Thursday, April 26, 2018

Two Sides of the Same Coin

Two completely different books, two opposing sides of a conflict, two starkly contrasting artistic styles - both Americans writing about the Israeli-Palestinian relations, both appropriate. Sarah Glidden’s reflective memoir, How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less, describes her Birthright trip to Israel and, throughout it, her difficulty in understanding and taking a stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. In Palestine, Joe Sacco recounts a collection of stories from Palestinians detailing their problematic encounters with the Israelis living in Palestine. Even though they are referring to the same conflict, their different approaches and representations of the conflict are reflected through their respective art styles, which are both fitting and complementary to their narratives.

Glidden’s How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less is organized neatly and painted with soft watercolors, giving the impression of a gentle memory. Sacco’s Palestine opts for unsettling, even chaotic, structure and characters in black and white. These two styles could not be more different, or more fitting. Glidden is reflecting on the past of her trip to Israel; Sacco is in the present, illustrating the stories with all the emotions and thoughts that come with it in the moment.

Throughout Glidden’s comic, the light hues of color are contained within the organized rectangular panels. Open How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less to almost any page and you will find three neat rows of panels painted with watercolors and evenly-spaced gutters. There are no breaks in style except for the chapter title pages, which are full-page bleeds of maps. The soft watercolor paints give the impression of a memory, which these are. The organization alludes to reflection, that Glidden spent time thinking about her trip and considering what she learned from it. Glidden’s art style invokes a tranquility with soft watercolors, fitting for her overall yearn for peace between the two groups.

Sacco’s Palestine lacks the structure and organization of Glidden’s comic, depicting harsh pictures in black and white. He rarely uses borders; he fills each page to capacity with pictures and/or words. His characters sport unproportional lips and features in a way that unsettles the reader, matching the unsettling nature of the stories he is recounting. He scatters word boxes precariously around the pictures, slanting at different angles -- page 72 of the comic is a great example of his creative use of word boxes, with the boxes following Sacco’s path as he walks through the scene. This apparent disorganization coupled with the fragments of sentences invokes a sense of a stream of consciousness. Page 17 shows a juxtaposition of thoughts and words integral to having the reader experience the events described to Sacco as the experiences were described to him.

They are both outsiders to the conflict; neither of them live in Israel or Palestine and neither are directly affected by the conflict of the two countries. Glidden’s softer artistic style is more fitting given the time separating her and her time in Israel. Throughout Glidden’s trip to Israel described in her comic, her previously strong opinion on the conflict is disturbed and she realizes there is no clear solution to the conflict. While her soft organized style may appear to contradict the inner turmoil she felt during the trip, she has had years to reflect on her trip by the time she created How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less. There is no time separating Sacco and his stay in Palestine in his comic. Sacco is in Palestine, living with them through their experiences with the Israeli as they recount the events to him. He is staying true to their stories, including the same rush of emotion and jumble of thoughts as felt in the moment.

Both Glidden and Sacco are putting what they know into their respective graphic novel. Glidden embarks on her Birthright trip already with an opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian relations which she is prepared to defend, even though on pages 117-119, Glidden is talking to one of the Israeli boys about the conflict and he makes a point that shakes the foundations of her beliefs. The comic itself, however, is merely Glidden, years later, sharing her thoughts and experiences from her trip. Sacco, on the other hand, is more in the moment, retelling the chaotic stories of these Palestinians as he hears them, emotions and thoughts and all scattered across the page.

1 comment:

Michael Hancock said...

Your post has the benefit of considering both Glidden and Sacco side by side, and contrasting their approaches to the same conflict helps to identify distinctive characteristics of both. I wonder if you might do more to sum up Sacco's take on the conflict. If Glidden suggests that the conflict has no easy solution (and you might indicate why), what is Sacco's perspective from over a decade earlier?