Need More Love: A Graphic Novel By Aline Kominsky-Crumb @needmorelovememoir - Tumblr Blog

Structure of the Memoir

Unlike most memoirs, “Need More Love” has a broader scope of the life events of the author. The memoir starts three decades before the birth of the author, which technically transforms the book (or at least the first section) into a biography. Mainly, the book is like a collage of graphic memoirs by the author, that she has been drawing all her life, starting with a biographical section with many photos and stories of family members; and ending with a section about the author’s suggestions on well-being and happiness in life, with examples from her life.

The broader scope, as aforementioned before, might easily become a negative aspect for a memoir, but this graphic memoir’s humorous and clever visual language makes everything very easy to digest. As for the concepts and themes in the comics and the stories shared in the book, they are quite real and relatable, with characters which are very easy to fell an empathy with as they go through our every day struggles but, unlike us, bravely open and honest about what they feel and do.

The success of the story telling can be measured by how the reader feels after completing first four chapters, and I can think, I would not be very fond of taking suggestions from Aline about my life, should she not build up the feeling of confidence and trust into her story hilariously.

The aesthetic structure of the text and visuals in the book gets tiring from time to time, but as a memoir of an artist, I think the layout and the structure of the book is very good at reflecting the artist’s life full of ups and downs until later in her life.

For more on how structure work for memoirs:

https://marionroach.com/2018/01/how-to-structure-a-memoir/

#structure #honesty #scope

Theme of the Memoir

The main and recurring theme I could observe in this memoir is the transformation of a person towards a better version with each day of their lives, fueled by their acceptance of failures and honesty towards all people, including themselves. Kominsky-Crumb’s hilarious, close to the bone honesty serves as a shield around her that bounces all the oppression created by the sexist society and culture, and helps her survive a very long life full of life lessons for all. I would love to be able say “a life full of joy”, but as we can see in her memoir numerous times, there is as much tragedy as there is courage and joy in her life events.

The villain of her story, if there needs to be a villain in all stories, is “Capitalism”. Her early childhood, her parents’ struggle with money and the expectation of the society of rich Jews, the problems she experienced as a student trying to study art without getting a penny from her parents, and the challenges by sexist culture she faced in her steps to becoming a world-famous cartoon artist are all present because of “Capitalist” grinder that has been people’s lives since the day it was invented.

She is lucky to have been able to save herself from the gears of this grinder by moving away from it, to a peaceful village in France.

A nice TEDX Talk on summarizing memoirs in 6 words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8zY0oAdQrs

#theme #transformation #capitalism #survival #sexism

Social & Cultural Background Analysis

“Need more love” excels at painting a detailed picture of each era it takes place in, from the perspective of a strong woman.

First part of the book describes the years around when Kominsky-Crumb was born. 1950’s America was glamorous and everybody was seemingly happy and there was not much to stress for grown-ups. But for children, according to Aline, things were dark. No one cared about the well-being of the children, not even the law was yet established to protect them. As she states on page 14 of the memoir, children were often subject to verbal and physical abuse in those years (Kominsky-Crumb, 2007) with the purpose of “discipline”, which can easily be interpreted today as mere “abuse” (Johnson, 2018).

She defines her parents as “very pretentious and upward-striving” (Livingstone, 2018). While growing up, her Jewish family forced her to do ballet, tennis, horseback riding (Kominsky-Crumb, 2007). Those were hard times for women. Sexism was everywhere, even in her favourite cartoon strip called “Little Lulu”, where main character was a little girl that always beat boys in their game:

for more information on Little Lulu: http://comicsalliance.com/tribute-little-lulu/

She grew up in an ethnocentrically tailored, Jewish, urban neighbourhood, where her parents moved before her 4th birthday. They (her parents) were pushing their limits to meet the requirements of the society they were in, which often resulted in financial crises and long fights between them. Growing as the daughter of a very rich family, Aline’s mother Annette had very high expectations of her husband Arnie. This psychotic relationship went on until Arnie’s death while Aline was 19 (Kominsky-Crumb, The Aline Kominsky-Crumb Interview, 1990).

Readers of 1970’s were having a hard time embracing Kominsky-Crumb’s works. They often described her drawings as self-deprecating. They were expecting to see stronger women in form of superheroines, therefore struggling to accept Kominsky-Crumb’s extremely realistic depictions of women. She was not romantic enough, even for the militant feminists of the era (Livingstone, 2018).

