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Annotated Bibliography

Website - http://dykestowatchoutfor.com/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/AlisonBechdel/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Alison-Bechdel-32692276032/ Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/user/abechdel?feature=watch/

"Biography of Charles Addams » No Snap Judgments – StageNOTES for The Addams Family." Stagenotes. N.p., 2011. Web. 23 Feb. 2017. <http://stagenotes.net/theaddamsfamily/background-materials/biography-of-charles-addams.php>. Biography of Charles Addams, most known for the famous Addams Family series. His own influences were from his own fears, as well as stories and gossip about family scandals in town. - KS

Burkeman, Oliver. "Interview: Alison Bechdel on her graphic novel family memoir, Fun Home." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 16 Oct. 2006. Web. 23 Mar. 2017. <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/oct/16/biography.oliverburkeman>. Talks about her family’s reaction to her memoir Fun Home (not just after it was published, but during the making of it as well). - KS

Cherry, Kendra. "Can Color Really Change How You Feel and Act?" Verywell. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2017. <https://www.verywell.com/color-psychology-2795824>. A website from VeryWell.com explaining the use of colour and how it can affect the way we feel emotionally with each colour. - DS

CityofLiteratureUSA. "On the Fly: Alison Bechdel." YouTube. YouTube, 27 Dec. 2010. Web. 2 Mar. 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT-JjXe8a4I>. Q and A with On the Fly. A fairly light and pleasant interview with Bechdel. Talks about Harriet the Spy, a book about being a writer, and it’s influence on her. - KS

Collins, Sean. "Alison Bechdel on 'Fun Home''s Tony-Award Triumph." Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone, 18 June 2015. Web. 12 Feb. 2017. This source is an article that discusses Alison Bechdel’s personal connections with her memoir and its adaptation. She opens up about the role she played in adapting the book for the stage, and her opinion on the life both mediums of her story have taken on. This article was relevant to our research as it emphasized Bechdel’s reality in comparison to her works where her reality is dealt with in extraordinary circumstances with more artistic approaches in terms of the fashion that her reality is presented. Additionally, it highlighted many of the comparisons between the memoir and the stage versions of Fun Home, and how these respective works were crucial to the evolution of Bechdel’s career. - RD

"Debbie talks to Alison Bechdel." Interview. Audio blog post. Design Matters Podcast. Design Observer, 9 May 2016. Web. 14 Feb. 2017. This is from a podcast series where Millman interviews industry-leading graphic designers, activists, artists, writers, and educators. This interview shines light on the convergence of Bechdel’s personal life and her literary work. It is relevant and important to our research for this project because Bechdel discusses the importance of emotional memory. Additionally, she describes how incorporating her knowledge of literature and psychology allows her to connect with a wide range of audience members, some of whom would not be able to connect with the sole events of the memoir. - RD

Fun Home The Musical (Video recording). Dir. Sam Gold. Perf. Michael Cerveris, Judy Kuhn, Beth Malone. Theatre on Film and Tape Archive. New York Public Library Database, Dec. 2016. Web. 25 Jan. 2017. This source is the Broadway stage production filmed live for the academic and research purposes supported by the New York Public Library Performing Arts division. This recording contains the original Broadway cast and was filmed after the show’s success at the 2015 Tony Awards. This was a useful source for our research as it allowed the life of Bechdel’s stories in her memoir to come to life even further than the images in the book. It was extremely useful to witness actual humans and tangible objects live Bechdel’s circumstances as it highlighted the significance of each event. - RD

Hmhbooks0. "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel." YouTube. YouTube, 30 June 2009. Web. 23 Mar. 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MScwlAQYVuA>. A video of Bechdel taking photos of herself to create references for her drawings. - KS

MiNDTV35. "Alison Bechdel - Creating "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic"." YouTube. YouTube, 10 Mar. 2009. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cumLU3UpcGY>. Alison explaining her process of creating the images for fun home. From the first basic lay out, to her explaining and showing the ways she using herself for reference in drawings. - KS

