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This is the class blog of ENGL 74, The Graphic Novel, taught at Amherst College by Distinguished Visiting Writer Alexander Chee, aka Koreanish, in the posts and comments. Thanks for stopping by and please feel free to join in the conversation.
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Guttersniper 
I was reading a wikipedia entry about Pyongyang, which I know is usually against the rules of scholarly research, but I happened across an intersting quote from Guy Delisle. The entry said ” Delisle does not expect to return to North Korea, writing, ‘I don’t think I would be welecome there anymore.'”
It’s interesting to speculate as to why he wouldn’t be welcome. Most likely because he provided a glimpse into a country whose very existence is sustained because of its isolation from the rest of the world’ particularly the isolation of its people.
On the Drawn & Quarterly website, there is an inside look at Delisle’s two-month stay. Delisle mentions that his book almost did not come to print because the compnay that sent Delisle to North Korea, Protcrea, required the author to sign a confidentiallity agreement as part of the contract. If the financial trouble didn’t cause the company to go under Delisle’s would’ve been “just one more North Korean secret.”
In class today there was a lot of discussion about objectivity vs. subjectivity, point of view, versus a rounded view. On the Drawn and Quarterly website, Delisle is quick to point out that he does not consider himself to be a journalist. He says, “The work I do has little to do with Journalism. The book is my point of view on a particular society. Journalists cannot have a point of view.”
I think this is a very important point to make, and one I think, that many authors of graphic novels adhere to. No matter what the subject matter,it is not the job of the author to create a well-rounded, ubiased, objective view of the world, or their world. They are not journalists.
Delisle’s Pyongyang, in my opinion, is a first-rate look into a country that relies on its status as a “hermit” nation to keep itself afloat.
The Drawn and Quarterly artilce wrote, “Rather than an expose about what life is like for North Koreans, Pyongyang is a personal account of what it is like to be one of the few foreigners in the country.”
And it is a great account– it plays it’s part beautifully.I won’t go so far as to say, It’s like I was there, but if I were to ever find myself in North Korea as an invited foreigner, at least I would know a little of what to expect.
With regard to whether this book is offensive and casually dismissive of an entire culture, or rather personality cult-ure, I’d like to say that people deal with the unknown in different ways. Some might look at the situation in North Korea and see only sadness. Some might wintess and feel anger. Others, such as Delisle, might see and cope by inseting a black sort of humor, that makes us think as it makes us laugh. The goal of the this book was not to provide, THE point of view, but A point of view.
Alright, after many pleas from the autobiographical comics from McSweeney’s and elsewhere, I am convinced that comics aren’t just mindless kids’ stuff, but rather an underappreciated art form. I clearly would not be enrolled in this course if I felt otherwise. Previously, we’ve always acknowledged comics as a form of ‘art’ – including our discussions on spatial dilemmas, McSweeney’s comparison to Guston’s painting, and so on – but what about addressing comics as literature? This IS an English course, not a Fine Arts course, so why spend so little time examining the words and the story itself?
I came across this idea on pg.102 of Pyongyang, on the bottom right hand corner fills an entire frame with just words. I was immediately thrown off by how out of place the words seemed with no images, and then I wondered since when is reading a block of text with no pictures unusual? Indeed, Pyongyang portrays some literature like elements. It presents a fairly straight forward memoir, basically linear and easier to read, and each part smoothly connects to the next. It also possesses certain physical breaks, almost forming ‘chapters,’ through methods a like full page drawing (pg. 97, pg. 113) or a complete change in scene at the start of the next page (pp.69-70). Physically, Pyongyang reads look a book, flows like a book, is bound like a book, and can even be purchased in a bookstore! It certainly has a place in the realm of literature.
However, these graphic novels portray something that literature may be unable to do. Delisle naturally relates his story to Orwell’s 1984 by reading and quoting the book frequently throughout the story. Pyongyang brings 1984 to life – a reader literally sees Orwell’s descriptions of isolation, propaganda, and manipulation of beliefs. Colors (or lack thereof) provide certain visual cues as well. The black, white, and grays only apparent in Pyongyang set the tone of the scene in ways just words can’t – a reader sees the darkness of the city, and can perhaps feel the absence of something in North Korean society through the paralleled absence of color. I’m not saying graphic novels are a superior form of storytelling, for there are many elements from literature that comics cannot portray, I’m just saying that in graphic novels there’s something more that causes me to hesitate when referring to a piece like Pyongyang a ‘book.’
At the same time, as I continue to contradict myself, I wonder if any of this really matters. One of the things I admire about graphic novels is their tendency to overstep identities. Through pictures, one is not obligated to title anything. Quite frankly, in a society so obsessed with labels, it’s a relief. The main character in Pyongyang lacks identity as well. Although most of the drawings in the story possess certain simplicity, the visual depiction of Delisle is an extreme. His face lacks any startling physical attributes, his clothes are very neutral, and a third of the time he doesn’t even have a mouth! Though meant to represent the creator, such a nondescript character causes an easier immersion into the story itself. The main character feels like he could be anyone in that position, not just one man (Delisle), and the story reincarnates itself to every viewer.
To sum up my disorganized thoughts – its kind of a book, kind of not, but I feel that graphic novels aren’t really about their identities and positions in society, which is frankly quite a relief.