I started the week a bit... inquisitive? I didn't really understand
what the theme meant when titled something like "contemporary
literature". I like to read my comics without much context, since it
helps me get into a story and experience every single thing anew.
I began reading Asterios Polyp, and my first impression was very positive. The way every other persona was depicted with a different style or rendering made it interesting as a way to enhance the different personalities and paths characters had gone in, not to mention the different font for everyone. I'm a sucker for that kind of playing with letters and the medium at hand that you can't do with regular books.
I'm a few pages in thinking, this is an interesting premise, the dead brother, the duality of things, even if sometimes it feels a bit pseudo-intellectual, I'm sure its just me.
I stopped reading halfway through the PDF, 160 pages to be exact, because I was so monumentally bored and disappointed.
Nothing has happened to keep me interested. There's only so much that the art can do to carry the comic, the writing is a heavy part of any good story, and it felt so very lacking.
The few parts of the comic that felt genuine were isolated panels. A prime example of what the entire comic was about was Asterios exclaiming "Look at me! I'm talking about penises! Haha!"
I don't feel any sort of sympathy for the protagonist. He's attention seeking in a very insufferable way. I'm aware they're trying to portray a human being with flaws, but it's hard to make me feel any sort of empathy for a man that slept with his students, taking advantage of his power dynamic, constantly interrupts and doubts Hana, installs security cameras in his own home and doesn't tell Hana until the following day, whose overall demeanor is based around the idea that he's great and infallible. I do not view him as wise, I view him as a pretentious predator with nary a redeeming quality.
I stopped reading Asterios, feeling a bit down due to how heavily I disliked it and looked it up. Overall very positive ratings so it's likely I'm wrong about my reactions only halfway through the comic. Regardless, it would be torture to pick it back up, so I went for alternative reading.
________
I sat down and read Tale of One Bad Rat, rather, the first volume. I didn't care for the art style, but it was much more interesting than Asterios Polyp.
One volume down and I was already much more intrigued.
Is the rat even real?
A second volume down and I'm feeling rejuvenated.
Helen has told off her sexually abusive father, a confrontation I've never seen in any sort of medium, ever. Sexual abusers are reported, they get jailed, or they escape. I've never experienced a person or a character spare them from the law and still give them a piece of their own mind.
I'm happy for Helen. I want to see her succeed.
Is the rat even real? Sometimes it definitely seems that way, other times it feels more like a visitor in her retelling of events.
I can't tell if I finished the comic because all PDFs, Volume 2, 3 , and 4, open up to the same PDF.
I'll have to ask during class if that's intentional.
Everything feels a bit lose, like I'm definitely missing a few volumes to resolve why she's currently roaming the streets, what is going to come of her rooming situation with the other people, and how exactly this gets wrapped up.
Now this is a good work of literature.
I began reading Asterios Polyp, and my first impression was very positive. The way every other persona was depicted with a different style or rendering made it interesting as a way to enhance the different personalities and paths characters had gone in, not to mention the different font for everyone. I'm a sucker for that kind of playing with letters and the medium at hand that you can't do with regular books.
I'm a few pages in thinking, this is an interesting premise, the dead brother, the duality of things, even if sometimes it feels a bit pseudo-intellectual, I'm sure its just me.
I stopped reading halfway through the PDF, 160 pages to be exact, because I was so monumentally bored and disappointed.
Nothing has happened to keep me interested. There's only so much that the art can do to carry the comic, the writing is a heavy part of any good story, and it felt so very lacking.
The few parts of the comic that felt genuine were isolated panels. A prime example of what the entire comic was about was Asterios exclaiming "Look at me! I'm talking about penises! Haha!"
I don't feel any sort of sympathy for the protagonist. He's attention seeking in a very insufferable way. I'm aware they're trying to portray a human being with flaws, but it's hard to make me feel any sort of empathy for a man that slept with his students, taking advantage of his power dynamic, constantly interrupts and doubts Hana, installs security cameras in his own home and doesn't tell Hana until the following day, whose overall demeanor is based around the idea that he's great and infallible. I do not view him as wise, I view him as a pretentious predator with nary a redeeming quality.
I stopped reading Asterios, feeling a bit down due to how heavily I disliked it and looked it up. Overall very positive ratings so it's likely I'm wrong about my reactions only halfway through the comic. Regardless, it would be torture to pick it back up, so I went for alternative reading.
________
I sat down and read Tale of One Bad Rat, rather, the first volume. I didn't care for the art style, but it was much more interesting than Asterios Polyp.
One volume down and I was already much more intrigued.
Is the rat even real?
A second volume down and I'm feeling rejuvenated.
Helen has told off her sexually abusive father, a confrontation I've never seen in any sort of medium, ever. Sexual abusers are reported, they get jailed, or they escape. I've never experienced a person or a character spare them from the law and still give them a piece of their own mind.
I'm happy for Helen. I want to see her succeed.
Is the rat even real? Sometimes it definitely seems that way, other times it feels more like a visitor in her retelling of events.
I can't tell if I finished the comic because all PDFs, Volume 2, 3 , and 4, open up to the same PDF.
I'll have to ask during class if that's intentional.
Everything feels a bit lose, like I'm definitely missing a few volumes to resolve why she's currently roaming the streets, what is going to come of her rooming situation with the other people, and how exactly this gets wrapped up.
Now this is a good work of literature.
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