Nisbet, Ian. "Jeanine Tesori's Music in Adaptation." Studies in Musical Theatre 8.3 (2014): n. pag. Ebsco Host. Web. 04 Feb. 2017. This source comes from a journal dedicated to studies in musical theatre. It is an academic journal, with contributors who are educators and scholars in the theatre industry. This particular article discusses the importance of composer Jeanine Tesori’s process of adapting stories into songs for the musical adaptation of Bechdel’s graphic memoir. It is an important source to our research in comparing the memoir to the stage adaptation as it provided the tools for an appropriate analysis of the music and how the music in the show serves Bechdel’s stories heightened dramatic significance and pulls the audience in further. - RD

StrandBookStore. "Alison Bechdel Talks with Katie Roiphe." YouTube. YouTube, 16 Oct. 2012. Web. 10 Mar. 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_xQdGhM_JM>. Q and A with Katie Roiphe. Talked about how Bechdel felt after publishing, the guilt and shame she had felt. Also talks about the way she thinks ie with pictures. Lots of little tidbits of information. - KS

"The Alison Bechdel Interview." Interview by Lynn Emmert. The Comics Journal. N.p., Apr. 2007. Web. 05 Feb. 2017. This interview was conducted by a journal with a graphic novel fan base following. The journal itself is quite academic in tone, and this interview stays within that realm. In this interview, Bechdel discusses the use of images to bring her memoir to life on the page. It explores details involving the style of cartoon, use of colours, and the placement and relationship of objects in the images. This source was crucial in our research in analyzing the technical aspects of the memoir, and allowing the images of the graphic memoir to support our arguments. - RD

The Edward Gorey House. "From the Macabre to the Meowvelous: 13 Facts About Artist Edward Gorey." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 31 Oct. 2014. Web. 4 Mar. 2017. <http://www.biography.com/news/edward-gorey-biography-facts>. Biography about one of her artistic influences, Edward Gorey. Known for his unsettling artwork with victorian influence, and famous for The Gashlycrumb Tinies. - KS

Williams, John. "Alison Bechdel Talks About Drawing, Writing, Family and Shame." The New York Times. The New York Times, 10 May 2012. Web. 30 Mar. 2017. <https://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/alison-bechdel-talks-about-drawing-writing-family-and-shame/?_r=0>. A Q and A with Bechdel talking mainly about her new memoir “Are You My Mother?”. This memoir is a display of her relationship with her mother, rather than her father. Some of the questions focus on influences, ie Graphic artists, as well as psychiatrists who are also writers. - KS

Wilsey, Review Sean. "The Things They Buried." The New York Times. The New York Times, 17 June 2006. Web. 29 Jan. 2017. This source is a review of the memoir published in the New York Times following the initial release of the book. The article comments on the integration of text and images in the graphic memoir, and discusses the significance of Bechdel’s choice of writing a graphic memoir as opposed to a regular memoir. The information and opinions expressed in this source were useful in our analysis and critique of the memoir itself, while also supporting our arguments regarding Bechdel’s biographical information and many of the memoir’s technical aspects. - RD

http://austinkleon.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/funhome1.jpg Image from the graphic novel Fun Home that Alison discussed in a youtube video on how she creates her images. - DS

https://nothingbutcomics.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/fun-home-separate-pursuits.jpg A panel taken from Alison’s graphic novel Fun Home of an outside look at the household. - DS

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_7qjd95IjHY/TtK1vag820I/AAAAAAAAAKs/2TmnvFAoGy4/s640/dictionary.jpg A panel taken from Alison’s graphic novel Fun Home of the sequence where Alison is looking at the word queer in the dictionary. - DS

http://68.media.tumblr.com/0c9e89c016c755c1447dcf55556e69ef/tumblr_inline_nfgs4bDpxg1qjloh9.png A panel taken from Alison’s graphic novel Fun Home from the sequence were Alison is trying to kiss her father good night. - DS

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Early Life

Alison Bechdel was born on September 10, 1960, Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, to her parents Helen and Bruce. Helen was once a budding actress, and Bruce was a writer, later high school teacher. They also had two sons after Alison. Bechdel grew up during the ‘Swinging Sixties’, a time when social taboos were loosened, like sexism, and was able to witness first-hand two key revolutionary moments, the rise of feminism and gay rights. As Bechdel grew to understand herself, she yearned for more information and gorged herself on the books at the library to find understanding and comfort from the written lives of others. 

