Five Blog Posts
Blog Post 1:
Parsua Bashi tells her story through a series of encounters between her present day self and several incarnation of her past self. The memoir is narrated from Switzerland in present day, however, the audience is first introduced to Bashi as she is triggered by her story when she sees herself as a young girl in her kitchen one day (Ohlsen). This is a very interesting way for the author to begin the memoir and the journey of her life as it is told as a young girl as she grows but also the audience gets the perspective as Bashi as her present self, much older. Different experiences are shared as the young girl grows, the audience gets to experience Bashi’s life obstacles, challenges and memorable moments.
-review by Becky Ohlsen
Becky Ohlsen Nov 2009. http://bookpage.com/reviews/6237-parsua-bashi-nylon-road#.VRykIvnF_ng
Annotation: Becky gives great direct examples to support her critiques against and for this graphic memoir.
Comment by Elida: the first moment I read about her being introduced as a young girl and then ongoing made it interesting to read and become curious about what her life was like. Each time I was looking forward to knowing what was going to happen next and especially about what happened to her back then. It really sort reminds you about childhood in general, it would be interesting to know how far off our childhood follows us, and I think at times it helps to bring you up as an individual. The link below is a short video that expresses childhood memories based on what life was like back then and how people are like now. Enjoy!
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hxiqRDuqqE
Blog Post 2:
Feeling Lost : “Reading Nylon Road was a disorienting experience.”(Ana S). Aside from the crammed panels throughout the memoir, there seemed to be no direction or strategy for the story, explain Ana S, in her review of the graphic novel. Ana felt it would have been beneficial for Bashi to use divisions of text only pages in addition to the panels, so that this would have made for a better reading experience. Additionally, this would have allowed more information to be included without compromising the readability of the book.
-Review by Ana S. February 20, 2012 http://www.thingsmeanalot.com/2012/02/nylon-road-by-parsua-bashi.html
Blog Post 3:
Images
“Bashi shows a phenomenal eye for detail and particularly good at illustrating facial expression. However, the aesthetic appeal of Nylon Road is somewhat spoiled by the fact that the panels are crammed full of text.” (Ana S). The excessive amount of speech balloons and narration in the same panel draws attention away from the art and make the pages look very messy and confusing.
Blog Post 1:
Parsua Bashi tells her story through a series of encounters between her present day self and several incarnation of her past self. The memoir is narrated from Switzerland in present day, however, the audience is first introduced to Bashi as she is triggered by her story when she sees herself as a young girl in her kitchen one day (Ohlsen). This is a very interesting way for the author to begin the memoir and the journey of her life as it is told as a young girl as she grows but also the audience gets the perspective as Bashi as her present self, much older. Different experiences are shared as the young girl grows, the audience gets to experience Bashi’s life obstacles, challenges and memorable moments.
-review by Becky Ohlsen
Becky Ohlsen Nov 2009. http://bookpage.com/reviews/6237-parsua-bashi-nylon-road#.VRykIvnF_ng
Annotation: Becky gives great direct examples to support her critiques against and for this graphic memoir.
Comment by Elida: the first moment I read about her being introduced as a young girl and then ongoing made it interesting to read and become curious about what her life was like. Each time I was looking forward to knowing what was going to happen next and especially about what happened to her back then. It really sort reminds you about childhood in general, it would be interesting to know how far off our childhood follows us, and I think at times it helps to bring you up as an individual. The link below is a short video that expresses childhood memories based on what life was like back then and how people are like now. Enjoy!
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hxiqRDuqqE
Blog Post 2:
Feeling Lost : “Reading Nylon Road was a disorienting experience.”(Ana S). Aside from the crammed panels throughout the memoir, there seemed to be no direction or strategy for the story, explain Ana S, in her review of the graphic novel. Ana felt it would have been beneficial for Bashi to use divisions of text only pages in addition to the panels, so that this would have made for a better reading experience. Additionally, this would have allowed more information to be included without compromising the readability of the book.
-Review by Ana S. February 20, 2012 http://www.thingsmeanalot.com/2012/02/nylon-road-by-parsua-bashi.html
Blog Post 3:
Images
“Bashi shows a phenomenal eye for detail and particularly good at illustrating facial expression. However, the aesthetic appeal of Nylon Road is somewhat spoiled by the fact that the panels are crammed full of text.” (Ana S). The excessive amount of speech balloons and narration in the same panel draws attention away from the art and make the pages look very messy and confusing.
