American Splendor: Notes Toward A Post-Dissertation Paper I Will Some Day Write
I just finished watching American Splendor on HBO. I was struck by how many of the issues I want to examine in my dissertation are touched upon by the movie and the comic book. There’s a wonderful scene where he wrestles (internally) with the other people with his same name who appear in the phonebook and in an obituary. He’s actively reading himself into all his surroundings, rather arbitrarily, as if out of habit, and then begins reporting this reading through his comic books (which reminds me of the blogging phenomenon). The movie was very autobiographical fiction, mixing the real with the actors and with the comic, which itself mixes in the real parts of his life in comic book form. There is a doubling and something more going on here that I cannot quite get at here and now, but once I am through the current project with my dissertation, I can foresee a paper discussing this movie and these issues. If you’ve not seen it, rent, borrow, or buy it. It is an interesting and well-made film.
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July 24th, 2008 at 9:19 am
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