Term Paper on "Formal Characteristics of Asterios Polyp"

Term Paper 13 pages (3510 words) Sources: 2

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Asterios Polyp

A variety of literary and audiovisual communication vehicles offer writers, photographers and videographers the ability to express themselves and entertain and/or inform their readers and viewers. The graphic novel is one of the more recent forms of communication that combines text, graphics and color to develop a storyline similar to a traditional novel with a beginning, middle and an ending moral or culminating underlying principle. In many respects, graphic novelists have greater thematic capability than a novelist, because they can utilize the color and graphics as added elements of expression. In Asterios Polyp, David Mazzucchelli adroitly takes advantage of the combination of text, color and art to convey the protagonist's "coming of age," although later in life at the middle age of 50.

In most people, a time comes when they are no longer children but adults, which is considered "growing up" or "coming of age." In normal circumstances, the adults recognize their greater responsibilities and know that they are now assuming care for others instead of having others care for them. Hopefully, the narcissism that often accompanies adolescence and young adulthood disappears and the adult is able to form meaningful give-and-take relationships with others. This coming-of-age transition occurs at different times in everyone, since no two individuals are alike. Some children gradually reach this time and have a better understanding of the world around them. Others are rudely transposed into this adulthood arena through trauma or a tragedy, which affects them so greatly that they are totally changed. Asterios' transformation comes from one of these major life traumas.

The basic story, which took Mazzucchelli a decade to complete, consists of Asterios Polyp, a pompous, egocentric, condescending, scholarly academic who is known for his "paper architect" -- none of his designs have been built. He is subconsciously dealing with the fact that his twin was stillborn and the reason why he, not his brother, was saved. It is this twin who is narrates the story and speaks of the concept of the solitude of self-perception and the loneliness caused by the distinction between the way each person sees him or herself vs. The actual way that person is perceived by the world, which always remains partially unknown. This separation had its beginning many years before when Asterios' father came to the United States and "an exasperated Ellis Island official had cut the family name in half." It would have been Polyphemus, as in the one-eyed Cyclops.

Similarly, Asterios is unidimensional, not having emotional depth and being able to see through the eyes of anyone else. His relationships with women are one-sided and meaningless. Asterios is shown seated on an Ionic pedestal. As he floats in space and overlooks a Greek sculpture, the caption reads, "He taught because he loved the intellectual environment." This is followed by a series of graphics highlighting this admired professor's series of co-ed victories, described by a different female student in each adjacent panel saying, "Here's your coffee, professor." These are indicative of Asterios's life, one meaningless experience after another, which does not end even with his marriage.

Mazzucchelli also draws Asterios in a unidimensional and reserved fashion. This character has a perfectly round skull, but is nearly always drawn in profile, rarely facing the reader. This front face looks foward just occurs a couple of times, despite the over one thousand panels. and, when he does face forward, it is only at a three-quarter pose. Asterios' physical being, as his personality, is someone who continually looks either left or right, and his half-circle head never changes, no matter from what angle seen. Mazzucchelli uses this circle geometric form, because Asterios is an architect whose life is founded on applying rigid shapes as a definition of the environment around him. In addition, though Asterios goes through a transformation by the graphic novel's end, he never completely lets go of his intellectual side that is physically characterized by his round cranium. When utilizing this half-circle for the head and nose as seen from the side in profile, Asterios continues to be more aloof and less open and friendly. Instead of directing his words to those around him, including the reader and other characters in the book, he demonstrates his distance. At the same time, Hana is almost always facing forward.

The book begins with Asterios' life-changing tragedy. His wife, Hana, has left him, and his home is struck by lightning and burned to the ground. As he escapes from his apartment, he takes those things that apparently mean the most to him on a personal level: His childhood watch, his father's lighter, and a Swiss Army knife found by Hana. Traumatized, or at least suffering some form of shock, he buys a one-way ticket to wherever his money brings him to the middle of nowhere to rediscover his life. In the little town of Apogee, he becomes the assistant and friend of the auto mechanic Stiff Major, his wife, Ursula, who is able to see the many sides of life, and a revolutionary wantabe country-punk band called the Radniks. For the first time, he actually has his feet on the ground and dealing with the real, rather than the scholarly world.

Separation and the search for completion or duality is one of the main themes that Mazzucchelli uses to portray Asterios' changing views on life. Because of his dilemma of being a saved twin, Asterios does not feel like a whole being. In one of his lectures, for example, Asterios talks about the Apollonian and Dionysian Architecture, which refers to the Greek Apollo and Dionysus, the sons of Zeus. Apollo is the god of the sun, lightness, music, and poetry and Dionysus is the god of wine, ecstasy, and intoxication. Nietzsche uses the terms Apollonian and Dionysian in the Birth of Tragedy to symbolize the two central principles in Greek culture. Nietzsche believed that both forces were present in Greek tragedy, and that the true tragedy could only be produced by the tension between them. The Apollonian corresponds to Schopenhauer's principium individuationis, or "principle of individuation." All things that are part of a person's unique individuality are Apollonian in character, as are all structural forms, which define or individualize, and structured rational thought. The Dionysian corresponds to Schopenhauer's Will, and is directly the opposite of Apollonian. Drunkenness and madness, which are Dionysian, break individual character; individuality is given up as the person is submerged into the greater whole. Music is a Dionysian art, since it lends itself to a person's instinctive emotions, not the rational, reasoning mind.

This concept of duality, or lack of it, and self-concept is also interwoven with the relationship of Asterios and Hana -- a true example of "opposites attract." Through his work and teaching, Asterios sees things as structured and functional, and "anything not functional becomes decorative." His thoughts and designs are symmetrical, precise and meager -- yet never constructed because funding has been withdrawn. He sees his life as perfect as his drawings on paper, and goes from unintentionally hurting one woman to another through his self-absorption and feelings of perfection. Even time continues going from one period to another, flashing back and forth, from present/past and back again, the same with the city and countryside, along with the changing colors of blue, red, and yellow.

To the contrary, Hana is the abstract artist who works on unstructured sculptures in the middle of a cluttered studio. Her humility and lack of self-confidence does not allow her to personally gain from the many awards she has received from her artistic creations, which are all for decoration and lack of function. The design elements that are used by Mzzucchelli make Hana into a soft and out of focus and emotionally red character, who can see the whole and wholeness of life. In one scene, she asks, "Wait -- So…Eve was a clone of Adam?" If she were made from his rib," Asterios answers, "She would have the exact DNA." "Which is why they're…" "Twins."

The duality even exists on the cover before opening the book. Here, a suited, professorial snooty looking Asterios looks left, toward the spine and away from the reader. On the back, a more plainclothes Asterios, as when he is in Apogee, looks right, mirroring himself, or pretending to be his twin. The colors over the title of the reds and blues highlight Asterios' first years in academia and his troublesome years of marriage with Hana, while a band of yellow on the spine and larger one on the back, bring the future into the present to warm the cooler colors. Similarly, the sharp geometrical triangles, rectangles and squares on the title are indicative of the years as a paper architect, while the rounded title on the spine lend credence to Hana's world and what Asterios will become. Throughout the book, then, there is a continual back-and-forth about opposites attracting and interacting and whether dualities and symmetry are a fabrication of human innovation, or instead the objective order… READ MORE

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