are you my mother a comic drama by alison bechdel

) It was one of the odder reading experiences I have had.

I really wanted to talk to her and discuss the problems with her thinking (as I understand them. For me, Bechdel’s internal drama was reproduced, not within the book, but internally I was so frustrated with the choices she was making - especially her disabling self-criticism - that I became physically tense while reading. This method intentionally empties the book of conventional drama, either heightened emotions or narrative suspense. Its non-linear structure often moves rapidly between scenes, excerpts from other writers, and personal archival materials -usually without identifying the chronology. Though it includes a few lightly comic scenes, Are You My Mother? is relentlessly serious.

Both genre terms (comedy and drama) are curious words to preface this book with. Give me the magical words or perform the soothing actions that will make me whole.” Like Eastman’s child’s picture book, Bechdel’s adult graphic novel hinges on the primal human struggle with interdependency and the psychic distress it inevitably breeds.īechdel subtitled Fun Home (her previous graphic novel) “A Family Tragicomic.” Are You My Mother?’s subtitle, “A Comic Drama,” echoes this phrase. When Bechdel poses the question “Are you my mother? she seems to be saying, “Since you are my mother, you are my creator and therefore have authority over me. The book documents a cartoonist’s struggle to banish doubt and uncertainty, hoping that an authority can deliver her from herself and from a life that comes with missing information. What makes Bechdel’s text so compelling, and at times frustrating, is that she asks questions about herself that cannot be fully answered, yet seems to believe that definitive solutions are available, perhaps in the writings of Donald Winnicott or Virginia Woolf, or in psychotherapy. Are You My Mother?’s real central question might be “Why am I the way I am and what could my mother have done to make me different, i.e., a happier and more well-adjusted person?” Eastman’s hatchling asks a profound and crucial question - one that can be easily answered, and is. In figuring herself as a child, she highlights her continued dependence on her mother, reminding us that, even when adults, we’re still our parents' children. It’s ironic (and not ironic) that the hyper-intellectual Bechdel identifies her quest with that of a deprived infant.

In it, a young bird searches for his mother, asking the title question of a number of animals and machines, until he and his mother finally reunite in their nest. Features Six Observations about Alison Bechdel’s Graphic Archive Are You My Mother?īechdel’s title alludes to a famous children’s picture book, P.

Are you my mother a comic drama by alison bechdel