Walking Corpses & Conscious Plants: Possibilist Ecologies in ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Bingham 132 consideration for Newton's third law of motion: when a force is exerted upon one body by another, the second body will simultaneously exert a force of equal magnitude in the opposite direction. A series of violent forces have been exerted upon the Swamp Thing and now it seems not only fitting but necessary that he counteract those forces with his own actions. Another significant aspect of the beginning of the conflict cataloged on this page is that information is dispersed by Woodrue's imaginative descriptions rather than by dialogue between the parties involved. In the gutter under panel two, “I am thinking about the old man,” below panel three, “I am thinking about the cracking of his joints as he runs,” and underneath the final panel, “I am thinking of the terror in his ancient, atrophied heart” (Saga 31). This maintains the integrity of intensity and chaos for the two directly involved in the moment while also highlighting the importance of reflection upon acts driven purely by emotion. Also, this approach seems reminiscent of Goya's work because it incorporates thoughts, monsters, rationality, and dreams (Figure 1). In an interview, Moore explained a motivation behind this method of conveying information: A lot of writers use the thought balloons to explain all their characters' pretty feeble motivations. In the middle of a fight, there's this big slab of metaphysics above their heads. You don't think when you're in a fight, apart from “AARGH! BURN! DESTROY!” You certainly don't start thinking deep and inner thoughts of Immanuel Kant or anything like that. You don't run through a sort of philosophical tract, especially when someone's trying hard to bend a steel girder 'round your head, believe me. (“Alan Moore & Gary Leach” 1983, p.12) By using Woodrue as the narrative voice in this situation, Moore is able to focus in upon particular details of a series of tumultuous actions. Though Woodrue's words are not objective in the least and are clearly fueled by his own desires, they provide a place from which readers can gauge how violence is perceived and even orchestrated by those not
Bingham 133 present to witness it transpire. Limiting the amount of text in this sequence enables readers to focus in upon the images and consider how quickly hostility can escalate. Also, by showing an individual physically outside of the immediate situation so deeply invested within it emotionally, the creators have posed questions about the basic nature of communal relations. Regardless of being physically affected by the outcome of a violent act, often times individuals will feel after effects based upon what changes that force exerts upon the surrounding environment. On the next page of the issue where Swamp Thing issues a guttural yell while in pursuit of Sunderland, the text isn't nearly as sparse. However, imagination is still a key component of the plot as well as an action demanded of the reader. McCloud states that this process is a crucial activity for existence which is capitalized upon by the comics medium; he calls it “closure” (Understanding 63). According to McCloud closure is the, “phenomenon of observing the parts but perceiving the whole” (ibid panel 1). Noting the limits of human sensory experience, McCloud notes this process must be performed repeatedly throughout all people's lives in order to make sense of their environment. People are constantly committing closure, “mentally completing that which is incomplete based on past experience” (ibid panel 2). When one uses the information garnered from the images and text contained within a comic's panel to fill the gap between it and the next which follows, he or she is committing closure. This process becomes foregrounded on page twenty-one of the issue's original publication (Saga 33) when the first four panels depict the Swamp Thing as he comes nearer to Sunderland; in the first he is shown as a tiny black figure and in each subsequent panel the background becomes more eclipsed by his body which is shown from progressively closer angles. As the focus upon
Page 1 and 2:
Walking Corpses & Conscious Plants:
Page 3 and 4:
Bingham 3 I owe an extreme debt of
Page 5 and 6:
Bingham 5 Introduction My project e
Page 7 and 8:
Bingham 7 personal growth through t
Page 9 and 10:
Bingham 9 beliefs. Seeing a possibl
Page 11 and 12:
Bingham 11 zombie exceeds death as
Page 13 and 14:
Bingham 13 the validity of singular
Page 15 and 16:
Bingham 15 Chapter I: The History o
Page 17 and 18:
Bingham 17 Swamp Thing. According t
Page 19 and 20:
Bingham 19 instructional profession
Page 21 and 22:
Bingham 21 Another artist who worke
Page 23 and 24:
Bingham 23 action into panels (Cohn
Page 25 and 26:
Bingham 25 sponsorship. He designed
Page 27 and 28:
Bingham 27 Charles Moulton. Marston
Page 29 and 30:
Bingham 29 Frederick Wertham prompt
Page 31 and 32:
Bingham 31 “graphic novel” was
Page 33 and 34:
Bingham 33 what is or isn't a graph
Page 35 and 36:
Bingham 35 Works Cited Benton, Mike
Page 37 and 38:
Bingham 37 Chapter II: Transfusion
Page 39 and 40:
Bingham 39 conflict or war. This ex
Page 41 and 42:
Bingham 41 and dismember other bodi
Page 43 and 44:
Bingham 43 bodies to pieces. (Cavar
Page 45 and 46:
Bingham 45 thus creating an affecti
Page 47 and 48:
Bingham 47 margins. Unlike the four
Page 49 and 50:
Bingham 49 implicates the role of o
Page 51 and 52:
Bingham 51 demonstrates that he is
Page 53 and 54:
Bingham 53 Amy (Figure 10 & 11). Th
Page 55 and 56:
Bingham 55 being who has done nothi
Page 57 and 58:
Bingham 57 transgressions, this ima
Page 59 and 60:
Bingham 59 Returning to the full pa
Page 61 and 62:
Bingham 61 order” (200). The prem
Page 63 and 64:
Bingham 63 possession, selling, ste
Page 65 and 66:
Bingham 65 with yourself? Not me. I
Page 67 and 68:
Bingham 67 immediate proximity of t
Page 69 and 70:
Bingham 69 experience, or the human
Page 71 and 72:
Bingham 71 sentences Thomas to hang
Page 73 and 74:
Bingham 73
Page 75 and 76:
Bingham 74 Works Cited Berger, Arth
Page 77 and 78:
Bingham 76 APPENDIX A Fig. 1. Openi
Page 79 and 80:
Bingham 78 Fig. 7. Fig. 8.
Page 81 and 82: Bingham 80 Fig. 11. Fig. 12.
Page 95 and 96: Fig. 38. Bingham 94
Page 97 and 98: Fig. 41. Bingham 96
Page 101 and 102: Bingham 101 Chapter III: Speaking o
Page 103 and 104: Bingham 103 preserved, yet not enti
Page 105 and 106: Bingham 105 increasingly more discu
Page 107 and 108: Bingham 107 Wrightson only drew the
Page 109 and 110: Bingham 109 by the inexorable progr
Page 111 and 112: Bingham 111 appeared. Though the tw
Page 113 and 114: Bingham 113 General Avery Carlton S
Page 115 and 116: Bingham 115 dismembered body which
Page 117 and 118: Bingham 117 sheltered from or not e
Page 119 and 120: Bingham 119 authority. This subtle,
Page 121 and 122: Bingham 121 the center of the page
Page 123 and 124: Bingham 123 affect. Apart from this
Page 125 and 126: Bingham 125 acts of fictional chara
Page 127 and 128: Bingham 127 resemblance, their comp
Page 129 and 130: Bingham 129 experience. The creator
Page 131: Bingham 131 justified. What follows
Page 135 and 136: Bingham 135 If we read each charact
Page 137 and 138: Bingham 137 able to issue an urgent
Page 139 and 140: 1 According to comics historian Rob
Page 141 and 142: Bingham 140 - Interview by David Ro
show all

Walking Corpses & Conscious Plants: Possibilist Ecologies in ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?