Image located at http://oc87recoverydiaries.com/marbles/.
Discussion Board #2: Marbles
Welcome to the Week Two discussion! This week, we will delve into our first work of graphic nonfiction,Ellen Forney's Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me.
In Week One, we learned the vocabulary of comics. In Week Two, we will begin to demonstrate our new vocabulary by discussing Forney's work. Before you get started, watch this video and listen to this NPR story of Forney begin interviewed about Marbles.
As you listen to the interviews and read the story, consider how Forney weaves together personal experience and what she is learning about her diagnosis to help her understand the disease, including the stories of others. Feel free to use the interviews with Forney to help explain your answers to the questions below.
Then, read Forney with McCloud's work in mind. In particular, read for:
After you have read a good chunk of the text, post your initial post to Discussion Board #2 that addresses the following questions:
If you post after reading a few pieces, please return to the discussion board and continue to post regarding these questions as you gain further insight later in the book.
Grad students: refer to Katy Waldman's piece in Slate to elaborate on your points.
Remember: point to specific pages in the book so that others can go to the book to identify what you are discussing.
In Week One, we learned the vocabulary of comics. In Week Two, we will begin to demonstrate our new vocabulary by discussing Forney's work. Before you get started, watch this video and listen to this NPR story of Forney begin interviewed about Marbles.
As you listen to the interviews and read the story, consider how Forney weaves together personal experience and what she is learning about her diagnosis to help her understand the disease, including the stories of others. Feel free to use the interviews with Forney to help explain your answers to the questions below.
Then, read Forney with McCloud's work in mind. In particular, read for:
- Level of abstraction (see McCloud Chapter 2)
- Transitions (see McCloud Chapter 3)
- Time and Space (see McCloud Chapter 4)
- Symbolic representations (see McCloud Chapter 5)
- Relationship between graphic/visuals and text (see McCloud Chapter 6)
After you have read a good chunk of the text, post your initial post to Discussion Board #2 that addresses the following questions:
- What elements from McCloud's work do you see represented in Forney's work? To what effect?
- When does Forney use frame and when does she not? How does her use of frames vs. free-space impact the story she is telling?
- Choose some pages from the text that really helped you understand Forney's diagnosis. How do the visuals and the text work together to tell a story that only the visuals or only the text alone could not fully represent?
If you post after reading a few pieces, please return to the discussion board and continue to post regarding these questions as you gain further insight later in the book.
Grad students: refer to Katy Waldman's piece in Slate to elaborate on your points.
Remember: point to specific pages in the book so that others can go to the book to identify what you are discussing.