A study of Asterios Polyp. Part 1 - Overview of the Narrative
If it were possible for me, I would begin here.
Figure 1: My copy of Asterios Polyp (with my usual transparent dust jacket).
Somewhere around January 2010, I had bought Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli. I was familiar with only one of his earlier work - Batman: Year One. In that book, Mazzucchelli had contributed only to his capacity as an illustrator. The story itself was written by Frank Miller.
After reading the book for the first time, I was speechless. I understood that it was a seminal piece of work . Along with that, I also understood that I did not get the nuances of the story and it would take me multiple readings to fully comprehend everything. So, here I am, three and half years later, writing a treatise on one of the greatest 21st century graphic novels.
In this six part series, I will touch upon various aspects of the book. There may be elements that I have not fully grasped. Maybe I have overlooked them. Maybe I do not have the exposure or knowledge of a certain background to fully understand the depth of an allegory. I such a case I would ask the reader to let me know.
Figure 2: Asterios Polypâs journey begins on his 50th birthday.
Asterios is an architect, a paper architect, one whose theoretical knowledge surpasses hid ability to actually design any building. As a result all his ideas have been materialised only on paper and not via steel, concrete and mortar. Born to an immigrant Greek father and presumably an Italian mother, he grew up with voracious curiosity - something that shaped his scholarly pursuits and his outlook of the world in general.
This book is about the architectâs coming-of-age story at 50 years of age! On his 50th birthday, his possessions are destroyed by a fire caused by a lightning strike. With near-to-nothing left with his, he embarks on a physical and metaphorical journey in the fashion of a classic bildungsroman novel to lose everything and find himself and his place in the grand scheme of things.
The Narrative and its Organisation.
The story itself is told using three different narrative devices.
The first one is very straightforward. Told in a third person view, it focuses on the physical journey itself. This part of the narrative spans the readerâs present time frame.
The second one is a clever literary device invented by Mazzucchelli. He introduces Asteriosâ twin brother Ignazio. Unlike conventional depiction of twins in literature, Ignazio was never born. Asterios feels guilty of the fact that he might be the one who didnât allow Ignazio to live in the womb.Since he doesnât exist, he feels that he is entitled to ask strange questions.
The final narrative device is Asteriosâ memories - one that recounts his life events in the form of flashbacks. However, we soon get to know that he has lost his ability to separate realism and surrealism. Ignazio himself states, âThe more something is recalled, the more the brain has chance to refine the original experience, because every memory is a recreation, not a playback.â
Figure 3: Transmutation of memory.
It is through these strange narratives that we come to know about Hana - the catalyst of the story and her influence on Asterios. From the banal to profound and from the mundane to the extraordinary, everything about her is equally weighted inside Asteriosâ head. Her memories amidst her physical absence helps Asterios discover himself. Along his journey he encounters quite a few other characters that shape his thoughts including an ex-convict, the Major family, members of the band âThe Radniksâ, a stargazer called Spotty and Ignazio himself! In their own ways they help Asterios strip himself off his rigid dualist mentality.
The book itself is broken down into twenty-two chapters. The chapter headings are nothing more than images on the recto page with the verso left blank. For the sake of this treatise, I have assigned each of them names. I have stuck to Seth T. Hahneâs nomenclature wherever possible, except for a few where I had a different interpretation of the chapter itself.
Figure 4: The chapters and the names I have assigned for easy identification.
In the next post, I will discuss about the recurrent themes, the placement of themes and the choice of nomenclature.
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