At the age of 19, Bechdel came out as a lesbian via a written letter to her parents, her father being cool about it, her mother not so much. Helen revealed to Bechdel that Bruce slept with other men (including their beloved babysitter Roy). A few months after that, Bechdel’s father took his own life. Her relationship with her father was of great importance when she wrote Fun Home.

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Influences

Bechdel drew from her stylistic influences like Herge, the creator of the much loved character Tin-Tin, and R. Crumb, a pioneer of underground comics, and satire of contemporary American culture. Bechdel was also influenced by various collaborations from MAD magazine and Gay Comix (written by various gay and lesbian cartoonists)

Bechdel had numerous influences growing up that helped pushed her towards her chosen career path as an author and illustrator. Louise Fitzhugh who wrote “Harriet the Spy” - a story about a writer, and a girl who kept a secret diary, much like Bechdel. Edward Gorey, an illustrator, known for his unsettling pen-and-ink narrative scenes taking place commonly with Victorian settings. Charles Addams, a well-known cartoonist, famous for “The Addams Family” and the darkly humorous characters.

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Works

Fun Home (2006)

name came from nickname for the family business, running a funeral parlor

later adapted into an award-winning broadyway musical in 2015

Dykes to Watch Out For comic strip 1983-2008 

ran for 25 years

Best American Comics 2011

Are you My Mother? (2012)

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Awards + Nominations

Bechdel has received numerous awards and nominations for her literary works

Finalist for National Book Circle Critics Award

Stonewall Book Awards - Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Awards in 2007

The Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from Publishing Triangle in 2012

Guggenheim Fellowship 2012

MacArthur Fellowship in 2014

Bechdel was one of the 21 winners of a $625,000 MacArthur ‘genius’ grant for ‘changing out notions of the contemporary memoir and expanding the expressive potential of the graphic form’

The International Forum for Psychoanalytic Education Distinguished Educator Award in 2013

Lambda Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Literature in 2014

The Erikson Institute Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media in 2015

Comics Alliance listed Bechdel as one of twelve women cartoonists deserving of lifetime achievement recognition

For her outstanding contributions to the comic art form

The adaptation of Fun Home to a Broadway musical 

Won 5 Tony Awards

Including ‘best musical

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Career Low and High Points

Bechdel graduated from Oberlin College in 1981 with a studio arts and art history degree. Starting off as an artist is normally very difficult and jobs are hard to come by. Bechdel applied to many other art schools after moving to Manhattan, all of which rejected her, so she took many office jobs in the publishing industry. She started creating her comics “Dykes to Watch Out For” and submitted them to WomaNews - a feminist newspaper, in June 1983. Gradually her work implemented into other prints and soon she started gaining more attention, allowing outsiders to get a glimpse of the urban lesbian community.

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Relation to Memoir (Theme/Characters/ Plot)

Her memoir gives us a glimpse into her past and addresses the themes such as sexuality, gender roles, emotional abuse, family issues. As Bechdel states, “But mostly, it’s a book about my relationship with my father”. The memoir also seems to be like a sort of personal reflection, allowing her to recall the events and traumas in her life that shaped her to who she is today. Her personal story touches a lot of people in the LGBTQ community as well as anyone who has shared similar histories with Bechdel.

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Significance of Title

In the graphic memoir Fun Home, Alison Bechdel paints a picture of dysfunctional family life, strained relationships, suicide, mental illness, homosexuality, and ‘atypical’ gender roles. These elements come together in this memoir to lay out how one discovers themselves and their individual identity, with an emphasis placed on parental relationships and the teenage years. As these all come to life in the text and images throughout Bechdel’s book, we become aware that these aspects of her life are not in fact indicative of what a ‘fun home’ should entail.

 After reading the memoir once, the content injects itself into the title, creating an oxymoron in those two words themselves. The idea of fun absolutely can not be associated with the home Bechdel grew up in. The title “Fun Home” leads to the assumption of a light, cheerful and playful story. However, it is soon and easily realized that the title is meant to be ironic in this context as it is a play on words. The subtitle, “A Tragicomedy” lends itself to the true nature of the memoir, while also alluding to the constant themes of opposites and how they come together and play off of each other throughout the book.

