reading Will the real Spiegelman please stand up?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-week-15-graphic-novels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=740"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":742,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions\/742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}