Fun, Electrate, Autistic, Obsessive Home

1173 Words3 Pages

Although some claim developing electracy will cause a downfall in society’s current learning abilities (Carr), I feel it creates a new type of learning style, that might even give an upper hand to people we otherwise might overlook. We have to consider that every new invention comes at a cost, but that does not necessarily mean the reward will not significantly outweigh it. Alison Bechdel’s “Fun Home” has an electrate quality through, not just the images, but the writing style and using obtuse meanings within her illustrations, that seem to enable a new learning style, supported by ‘disorders’ such as autism and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). “Fun Home” uses both text and graphics to recount the author’s life. The script has many possible interpretations, but the photographs have a more specific purpose. Roland Barthes suggests interpretations of illustration in electracy have obtuse meanings, especially for the author (Ulmer 43). For example, as the Chapter 4 illustration, Bechdel uses a picture of her father (which we only find out later is him), as a child, dressed as a girl, entitling the chapter “In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower” (Bechdel 87). Though a literal analysis might involve a developing girl, possibly imitating her mother, and a figurative analysis might be the girl feels pressure in personal style based on social norms, the obtuse meaning comes from the direct feelings associated with the picture—and in this case, photograph. The meaning for Bechdel in this photo, specifically when associating it with the title of the chapter, is (among other things) the juxtaposition between a feeling of camaraderie she develops with her father by relating with similar dispositions in her adolescence, and an epiphany o... ... middle of paper ... ...rSearch). Web. 23 Mar. 2012. Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. Graphic Memoir. Carr, Nicholas. Is Google Making Us Stupid? July/August 2008. . Rauch, Scott L., M.D., et al. "Probing Striatal Function in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A PET Study of Implicit Sequence Learning." Journal of Neuropsychiatry 9.Number 4 (Fall 1997): 568-573. 23 March 2012. . Ulmer, Gregory L. Internet Invention: From Literacy to Electracy. Joseph Opiela, 2003. Educational Textbook. Watson, Julia. "Autographic Disclosures and Genealogies of Desire in Alison Bechdel's Fun Home." Biographical Research Center, 2008. 27-58. Biography 31:1.

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