 Additionally, the irony of the title is effective in drawing the reader into the series of events depicted in the memoir. This is especially true once the underlying meaning of the title becomes clear, as the reader then engages more emotionally as well. In this sense, irony is a literary device that Bechdel uses quite well, right from the title of her memoir. This is suiting to the story as well, as Bechdel alludes to literature to make comparisons to her own life, and also discusses the influence of literature on life and vice versa. A prominent aspect of the memoir is her father’s connection with literature as well, and the act of combining these elements with a title on the novel that supports all of this content provides the reader with several opportunities for analysis and inference of the characters, plot, themes, emotional narratives, and settings present in the memoir.

 Speaking of settings, the title is also an allusion to a place where Bechdel spent a significant amount of her childhood. On page 36, we learn that the family refers to their funeral home business as the ‘fun home’ for the children of the family when they were young. In the musical stage adaptation, we see Bechdel and her siblings emulating the ‘fun’ and playfulness associated with this idea of a fun home. You can watch this scene and the song “Come to the Fun Home” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEib-IUC0XM

 Finally, the idea of home is one that the title introduces and is explored throughout the memoir. The home that Bechdel grew up in with her family, as in the mansion her father tended to so meticulously, created a sense of manufactured happiness on the surface. It is not until she goes away to college and begins to discover her sexual, creative and intellectual identities that she discovers where she belongs in the world. Furthermore, the title displays the light-hearted and comic fashion of analyzing her life, which can be considered a common coping mechanism for the difficult events she experienced.

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In this link, you can find an interview with Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home, on the Design Matters series conducted by Debbie Millman. This is from a podcast series where Millman interviews industry-leading graphic designers, activists, artists, writers, and educators.

 This interview, published on May 9th, 2016, discusses both of Bechdel’s related graphic memoir works, Fun Home and Are You My Mother?. In this interview, the facts of Bechdel’s life as presented in Fun Home are emphasized. In the context of the interview, they are presented as mere facts, without the emotional or dramatic baggage the context of the memoir gives them. We are hear little anecdotes about Bechdel’s life growing up with the family funeral home (or “Fun Home”) business. She discusses her relationship with her mother before, during, and after the process of coming out as a homosexual. She opens up about herself as a romantic person and discusses the difficulties of commitment in the LGBTQ+ world.

 Most importantly, this interview shines light on the convergence of Bechdel’s personal life and her literary work. It can be argued that this convergence is obvious as Bechdel is writing memoirs about her own life events. However, there is much more about herself that she brings to her work than meets the eye at first. Bechdel discusses the importance of emotional memory; for example the feeling of a memory from childhood is directly correlated to how she felt in that moment when she experienced it as a child. She also brings up her experience in the studies of literature and psychology, and how these informed many of her choices when writing Fun Home.

 These ideas are extremely important to note as they are incorporated quite masterfully to create a very cohesive piece of literature. While remaining the narrator of the memoir, Bechdel places the focus of her recounts on the other people involved, only bringing herself into it by explaining how she felt in those moments. She incorporates her studies of literature to allow audience members who may not connect with aspects of her story something else to connect with and grasp understanding there. She uses her knowledge and background of psychology to analyze these events and forge a path to cope with them, but as discussed in the interview, she uses these ideas to do it in a way that is far from selfish or self-indulgent while maintaining the honesty of her stories. She describes this as being the main reason she has found success in the world of Life Writing.

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One main comparison between the graphic memoir Fun Home and the musical stage adaptation of the same title is quite obvious: the use of music. The composer, Jeanine Tesori is an American composer and musical arranger. Of her work, she is one of the most honoured theatrical female writers, with a Tony Award to her name for her work on Fun Home. In a stage musical, songs exist to further plot and character. They are a dramatic device and meant to drive the show forward, not exist solely for the purpose of a nice melody to listen to. When the characters reach an emotional point where speaking regular dialogue would no longer assist them in their pursuit in the scene, they sing.

