Asterios Polyp

Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli is something of a conundrum for me. It combines a multitude of my interests and provides an emotionally connecting story in a way that I not only thought was not possible, but continually surprised me. I say this in a sincere way of course; not in an amazon book review kind of way. When we discussed the book in class I took note of it, as philosophical though is constant source of inspiration for ideas in my artwork. The discussion of unique storytelling devices that were, in a way, fourth-wall breaking intrigued me as well. One of the large reasons it has always been difficult for me to invest myself in many serialized comic stories is the lack of surprise in the method of storytelling, or even the story being told. I guess part of this is tied to the fact that my thought processes have always leaned more towards the logical, the scientific, and the factual; much like Asterios. However, I also can get incredibly sentimental over small, innate things like anyone else. Because most popular storytelling archetypes rely on juxtaposition of opposities and highly polarized personalities, I find myself often completely unable to relate to a main character, who's personality is usually either in complete contrast to my own, or so overbearing that I have no desire to relate to them. Asterios Polyp presents a character his is both unlikable, and yet completely centered in his world view so it is both incredibly easy to follow his story and at times incredibly frustrating.

Even beyond the characters story arcs, the use of the medium to convey the philosophical problems presented by the characters was inventive and completely caught me by surprise. The use of style to depict the characters, the way the text boxes are often matched to the personalities of the characters themselves, the discussion of the validity of comparing opposites when shades of grey exist all represent both an incredibly studied use of the medium, and a challenging of ideals that we have come to accept within it. In fact, the discussion of the validity of opposites truly existing was one of the most interesting to me, because within the story itself Asterios is constantly confronted with characters that stand as opposite to himself. And yet within the challenge of the notion itself, a sense of respect is given to the opinions which he disagrees with. Though the character Asterios might have trouble interacting with the people he stands in contrast with, we can see that the people he might be insulting in conversation do have a valid point and in return consider Asterios' position. It reminds me a lot of Dan Clowes' style of storytelling, except instead of wanting the reader to see this ugly, sort of fucked up reality that exists within normalcy, we are presented with a critical, but respectful view of the people that are both incredibly mundane and strange. I would personally consider Asterios Polyp to be one of my favorite readings in the class, and will probably reference it a lot in my future work, as I think it is a wonderful piece of storytelling, design, concept, style, layout and many other things.