The author may have chosen an approach such as this to transfer what her feelings were at this time. The images and panels are very busy with lots of text, almost leaving the reader feeling overwhelmed by the information and not sure how to approach the page. At this particular moment, or event, the author may have felt that way as well and is trying to display that to enable the reader to feel the same way and create more of a reader-author interaction.
Annotation: Ana S illustrated what she liked and did not like about the graphic novel. Mentioning some points that stood out for me as well, such as the cramming disorientation of the graphic novel and the panels.
Comment by Elida: I see where you are coming from when you say the writing is crammed, I find it kind of fun to read in a way as well. I see that maybe some people may become confused and loose concentration when reading it. I think it really depends on how curious of a reader you are. As you can see her chapters stop at a blank page with a centered picture then moves on to the next story line. This part especially caught my attention. The link below is examples about graphic memoirs, these are short and colorful.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjx4rnvoBeA
Comment by Meng: The Nylon Road id a graphic memoir which does not meet the common sense. It is crazy and not logical graphic, in fact, this shows the failure and messy of author’s past life experiences. But even it is messy graphic memoir, the theme of each scene have shown a clear, exaggerated facial expressions of the characters more vivid demonstration of the characters' inner change. Although the images of memoirs are not coherent like a professional storyboard, but at least when the images and text combine together, it is able to lead the reader to read and understand the story's plot. Here is a link talk about why graphic novels are more than picture perfect.
Link: http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jun/13/graphic-novels-rachel-cooke
Blog Post 4:
Color
The author does not utilize the usage of color in this particular graphic memoir. It certainly is not a typical comic- type memoir where bright, loud colors grab your attention and captivate your interest. However, the lack of color is suitable for this graphic memoir. It aids in delivering the mood, atmosphere and overall message that Bashi is trying to get across. Due to the lack of bright color, the reader may view the story as very dull, but contributing to the theme and setting of the graphic memoir, leaving the reader in a “gloomy” type of feel.
Annotation: Ana S illustrated what she liked and did not like about the graphic novel. Mentioning some points that stood out for me as well, such as the cramming disorientation of the graphic novel and the panels.
Comment by Elida: I see where you are coming from when you say the writing is crammed, I find it kind of fun to read in a way as well. I see that maybe some people may become confused and loose concentration when reading it. I think it really depends on how curious of a reader you are. As you can see her chapters stop at a blank page with a centered picture then moves on to the next story line. This part especially caught my attention. The link below is examples about graphic memoirs, these are short and colorful.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjx4rnvoBeA
Comment by Meng: The Nylon Road id a graphic memoir which does not meet the common sense. It is crazy and not logical graphic, in fact, this shows the failure and messy of author’s past life experiences. But even it is messy graphic memoir, the theme of each scene have shown a clear, exaggerated facial expressions of the characters more vivid demonstration of the characters' inner change. Although the images of memoirs are not coherent like a professional storyboard, but at least when the images and text combine together, it is able to lead the reader to read and understand the story's plot. Here is a link talk about why graphic novels are more than picture perfect.
Link: http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jun/13/graphic-novels-rachel-cooke
Blog Post 4:
Color
The author does not utilize the usage of color in this particular graphic memoir. It certainly is not a typical comic- type memoir where bright, loud colors grab your attention and captivate your interest. However, the lack of color is suitable for this graphic memoir. It aids in delivering the mood, atmosphere and overall message that Bashi is trying to get across. Due to the lack of bright color, the reader may view the story as very dull, but contributing to the theme and setting of the graphic memoir, leaving the reader in a “gloomy” type of feel.
Becky Ohlsen reviews the artwork of this graphic memoir, “The drawing is similarly light and fluid, not weighed down by excessive detail but effective at telegraphing ideas that would be hard to express in words. Illustrating the difficulty of moving to a country where no one speaks your language, she draws a shivering girl standing in a snowstorm, holding a tiny umbrella labeled "my knowledge of foreign languages," between a sunny gazebo labeled "Farsi" and a locked-and-guarded brick fortress labeled "Deutsch." It's funny and inventive, and you know exactly what she's getting at. Bashi's style, in other words, takes a complicated, difficult story and makes it improbably easy to relate to.” (Ohlsen).