The musical Fun Home uses music to give characters in the memoir more dramatic significance to the story than they received in the memoir. The focus of the memoir was on Bechdel’s father. He remains the consistent focus in the musical as well, however other characters, such as Bechdel’s mother Helen, become integral to Alison’s process of understanding her father’s actions through the lens of her own emotional memories. Helen’s perspective on the issues occurring in her family is not explored to much in the memoir. There is one moment when Alison is home from college for the holidays where Helen begins to let Alison in on her emotional state. This is a change in her behaviour for the audience. This shift is represented in the musical with the song “Days and Days”, which Helen sings to Alison.

The use of song at this moment in the show and for the character of Helen is extremely significant to the story told in Fun Home. It can be analyzed in a dramatic context, however given the fact that the song is what gives this moment its importance, a musical analysis would be more appropriate. The next post in this section will be a music analysis of this song to illustrate the significance of music in the adaptation.

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“Days and Days” Music Analysis

Below is a music analysis of the song “Days and Days” from the musical Fun Home. You can reference a PDF file of the score of the song here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx7P5kBD8k4AdVZQajlzdWlIS28/view?usp=sharing

 The analysis will begin by discussing the musical experience of the song using more common language. As the analysis gets deeper, more technical and complex terminology will be used, and you can reference a music dictionary to understand the vocabulary and points being made: https://dictionary.onmusic.org/

 While listening to this song, one repeatedly feels a fluid and lyrical sound in the music, that would contrast with a firm and pulsing sense in other sections. This back and forth between dreamy/ethereal vs. pulsing/raging/uneasy, created a tug of war not only between the rhythmic and melodic movements, but also in the mood that they create. Additionally, one would go through a series of emotions while listening to this song. There are sections where a sense of helplessness or sorrow is present, and others where there is a sense of strength and hopefulness. This song can be seen as painting in colour with shades of blue. This supports the emotional effect it has on the audience, and the idea of different sections feeling warmer than others. There was also a wave-like rocking sensation throughout the main sections. This comes from the ‘rise and fall’ action that happens in the accompaniment. In certain phrases, a build in tension and conflict within the music is sensed, which soon would resolve to very simple and bare accompaniment. For instance, in bars 48-52, there is a very large build that is marked in the music to be played ‘relentlessly’. Directly following this section, in bars 53-63, the accompaniment changes dramatically with only chords played underneath the melodic line. This example supports the aural experience of the push/pull effect that we felt throughout this piece of music.

 This particular song is quite significant to the dramatic point of the show due to the stark contrasts within its sections and in its emotional effect from listening to it. Listening to the accompaniment on its own is enough to draw a listener in due to its constant shifts in motion. The melody line added to it supports much of what is already found in the accompaniment but also clarifies the emotional state of the song by alternating between going with and going against the music underneath it.

 The song’s form is in A B B’ C B” A’ D. The breakdown of the entire song is as follows:

A (bars 1-8)

 B (bars 9-18)

 B’ (bars 19-28)

 C (bars 29-41)

 B’’ (bars 42-52)

 A’ (bars 53-63)

 D (bars 64-70)

 Section D is the segment that merits the most depth of analysis. This is the very end of the song, where all of the musical and dramatic/emotional motifs reappear before resolving on the final chord. It is in a different key from the rest of the song as it is a new and final ‘thought.’ In this section, the time signature is 12/8. In the previous section, the time signature was 4/4 and switches just as bar 64 begins. This is where the shift in pulsing and firm movement to fluid and lyrical movement occurs. This section is a continuation of the more fluid accompaniment, as indicated by the 12/8 time signature. Rhythmically, this section feels pushed beginning in bar 65. This pushed sense comes from the rhythmic shift from triplet to dotted eighth notes and the rests preceding and proceeding this phrase. This rhythmic pattern repeats in bar 56, and then shifts back to a straight rhythmic feel in bar 57. This is perceived in the rhythm due to the fact that it is all occurring in 12/8 time; the triplets move steadily and the dotted rhythms are more syncopated. In the context of this segment and this song, the syncopation is not a rhythmic playfulness, but rather a slight intonation emphasis on words that are very important to the phrase of text. It not only gives them more weight, but gives the overall phrase a more conversational feel. This is also emphasized by the Quasi Tempo marking; this section is not done exactly in the same tempo as the previous B sections as it is a final moment of confusion and then resolution all in a conversational fashion.

