Friday, October 30, 2009

Fun Home - A family Tragicomic**

By Alson Bechdel.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company 2006.

Here's another memoir/Graphic Novel. They seem to be all they make these days. I read this right after I read "Blue Pills", and it's strength compared with that book is the depth and detail it has. On the negative side, it could be a bit more whimsical and entertaining. It's overall mood is pretty grim.

The author/artist of this book is already famous for her weekly strip "Dykes to Watch Out For", which can be preachy but also kind of humorous. So there's a large portion of about sexual identity in this book. In fact one interesting part is how when she learned her father was gay, and when she came to the conclusion that she was a lesbian, there were many , well, gender reversals between her and her father. They tended to bond over these "interests" even though both were unaware of the others sexual identity at the time.

So it's basically the story of the author's relationship with her father. He turned out to be gay, as well, as is well known, as the author. But the father, who lived in the small town that he lived in his whole life, had to remain in the closet. Apparently this made him repressed and bitter. Bechdel describes him as a cold and stern father who did not seem all that interested in his children, but was interested in literature and art and of course young boys. But she does make several attempts to bond with him over her life and had some mild success. They bonded over her literature class in college. Another attempt at bonding was his attempts to dress her like a pretty girl, which gave him satisfaction, but she wasn't interested.

So what's the relation between his and her gay sexuality? Is there a cause and effect here? Gayness, we're told is something you are born with and not learned. It seems to "run" in this family. Is there a genetic disposition for the "gay" gene, or was it learned? She does mention in one scene how she was taken to a fashionable part of a big city (New York?) and is exposed to a display of "cosmeticized masculinity." Though her lesbian characteristics were deeply rooted before this event as a teenager, this event did seem to open up a world of possibility for her.


Heres the author describing her drawing technique.

and...



and...


And a reading of the book.