Revealing Characters: Maus and Essex County

In the story of Maus, the character Vladek is a very charismatic and lively person.  His personality aids in revealing his character more in depth and at a quicker pace as the story progresses. Since the story is focused mainly on the character Vladek and his story, readers are able to learn more thoroughly about his character.  His background is almost forcefully learned by the nature of the story.  As he recollects his story of the Holocaust to his son Art, we learn about his past in depth and are given some foreground into the character he is in the present and will be in the near future.

Spiegleman's style provides lots of information within each page.  This leaves less questioning from the readers since they can understand exactly what is going on.

On the other hand, Jeff Lemire reveals the character Lester, from Essex County, very differently. Lester is a more enigmatic individual.  His character doesn't speak much when he actually does speak. This speaks volumes based on the style of Essex County.  Unlike Maus's small panels with lots of text, Lumire creates a story with large picture panels and very little dialouge within. Some pages are solely artwork. Very little information is gathered between pages. Given this style, each character is revealed very slowly.  Readers eventually learn some background on Lester, but they are still left questioning.

Computer Memory

The evolution of computer memory and memory storage devices, considerably revolutionized the way we use computers.  To think that in a span of about 20 years, we went from extremely expensive, one tons storage devices to easily affordable and compact flash drives and mp3 players, is nothing short of amazing.

I remember when the iPod first came out when I was a child. It was revolutionary and mind blowing.  To think that you would no longer have to carry around a bulky CD player (not to mention, most of them would skip if they weren't held perfectly still) and try to fit 20 of your favorite songs on one mix CD, was inconceivable to my 10 year old mind.

Devices such as these are taken for granted nowadays. A floppy disk nowadays would probably be recognized as trash and dead technology. Most computers don't even have a floppy drive anymore!  Even now as I'm glued to my iPhone and Twitter, I take for granted the revolutionary processes that allowed me to carry around such a miraculous device.

If 10 year old me knew that I would one day own an iPhone with 6,000 songs on it, plenty of fun games, and fast access to the Internet, he'd poop his pants.

Panel Transitions in Maus

In the graphic novel Maus, Art Spiegleman uses a wide range of panel transitions. As explained in Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud, there are 6 different types of panel to panel transitions commonly found in comics.

From what I have read in Maus, Spiegleman uses nearly ALL of these transitions (with the exception of Non-Sequitur).  On pages 62 and 63 alone, Spiegleman uses 4 different types of transitions. These pages are when Vladek is explaining a night when he had to go outside of his tent to pee and someone shot at him. Since the story is based around Vladek recollecting the events of his life during World War II, flashback transitions occur frequently. Page 62 starts with one of these panels, the Old Vladek, explaining an event.

This first transition is a Scene-to-Scene transition. In the next panel, Vladek recalls a conversation. Between the two panels we see an Action-to-Action transition, one that requires more closure from the reader. When Vladek is getting shot at, the Subject-to-Subject transition is seen from Vladek leaving the tent, urinating, then diving back under the tent. On the next page, after transitioning back to the Old Vladek with Scene-to-Scene again, a Moment-to-Moment transition is clearly seen in three consecutive panels with Vladek speaking to Art.

Art Spiegleman uses a wide variety of panel transitions in his novel. These help to keep the story more visually entertaining for the reader.  Since his story is based on flashback storytelling, Spiegleman almost has to use Scene-to-Scene transitions on about every other page.  Other than the frequent use of this transition, Spiegleman’s novel, Maus, uses an engaging and varied number of transitions throughout.

Social Networking: Facebook and Twitter

Facebook and Twitter are very powerful social media tools that help tremendously with connecting and networking with tons of people all over the world.  While they can sometimes (and oftentimes) become a delightful distraction from our work, overall they are the most powerful social and business networking tools available.

I use Facebook and Twitter for social reasons as well as networking and business related ventures. I find these to be an unbelievably useful facet for sharing and connection in my social life.  On the business and networking side, it is almost a necessity for my band.

Social media sites such as Myspace, Facebook and Twitter have revolutionized the way musicians connect with their fans.  Before this, world of mouth and print advertising were among the only ways to connect with fans.  You would find out about concerts this way. The only way to obtain music from bands would be directly from them or at music stores.  With the social networking sites available today, you can check out literally thousands of bands and even listen to their music before you go see them.

When I was in high school, I followed all of the bands I loved on Myspace. It was the easiest way to be informed about shows and tell other friends about shows. If you like a bands’ music, you can download it straight from their page.

On the networking aspect, My band can communicate with other bands, promoters and most importantly, fans.  By communicating through Facebook or Twitter with other bands and promoters, my band can play a lot more shows than if we were to simply communicate with people in person or on the phone.  This is where Facebook and Twitter become some of the most useful tools that we have as a band.

Without social networking tools, being a musician is an immensely difficult task.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2200880/A-THIRD-U-S-population-refrains-using-Facebook-Twitter.html

Samsung/Apple Work Conditions

Samsung and Apple’s working conditions aren’t the best in the world. There’s no getting around this.  But this doesn’t necessarily mean I would give up my iPhone for it and it doesn’t mean that we haven’t seen this before in America.