Becky Ohlsen Nov 2009. http://bookpage.com/reviews/6237-parsua-bashi-nylon-road#.VRykIvnF_ng
Annotation: Becky gives great direct examples to support her critiques against and for this graphic memoir.
Comment by Meng: In fact, Bashi was not only drawing is similarly light and fluid, but also she used single-tone paint the entire images of memoirs, and is biased in favor of grey tones. This is closely related to the author’s mood. This book described all from her dark past life. Therefore, the color in the images, the authors did not choose bright colors to paint, but she used red color to design the title of her memoir-“NYLON ROAD”, Red sense representative of “HOPE”, Nylon Road seems to be promising. It sparked interesting of reader to read this memoir. There is a link talk about relationship between colors and moods; we can learn how to use the right color to show our moods.
Link: http://www.ehow.com/info_7965325_color-emotions-science-projects.html
Blog Post 5:
Characterization
Bashi, introduces herself to the audience as a little girl meeting her grown self a very interesting way for the author to take the reader through the memoir as we learn more about Bashi at different ages and her experiences as she aged. This technique that Bashi uses is a slightly schizophrenic plot device of being approached in the present by various versions of herself from other points in time. This may have thrown some readers off as they may not have been sure as to where the plot was at a given time. However, I feel as though it was a very intriguing way to introduce and allow the audience to learn about the character.
Comment by Elida: I see where you are coming from especially because in one scene she leaves her friends to go to the bathroom and she is talking to someone else while she is in there. She is trying to not make it look like she is going crazy to her friends. I feel though this was the most interesting part of the graphic memoir, it made it sort of easy to read and know what to expect. The link below demonstrates facts about your sub-conscious mind.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENa7LZ8MYiA
Comment by Meng: It is very interesting video, facial expression can explain the people’s inner thoughts; Different expressions will give the audience a different effect. Such as Nylon road, Bashi used the close-up exaggerated facial expressions to depicting the characters personality in her memoir; this allows the reader to experience the true feeling of that time. This link shows that tone and mood words.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDUhDV-72S0
Becky Ohlsen Nov 2009. http://bookpage.com/reviews/6237-parsua-bashi-nylon-road#.VRykIvnF_ng
Annotation: Becky gives great direct examples to support her critiques against and for this graphic memoir.
Comment by Meng: In fact, Bashi was not only drawing is similarly light and fluid, but also she used single-tone paint the entire images of memoirs, and is biased in favor of grey tones. This is closely related to the author’s mood. This book described all from her dark past life. Therefore, the color in the images, the authors did not choose bright colors to paint, but she used red color to design the title of her memoir-“NYLON ROAD”, Red sense representative of “HOPE”, Nylon Road seems to be promising. It sparked interesting of reader to read this memoir. There is a link talk about relationship between colors and moods; we can learn how to use the right color to show our moods.
Link: http://www.ehow.com/info_7965325_color-emotions-science-projects.html
Blog Post 5:
Characterization
Bashi, introduces herself to the audience as a little girl meeting her grown self a very interesting way for the author to take the reader through the memoir as we learn more about Bashi at different ages and her experiences as she aged. This technique that Bashi uses is a slightly schizophrenic plot device of being approached in the present by various versions of herself from other points in time. This may have thrown some readers off as they may not have been sure as to where the plot was at a given time. However, I feel as though it was a very intriguing way to introduce and allow the audience to learn about the character.
Comment by Elida: I see where you are coming from especially because in one scene she leaves her friends to go to the bathroom and she is talking to someone else while she is in there. She is trying to not make it look like she is going crazy to her friends. I feel though this was the most interesting part of the graphic memoir, it made it sort of easy to read and know what to expect. The link below demonstrates facts about your sub-conscious mind.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENa7LZ8MYiA
Comment by Meng: It is very interesting video, facial expression can explain the people’s inner thoughts; Different expressions will give the audience a different effect. Such as Nylon road, Bashi used the close-up exaggerated facial expressions to depicting the characters personality in her memoir; this allows the reader to experience the true feeling of that time. This link shows that tone and mood words.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDUhDV-72S0