"Fun Home" by Alison Bechdel

It’s Saturday afternoon and you don’t feel like getting out of bed. The skies are as gray as television static. A few cloudy tears might fall from the sky and freeze the air like a meat locker. For days like these, the first thing you probably want to do is grab a blanket and a book and immerse yourself in literature. In this case, you’ll want to grab a copy of “Fun Home” by Alison Bechdel, where the greenish-gray graphic novel pages resemble the rainy mood of that day’s weather. Unlike most graphic novels, there are no superheroes with heat vision and bloodbaths that empty into the sidewalk storm drain. This is a lesbian memoir. More importantly, it’s Alison Bechdel’s personal quest for knowledge as to why her strict and secretly gay father died the way he did. She has many theories. Because he wanted to escape from homophobic cruelty, because he wanted to escape from being married to a woman, because he wanted to take his secret to the grave with him, etc. But even more intriguing to Miss Bechdel is how her dad’s sexuality influenced her own since she too is a homosexual. She was fascinated by little nuances such as having short hair, dressing like a tomboy, engaging in predominately male hobbies, and so many others. In case you don’t have enough appreciation for how hard this personal mystery solving must have been for Miss Bechdel considering her complex relationship with her father, listen to this. Since the artistic style of the comic book is more realistic than what she’s used to, she resorted to taking photographs of herself in the corresponding poses and using them as reference pictures when she did her drawing. A lesser artist would have taken the easy way out and drawn in a simpler comic book style. But to go through all of this painstaking effort to put together a graphic novel about self-discovery? That takes not only a great deal of patience, but an even greater deal of dedication. All things considered, it’s no wonder why this wonderful graphic novel received so much attention from award-givers. “Fun Home” is also required reading for a lot of college classes. I know because I took one of those classes at WWU. Congratulations, Alison Bechdel, for creating something beautiful out of the complexity of your past. That’s the mark of a true artist.

　

***MOVIE DIALOGUE OF THE DAY***

LINDSAY: You know the thing about writing? People are always trying to give you advice, but sometimes you just have to go back to your own room and do it yourself.
GEENA: Sounds like my sex life lately.

-Playtime-