Week 12: Fun Home
This week, I read Fun
Home by Alison Bechdel. had a vague understanding of what Fun Home was
about before I read it; A lesbian finds out that her dad is gay and then he
dies. What I did not know was that the Dad was a jerk who was emotionally
distant/physically abusive to his kids and had sex with his high-school students.
I like how she likens her family to that of the Addams Family New Yorker
cartoons and the irony was lost on her as a child, but even Gomez and Morticia
are attentive and caring to not only their kids but to each other as well… In the TV
show, anyway, not as familiar with the illustrations.
One part I
found particularly interesting was the bit about obsession-compulsion disorder.
I don’t know a whole lot about OCD, so it was fascinating to learn the
different kinds of rituals and superstitions that people with the disorder
invent for themselves. She made her own shorthand for the term “I think” and
got obsessed with it, putting it everywhere in her diary/calendar.
The book makes
me interested in Bechdel’s other work, Dykes
to Watch Out For and Are You My
Mother? She’s been doing this since the eighties and she’s almost sixty and
still making stuff, that’s bonkers. Well, I guess it’s not that crazy: if you’re
a creative, you don’t stop being creative as you grow. Also, I was curious if
she had anything to do with the Bechdel test or if it was just a coincidence,
but it turns out she (and her friend) made it up. I hope I can contribute this
much to pop culture one day in the future.
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