01.04.10
Asterios Polyp (Either/Or and other philosophical queries)
I have been trying to hash out a review of this book on and off for about 2 weeks now, but I seem to be getting nowhere. I figure that I had better just post this or it will never get done. Here it is.
Asterios Polyp was written by David Mazzucchelli. The driving theme of the graphic novel is the Apollonian/Dionysian conflict that arises in an approach to art and its existential(sorry) implications to real life circumstances. I closely identify with the Apollonian perspective, as I observe myself disecting my compositions, defining what I like about them, scrutinizing what I dislike, and ultimately abandoning the work altogether. As the idealistic framework of the theoretical world of art becomes more and more perfect and demanding in the mind, it demands art that itself can never meet the expectations, and even if it did, despite all the measured perfections it had attained, it would miss the point of art entirely.
It seems this person is destined for the unoriginal world of theoretical art, a Paper Architect, as the character Asterios Polyp defines himself. An arrogant, pretentious, and conflicted artist, who cannot bring himself to actualize his creations, they begin to manifest themselves in his life as an almost alternate dimension shared by a twin brother whom he survived at birth. The brilliant point this brings out is the fear of making decisions, the fear of failure, the fear of imperfection, and the inability to measure up to an ideal which really has no bearing in reality, can be thought of in terms of quantum indeterminism. Almost like a particle traveling in waves of probability, the person refuses to determine his existence by decision until he is sure of its outcome. The idea of the battle between the right and left side of the brain is exemplified as certain sections of the book break down into almost dreamlike sequences of red and blue as would be seen through 3D glasses, demondtrating the nature of Asterios’ uncertainty, as his life becomes entwined with that of his identical twin brother. The book left me thinking, wondering, and even as I write this summary, erase it, rewrite it, reread it, and erase it again, wishing I could change.
Read it twice if you read it at all. It’s been a while since I read a graphic novel, but this was a great one to start back up on.