She considers herself lucky to be young during the 60’s, where the counterculture shaped both her husband and Aline (McGillis, 2018). Still, not only 60’s, but also the 70’s, when the bohemianism, LSD trips, underground music and the hypnotic effects of the TV were high up the sky, the works of the couple were not fully supported by the public, especially by the fans of Robert Crumb (Artsy Editors, 2017).

Despite all the challenges of the society and the sexist culture, Aline Kominsky-Crumb managed to stand up, steadily for a very long time, which eventually lead her to be considered as one of the 12 women who deserve lifetime achievement recognition by the Comics Alliance[1].

References

Artsy Editors. (2017, January 14). R. Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb Air Their Dirty Laundry. Retrieved June 30, 2018, from Artsy: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-crumb-aline-kominsky-crumb-air-dirty-laundry

Johnson, S. (2018, August 2). Why did child abuse seem more commonplace & “acceptable” in the USA during the 50s & 60s? Retrieved August 4, 2018, from Quora: https://www.quora.com/Why-did-child-abuse-seem-more-commonplace-acceptable-in-the-USA-during-the-50s-60s-Many-millenials-grandparents-seem-ed-to-be-very-abusive-toward-their-children-and-or-alcoholic

Kominsky-Crumb, A. (1990, January 1). The Aline Kominsky-Crumb Interview. (P. Bagge, Interviewer) The Comics Journal.

Kominsky-Crumb, A. (2007). Need More Love. New York: MQ Publications.

Livingstone, J. (2018, May 14). Aline Kominsky-Crumb Has One Regret. Retrieved July 21, 2018, from The New Republic: https://newrepublic.com/article/148398/aline-kominsky-crumb-one-regret

McGillis, I. (2018, April 18). For comics artist Aline-Kominsky Crumb, it's not just luck of the draw. Retrieved August 2, 2018, from Montreal Gazette: https://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/local-arts/for-comics-artist-aline-kominsky-crumb-its-not-just-luck-of-the-draw

[1] http://comicsalliance.com/women-lifetime-achievement-awards/

#social #cultural #analysis #sexism #60s #70s

Interviews with Aline Kominsky Crumb

Aline Kominsky Crumb Has One Regret

https://newrepublic.com/article/148398/aline-kominsky-crumb-one-regret

Livingstone, Josephine. “Aline Kominsky-Crumb Has One Regret.” The New Republic, 14 May 2018, newrepublic.com/article/148398/aline-kominsky-crumb-one-regret.

As Long as You Stay Alive There’s Hope: An Interview with Aline Kominsky-Crumb

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/as-long-as-you-stay-alive-theres-hope-an-interview-with-aline-kominsky-crumb/#!

Oksman, Tahneer. “As Long as You Stay Alive There's Hope: An Interview with Aline Kominsky-Crumb.” Los Angeles Review of Books, 14 July 2018, lareviewofbooks.org/article/as-long-as-you-stay-alive-theres-hope-an-interview-with-aline-kominsky-crumb/#!

#Interviews #sleepingupsidedown

Historical Background

The start of the historical background of this memoir goes back to late 1920. The author talks about the rich family of her mother. After a short introduction to how her maternal grandparents were full of love in a suffocating way and how much they loved eating traditional meals with their larger family always invited to the table, in Belle Harbor, she shortly mentions how she almost knows nothing about her paternal grandparents who are from Brooklyn (Kominsky-Crumb, 2007).

Kominsky-Crumb’s father, Arnie, was a photographer for a US Army Newspaper in France during WWII, and before returning to USA upon his mother’s request, his initial plan was to stay in Paris and study photography at Sorbonne. Arnie met his future wife Annette right after returning.

Aline Ricky Goldsmith (later to be known as Aline Kominsky-Crumb) was born in 1948. Historically, America was a true icon of prosperity, filled with stress free citizens, according to the author of the memoir. Post-war Economic Boom, or more clearly Post-WWII Economic Expansion was a period of economic growth for USA, along with some other unexpected war-torn countries like Japan and West Germany (Marglin & Schor, 1992). Despite all the prosperous aspects of the era, Arnie was not able to establish a good business and make a good earning (Kominsky-Crumb, 2007). This Golden Age of Capitalism lasted for almost three decades, until the 1973-1975 Economic Recession (Field, 2011).

The memoir has a chronological approach to the events in the life of the author, focusing on cultural and social context, and their effect on the author’s life, therefore there is not much historical information in the memoir.