 Melodically, there are two returning motifs from previous B sections. In bar 64, the “days and days” refrain melody is played in the accompaniment, but is different in this section as it is not sung this time. This can be seen as dramatically symbolic for the song’s final section as Helen, the mother, has this thought once more, but has at this point has realized she must let go of the pain from those ‘days’ in order for her to teach her daughter to learn from her mistakes. This phrase has a decrescendo leading into a crescendo, which again emphasizes this moment that Helen is experiencing. The second repeating motif in this section is in bars 65 and 66. This motif is sung throughout the song in the B sections, with the repeated phrase “that’s how it happens.” Now, this motif has arrived again with the phrases “don’t you come back here” and “I didn’t raise you...”. Dramatically, we feel that this has been brought back to highlight Helen’s now decisive manner in terms of letting go of the past and not just accepting her mistakes for what they are. Additionally, this section follows the same chord progression as the previous B sections, only this time the melody and accompaniment that occurs within that framework is extremely varied from those sections. This again emphasizes the same thoughts occurring for Helen, but with a new found strength of letting go of the past and setting a better example for her daughter.

 Harmonically, the chord progression follows this pattern: Tonic, Dominant, Mediant (minor), Tonic, Tonic over Subtonic, Tonic. Starting at the tonic, this pattern has a very natural sounding progression as it moves through the Dominant and Mediant minor chords. Following that, we have the Tonic and the Tonic over Subtonic which gives way for tension which is then resolved by ending on the Tonic. This final resolution musically also indicates a resolution dramatically, as it seems as if Helen and her daughter have come to an understanding with one another as Helen lets go of her painful days of the past. This also correlates to our aural experience in the sense that the song ends on a very hopeful note. As far as articulation detail, there is not much to comment on in this section. The only accented note is at the end of bar 64, which is stressed because this may be where Helen fully decides to let those past days go. There is also a fermata on the final chord in bar 70, which draws out the final hopeful moment of the song. If it were physicalized, this could be seen as a nice big hug.

 Textually, this sections begins with quick pushed phrases. Bar 65, “Don’t you come back here,” and bar 66, “I didn’t raise you,” follow the quick and pushed rhythm. These phrases come out quickly, and as the text supports, this is because these phrases come from a place of desperation and urgency. This shifts in bar 67, “to give away your days…” where the phrase is very straightforward. This is highlighted in this fashion because it is Helen’s most important thought in terms of hammering this lesson into Alison’s head. At the end of bar 67, there is a breath mark followed by “like…” which is sung without accompaniment, and leads into the final bars where the text reads, “me.” This breath mark signifies the idea that Helen has perhaps ended her thought after saying, “Don’t you come back here, I didn’t raise you to give away your days.” The continuation of text and music indicates either Alison does not understand or Helen has not been completely honest yet, and then decides to open up and finish the thought by saying, “like me.”

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Musical Moments

While the memoir Fun Home focuses on the evolution of the relationship between Alison and her father, and how this continues to loom over the pivotal events in her life. The memoir serves as a psychoanalyzing coping mechanism in terms of how the events are presented and then how they are described as having an impact on Bechdel. All of the events are touched upon in the same fashion in the memoir and are given the same amount of weight. Therefore, they all have the same dramatic and emotional impact on the audience. This is different in the musical adaptation, where the use of song can bring a moment or an event even more dramatic significance. This is arguably more effective than the consistency of the memoir as it emphasizes which events bear more magnitude in the grand scope of Bechdel’s story. Look for the three posts in the section entitled “Ring of Keys”, “Changing My Major”, and “Telephone Wire” for specific comparison examples.

The memoir treats all of the events through the lens of Bechdel’s father, and how his relationships with everyone involved in the Fun Home story influenced the aftermath of his suicide. The same events are depicted in the musical stage adaptation, but with a focus on Alison’s self-discovery allowing the events to be understood. The memoir works by funneling the information from her father into everything else, whereas the musical funnels the information from the big picture and then narrowing it down to how this affected her father.

