David Mazzucchelli’s comic, Asterios Polyp, has brought so interesting points about life and how reality works, or appears to work. Many people don’t understand the amount of possibilities there are and how much control we actually have over them. We can see, on a micro scale, how the smallest actions may alter or influence someone else’s.
Asterios is in a weird position were he is a twin but the other had died at birth. This plays a role throughout his life, making him question his purpose and environment. Why was he the one to survive? Is his brother’s spirit growing up with him and following him everywhere? It is interesting to see the portrayal of his brother as an invisible man that tends to do the same things as him. Throughout the story there are a lot of different question about the ways to perceive a given situation. We are not necessarily give the answers but we see how a small choice can make a difference down the road.
Asterios eventually married a women named Hana. Their lives had crossed paths do to their influences. She was a shy girl that was a brilliant student but her family gave her no attention for accomplishments because her brother was more important. We see how simple actions can play a long term effect on someones life. Being the shy girl she was insecure and then Asterios was the first person to speak to her.
After kicking it off and eventually getting married we see the turning points in their relationship. Asterios puts her back into the role she’s always been used to of not being important. We see how he puts her down by always being right. This, of course, makes her feel dumb like she did when she was younger. Learning about the three elements to a relationship, it’s obvious how their relationship ended. He slowly stopped respecting her by talking over and knowing everything. This lead to him not trusting her as she was trying to make a career with Willy, who I would say is not entirely trustworthy based on the things he says to her. Lastly, with those elements out of the way there is no room for love.
I enjoyed the ending where we see Asterios make his way back to her. We see the things that have changed between them and it seems that they really missed each other. Then the final note was of them coincidentally talking about Resting In Piece as they get closer to each other, clearly still in love. Then they are able to die together from the random meteor that was mentioned earlier. It was one of those romantic deaths because they finally made it back to each other before death so they’ll live together in Heaven.
The art of this comic has a large variety of symbolism and technique. There are plays on color and line quality, like seeing Hana turn read and shaded as she yells at Asterios, who becomes an outline. We see characters shown with different pen strokes and shading when he describes our differences and influences.
This story was very interesting in terms of the meaning behind everything. It brought up many questions and thoughts that I have had before, mainly the idea of a simple action changing the rest of ones life. “What if reality were simply an extension of the self? Wouldn't that color the way each individual experiences the world?”
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