Is This the End of Blogs? Perhaps Not, at Least for Me

As a person that has never kept a blog before this, I found the experience to be a quite enjoyable one.  That is not what I thought at first.  i thought that I would be bored of it very quickly.  Boy was I wrong.

The experience forced me to think of topics to write about for that week.  It kept me on my toes and just forced me to dig deep.  For a while,  the topics flowed pretty well.  Then there was a trickle of thoughts.  But that was a good thing.  As I said, it forced me to dig deep into my brain and pull out what was there.

I wrote about things that I thought that I would never write about.  Well, I did and it turned out very well.  Also, more importantly, I enjoyed it throughout the process of writing.

I have thought to myself though,  "What happens after the assignment is over with.  Do I leave it here, never to be read again or updated?  Just another faceless blog that the internet has forgotten? Is that what should be done?"

Well, I have put some thought into it and I will continue the blog after the class is finished.  However, the subject might not just be comics anymore.  Yes, I will still write about comics.  I will write on things that i know like art and gaming.  Comics will still be a major part of the posts though.  If anyone wishes to still follow me they can.  I love to share my knowledge and opinions to the world.

Megillat Esther Part 2

To be honest, much of what I said about Megillat Esther last week is true for this week.  The story is still a very good one.  Lots of twists and turns for a story that is from the Bible.  It kept me completely enthralled throughout the entire reading.  Not all stories can do that to me.  Especially if it is from the Bible.  Not to say the Bible is boring.  Its just that I do not usually go and read stories out of it just for fun.  Though I should probably put it into consideration.

Moving on.  The story is the same as the first half.  Only it wraps up things really nicely. Also, the book has to be turned upside down and read right to left, almost like a manga issue.  I was so confused at this point the first time that I got to this point, but I eventually got it.  Being a reader of some mangas it just got easier for me to read.

I really do not know why the author made the book go like this, but I can make a guess.  I believe it to represent the chaos that ensued during the entire reading of the story.  It is just one more thing to add to the chaos of the interludes and the little people arguing amongst themselves during the outing of Haman.

Besides the story, I believe there should be a section of the book that gives the reference as to what some of the references are.  The family portrait would make sense to more people if that was implemented.

Still a good story.

Bible Stories in Comic Form, is it a Good Thing

I know for a lot of us, not all mind you, do not just sit down and read the Bible, or Torah or whatever your religion has as the holy book.  For some of us, it isn't exactly exciting to read.  Sure, there are some interesting stories about men being swallowed by whales or ones that teach us important lessons about truth and things like that.  But that can be boring for some of us.  On top of that, some stories can be very hard to understand due to the language that they use.

Many people prefer visuals to just reading words on paper.  Pictures can help to understand what is happening in the story for the reader.  That is where comic books come into the picture.  Comic books can help people to understand their holy book much better.

There has been at least one attempt at doing this.  The book of Genesis was made into comic form by R. Crumb.

I know that this could not work with certain religions that consider iconography to be blasphemous, so for them it would not be wise to make their book into comic form.  For the others it could possibly work.

These books could get children to start actually reading their own holy book just so they could see the original source.  It would not be tricking them into religion.  It would just be giving them an alternate means into it.  When this actually happens, if it does, we would see an influx of religion into the world as we know it.

Megillat Esther Part 1

Well, here we are again. Time to talk about what we have read again.  To reiterate what has probably been said before.  Here we go again.

Megillat Esther is by far the best comic version of a story from the Bible that I have ever read in my life.  Granted, there are not many that I have read in my life, but this is still the best that there is.  The story, that I have read so far, is not one that I am familiar with in the Bible. (I am still surprised that there is no mention of God at all.)  It is still a very good story with insight to a fake event.  It does give insight also to the Jewish holiday of Purim which I never knew existed.  It seems like a very important and fun holiday in the Jewish world.  Costumes are always fun to wear no matter where you go.

Besides the story, the art was also very impressive too.  It is the most detailed art out of all the graphic novels that we have read so far.  While reading this, the art style reminded me of an anime that I had watched.  It contained the same contrasting shadows throughout it.  Here is a link to the clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i6cajQhAok&feature=related

While reading this though, I still got very confused as to the interludes in the story.  They seemed to have no place in the story.  If they did,  i did not see them at all.  If I could get some explination, it would be greatly appreciated.

Animation Versus Real Life in Film

Throughout the entire Film Waltz with Bashir, it was all animated except for the last little bit of the movie.  Both styles give off a very different vibe when it comes to put out emotions to the audience.  They are both as different as day and night, but one could not exist without the other.  Well, they probably could, but it would just be very boring without the variety that it provides.

With animation, it makes the story seem very surreal or dreamlike to the audience.  It detaches the audience from the reality that is being showed to them.  It is like a whole other world to them.  All the blood, all the violence, all the depraved acts in it are not real and that is exactly how the audience perceives it.  If it was put into live action, it would affect the audience a lot more.

That is what happens at the end of the movie Waltz With A Bashir.  the movie shifts from being animated to real footage of the massacre.  It is almost a slap in the face to the audience in order to remind them that this actually happened.  What you just saw was the real thing.  It really wakes the audience to reality.

A slap in the face for reality.  It can be a painful experience but sometimes must be done.

If Waltz with Bashir had been done in live action for the entire movie, I believe it probably would not have had the same effect.  The detaching of reality is important to the impact that it gives in the end.

In conclusion, both forms are a valid art form.  It just depends on what you want to convey to the audience.  Think about that next time you compare animated and live action movies.

Waltz with Bashir

I think that I speak for most of the people in the class when I say that I became thoroughly depressed when I saw this movie.  Granted, I do not know much about the Lebanese war in 1982, but war is always depressing in terms of death and violence.  That is just the way of war I guess.

(I do not seem to know a lot according to these blogs,)

Anyway back on track.  Being a person that enjoys action movies, the ones with car chases and epic gun fight sequences, this movie hit me harder then any of those could.  Though not as graphic as some of those have been, this just hit me over the head and actually depressed me.  I think it is due to the fact that the story is autobiographical that made it so depressing.

The part that hit me the most were the Sabra and Shatila massacres.  It is hard to imagine that people can be capable of such cruelty to do such things.  Being that we studied the death camps not too long ago, I can see a lot of similarities between the killings.  The only difference real is that these killings happened in a few nights and not over many years.

I also got angry at this point too.  The Christian Lebanese Phalangists had no reason to slaughter those innocent people.  Sure, the group blamed the entire people, but that is not a good reason to kill hundreds or thousands of people.  There is no reason to do those things, but such is war and how it works.

Religious Identity in Jobnik

Yes I know what you are thinking.  I am just rehashing another post that I did about a week ago about the same subject, but I believe that religious identity plays a very big part of this story.  It is very important to the whole of Miriam Libicki as a character.

Throughout the graphic novel it is completely obvious that she does not conform to the traditional Jewish ways.  For one, she is not exactly shy when it comes to the subject of sex.  She seems to be very open to the fact with others.  Then again that can be said with a lot of people in this day and age.  This is defiantly very different from what many Orthodox Jewish people would do.

There is also the fact that she wears more revealing clothing then the other girls in her religious area.  Especially with low cut shirts compared to shirts that have to add lace in order to cover up more of the neck.  Defiantly quite a difference.

However, there are at least two instances where she actually does pray and goes to temple.  This would usually seem out of place with this sort of character.  However, this shows that know matter what you do, religion can still be very important to a person.

Even though she may not seem very religious in a way she is religious.  We all need something to turn to in dire times.  I guess religion is what you make of it, though we usually conform to a major one in the end.

Until next time.