*** I posted this on my common place blog a few days ago by mistake**
Marbles
April 6th, 2016
Reading Marbles was not as easy as I thought it would be. When I say easy, I mean that I thought it would follow the same format as Neurocomic. There were many points in Marbles where words were going in all different directions, sometimes even in a circle. Although the book, initially was a little much for my brain to handle, I noticed that the “untraditionality” (made up word) of the way the book is formatted became more clear, and I also learned how to read it so it got less overwhelming. It was beneficial for Forney to include the medications she was on. With the picture representation it shows others how the drug made her feel.
If I had to choose which format I liked better, this or Neurocomic, I would choose Neurocomic. Marbels, although a really good graphic novel, it was just overwhelming at first. And first impressions, although they may subside, they are still present.
I totally agree with you that Marbles was really disorienting to read. But as we discussed in class, I think it is a completely appropriate way for Forney to represent her mental state. There’s something restrictive and binding about using text in a traditional form, from the way it is read to the way lines and words physically occupy the space on a page; books are (almost) always read the same way – left to right, top to bottom. If Forney had written about her manic depression in the traditional manner, it would probably not have represented her state of mind accurately or reflected how she felt to the reader. For the most part, a neurotypical reader will have difficulty understanding some of the things she describes (pg 77 for example, when her figure wordlessly moves from bed to sofa) if he has not experienced the crippling depression firsthand. Likewise, the mania she expresses in the beginning of the graphic novel would be difficult to comprehend in the uniform and repetitive manner that a text would portray it in. Her words, instead, float all over the page with no boundaries and put the reader through a fraction of the exhaustive mental exercise that Forney would have gone through during her manic highs.
Natasha,
Its interesting that you didn’t necessarily enjoy the format in Marbles because I loved it. I think the format is what kept me reading and kept me on the edge of my seat. I agree with Jay when she said that the format was an appropriate way for Forney to represent her mental state. The ups and downs of her moods, the anger, anxiety, sadness, happiness and all her other emotions were illustrated through her format. I don’t completely disagree with you that it was overwhelming, but I don’t think it would have had the same impact had it been executed a different way.