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One example is when child-aged Alison is at the store with her father when she sees a lesbian delivery woman come into the store and is very enthralled by her. In the memoir, this is merely another event among many, but in the stage production, it is one of the most important moments for Alison’s character as she sings the song “Ring of Keys”.

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This example is a moment when Alison fully embraces her sexuality. In the memoir, there is no one clear moment to pinpoint where Alison discovers her sexuality, let alone when she accepts herself or when she begins to love who she is for the first time. This is an effective literary device as it allows the focus of the memoir to remain on her father, with Bechdel’s own sexuality being an underlying fact throughout the series of events depicted in the book. In the stage production, the adaptation allows the audience in on an intimate moment where college-aged Alison begins to love herself and another woman, therefore embracing her sexuality. While the memoir avoids giving this moment much weight and for good reason, the stage production requires this in order to propel the events before the audience’s eyes without requiring too much analysis from them as they watch the show.

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Another difference is the moment where Alison and her father take a car ride together and go to a bar. It is their last night together before her father kills himself the next day. In the memoir, Bechdel treats looking back on this moment the same as looking back on all of the other moments in the book. The audience understands what happens and how it influences Alison in the aftermath of the tragedy that followed. In the musical production, this moment is treated with looking back on it with a sense of regret. In the song “Telephone Wire”, the narrator character of Alison steps into the world of the show and re-lives this final moment with her father. She is desperately trying to get herself to say something and stop him from killing himself next. It is made clear in the adaptation that this is a moment where Bechdel wishes she could turn back time and change something about how the events unfolded in order to save her father. This lets the audience in on the idea that for a moment, Bechdel blames herself for her father’s suicide.

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Images

Alison Bechdel put more then what most would think into illustrating ‘Fun Home’. In a video by MindTv she discussed her process for creating the graphics to this award winning memoir. To quote Bechdel about her creative process, “Words don’t illustrate the pictures. They work on a separate track”. When Bechdel was first laying out and figuring out the structure of her book she would try typing words in a word process or would sketch photos in her sketch book to get ideas and to get a basic layout. In her early stages her came across Adobe Illustrator and how she was able to write text within this drawing digital program. From this point in, she followed a series of steps to create each page and panel. First, she would create panel outlines for each chapter, a more or less storyboard for the book. Within these panels, she would write little notes to the drawings to say what look it or image will be in that panel. Before she would add in the digital image, she would sketch out the drawing on paper. Within each sketch she would add more details to it. For a majority of her drawings, she did intensive research to get it accurate. The example for this that Bechdel describes in the video is the roof top scene with the gay men.   Bechdel would use google images search to get reference photos for men from the era and other certain details in the settings. When it came to drawing her family members she would use actually family photos and sketch them out. A main reference that Alison used was she posed for the character and take photos of it and then sketch it out. Photo reference for this scene example was with her dad coming out of door way. Alison took a picture of her coming out of a door in her house. She also took images of her sitting on a counter for the guys sitting on building ledge, and look a photo of her back standing for when her brother watching fireworks. Once Alison finished the pencil details her scanned the image and from there would add details and remove mistakes, add the words and colouring.

[funhomeassignment-blog]

Colour

When it comes to colour in Alison Bechdel’s ‘Fun Home’ there is only one main colour used, Blue. Although this is only one colour, the meaning to it is strong and powerful. Blue is known as an ‘emotional’ colour, and perhaps blue intentionally used to provide the readers with an emotion while reading the memoir. Without this tint of blue, the book could be not as interesting and more ‘boring’ but with adding the hints of blue within a scene she is able to provide us with a bit of the atmosphere and feeling. Her story is an emotional rollercoaster ride as she thinks back to her past and realizes things that she had never thought of as a child.  The colour blue is a good representation of the thoughts and emotions she had experienced from her past. The lack of vibrant colours bring a feel for old photographs that represent Bechdel’s insight into her past. As well, instead of using bold, strictly black and white line work, Bechdel used gradual gradients for shading along with cross-hatching. The best way to provide the more ‘artistic’ for her graphic novel rather than most comics.  She uses different shades to provide contrast between characters and background.