Many Americans have jobs with similar working conditions.  Standing for 12 hours a day is NOTHING for adults. That’s what most Americans in the food industry do every day.  I know I’m on my feet at least 9 straight hours most work days and I have pulled 12 hour shifts.  This is nothing to be shocked over at all. If you can’t stand up for that long, you’re a pansy.  It’s much better than seeing most Americans sitting around on their fat asses in a cubicle and contributing to an unhealthy, sedentary lifestyle.

Secondly, overtime hours being forced are workers isn’t unheard of.  This definitely isn’t fair, but it happens to American workers as well. According to an issue of Game Informer, workers of the gaming company Rockstar Games have been put through similar overtime situations numerous times. During the rushes to finish games, the workers have been forced to work up to a 100 hours in a week. This trumps the 150 hours of overtime for Samsung workers. These harsh conditions have been repeatedly reported from the Rockstar Games.

Third is the issue of underage workers, there is no dodging the subject. Child labor is wrong and illegal. I don’t want to think that any child works a 12 hour shift to make me an iPhone that I take for granted. 

Finally, on the issues of employee suicides and deaths from Samsung.  If you kill yourself because you hate your job, why can’t you just quit?  No one is forcing you to work there. There are possible extenuating circumstances and I am not educated 100% on China’s labor laws, but I’m pretty sure they have a little more of a choice in occupation.

I have mixed feelings about Samsung and Apple’s labor issues.  Americans are put through similar working conditions in the States. If workers are unhappy where they work, they can just quit. This doesn’t mean we should hinder the advancement of technology because of the working conditions everyday Americans experience.

Samsung vs Apple

Don't get me wrong from the start, I'm an Apple user through and through. I own an iMac desktop, a MacBookPro laptop and an iPhone. They create superior products and I rarely have problems with my Apple stuff.  However Apple, don't you think you went a little too far?

It’s one thing to have your patents infringed upon, and to have several phones that almost EXACTLY resemble iPhones.  That was no bueno Samsung. But to claim that Samsung has caused Apple “irreparable damage” is completely stupid.  There is no way Apple can be taking that much of a hit from the other products.  Like I mentioned before, Apple creates superior products and they also apply to those products, great ideas.  Their products always appeal to even the most inexperienced of users.  As a rule of thumb, if you’re have trouble with an Apple product, you’re probably trying too hard.

My family recently got all new phones and there happened to be a great deal on a family plan for iPhones at our local sprint store (we basically were paid to get them, but that’s getting off track.) My parents, who are in their 50s are able to learn the nuances of their phones and discover new things every day. 

They are both very technically challenged individuals to say the least, so to provide them with an extremely advanced product that they actually have no problem using, is nothing short of a miracle (and salvation from an “Apple 101” headache for me).  I guarantee I would have trouble figuring out how to use one of the Samsung phones for at least a couple days, and that would be doubled or tripled for my parents. I would have to show them how to do everything

So what should Apple really have to worry about? Yes, their phones were basically cloned by another company. I do think this is screwed up, but isn’t emulation one of the sincerest forms of flattery?  Samsung sees how well an Apple product works and used similar id eas in theirs.

They did technically infringe on copyrights and patents but Apple should also have confidence in their product.  Chances are, there are bugs and problems with the other products and they will never truly be as unique and superior as an Apple product.  All in all, it’s about time Apple realizes that their products are emulated all the time. How many tablets are on the market now with similar Apple features after Apple released their iPad? A bajillion? Yeah that’s what I thought.



http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/25/editorial-engadget-on-the-apple-vs-samsung-ruling/

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57501103-37/apple-targets-8-samsung-phones-for-sales-ban/

http://gizmodo.com/5938219/why-the-apple-v-samsung-ruling-may-not-hold-up

Received and Perceived

   The concept of the movement from what is Received by us and what is Perceived by us in Understanding Comics was very interesting. This concept helped to explain how as art moves from being photo realistic to a picture of a face that consists of two dots a line and a circle, we still perceive the image of the smiley face as a human face.  It also explains that with more detail and realism comes less imagination from the reader.  For example a detailed picture of a man doesn’t allow us to imagine it as ourselves or perceive the image as we would like to. It simply shows us a picture of a man how it is meant to be with less wiggle room for imagination.  A more ambiguous image of a stick figure however, can allow the reader to imagine the image as more than just a stick figure.  That stick figure can transform into almost any person or represent almost any person.
    While reading Maus, this concept can be applied to the artist’s choice to use animals for the characters.  The animals take on a very personified role rather than the role of actual animals.  They behave like humans instead of behaving as animals do. They wear clothing and speak with each other.  Spiegelman’s choice to use mice for the main characters is similar to the use of ambiguous stick figures.  We are able to interpret the characters as we see fit.  Mice obviously aren’t Jewish and didn’t get killed by a animal Hitler in the Holocaust.  They can’t do these things in real life but we perceive them as the humans who actually went through these parts of history.
    The openness to interpretation continues through other aspects such as setting and props in the story.  As I was reading the very Jew-y English dialect and accent spoken by Vladek, I couldn’t help but hear his voice in my head as Mel Brooks’ character voice Yogurt from Spaceballs (who speaks with a similar accent that I imagined).  Concepts such as these are just a few that make comics a very unique medium.