For a different view of the prosperous and relaxed American lifestyle, I suggest you to take a look at this article:

https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/1989/february/minorities-clubhouse-rules-no-jews-allowed/

References

Field, J. A. (2011). A Great Leap Forward: 1930s Depression and U.S. Economic Growth. London: Yale University Press.

Kominsky-Crumb, A. (2007). Need More Love. New York: MQ Publications.

#history #historical background #recession #golden age of capitalism #economic boom

Significance of Colour

Aline Kominsky Crumbs vibrant art style is a good inner showing of her mind. Her style is often seen as surreal, and has been called ugly by quite a few people (myself included) as the style is jarring and blunt. As a fellow artist it's easy to see that all of her art was drawn straight ahead with minimal planning, simply letting her pen go where she pleases. It can be argued that as some of the comics have been completely coloured and some are still completely black and white cross hatch, the ones in colour are the memories that are more literally are more vibrant in her mind. A trend with all her earlier comics I found while reading is the ones in colour are trying to be vivid but only comes in bursts and aren't streamline like the black and white ones are. While of course this can be scene as it being done for simplicity it can also be read that the longer ones are more prominent and fleshed out as if they are the ones that have more details and are grounded in reality rather than the bright surreal colours Aline uses.

Kominsky-Crumb, A. (2007). Need More Love. New York: MQ Publications.

#colour #sleepingupsidedown

Aline Kominsky-Crumb’s Life

Alice Kominsky-Crumb was born Aline Ricky Goldsmith, to a Jewish family in Long Island, New York, on August 1, 1948 (Kominsky-Crumb, 2007). Despite her parents’ efforts to raise her as “someone a Jewish orthodontist would want to marry” (Livingstone, 2018), she managed to live a hippie’s life for most of her time on earth, to the extent of describing herself as a person on the verge of becoming an alcoholic and a seasoned druggie, though usually picking cheap California wine as a resort (Lehockzky, 2018).

Aline started studying art at The Cooper Union after moving to East Village while she was in the college (Kominsky-Crumb, 2007). She was into painting since she was 8 years old (Livingstone, 2018) who took this ambition towards acquiring a degree in art from University of Arizona in 1971, 3 years after moving to Tucson as result of her short-lived marriage to Carl Kominsky in 1968 (Lightman, 2014). She chose to keep the surname of her first husband, later combining it with one of her husbands’, Robert Crumb’s last name, hence her last name Kominsky-Crumb (Kominsky-Crumb, 2007). Together, they have published numerous graphic novels in form of memoirs about their daily life and relationship for over 30 years, including a comic series called “Dirty Laundry” named after the initial reaction of their friend Terry Zwigoff after seeing their drawings for the first time (Artsy Editors, 2017).

Aline Kominsky-Crumb influenced many well-known cartoonists like Alison Bechdel, Marjane Satrapi and Phoebe Gloeckner (Chung, 2018). As the second author to publish a graphic memoir, and the first woman to do that, Aline Kominsky-Crumb shows us that she is not just a pioneering feminist, but also a pioneering artist to inspire women and define their part in modern arts (Love That Bunch: Aline Kominsky-Crumb & Naomi Fry, n.d.).

She currently lives in a small village called Languedoc-Roussillon with a population of 1,500 people, in France with her husbands and her step daughter (Kominsky-Crumb, 2007).

Read this wonderful article/interview of Aline Kominsky-Crumb for more insight to her world and life:

https://www.kqed.org/arts/13831138/make-way-for-the-queen-aline-kominsky-crumb-returns-to-sf

References

Chung, E. (2018, July 12). Twisted sister. Retrieved July 31, 2018, from PRI: https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-07-12/twisted-sister

Kominsky-Crumb, A. (2007). Need More Love. New York: MQ Publications.

Lehockzky, E. (2018, May 5). 'Love That Bunch' Immortalizes Lifelong Troublemaker Aline Kominsky-Crumb. Retrieved July 11, 2018, from National Public Radia: https://www.npr.org/2018/05/05/605001418/love-that-bunch-immortalizes-lifelong-troublemaker-aline-kominsky-crumb

Lightman, S. (2014). Graphic Details: Jewish Women's Confessional Comics in Essays and Interviews. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.

Livingstone, J. (2018, May 14). Aline Kominsky-Crumb Has One Regret. Retrieved July 21, 2018, from The New Republic: https://newrepublic.com/article/148398/aline-kominsky-crumb-one-regret

Love That Bunch: Aline Kominsky-Crumb & Naomi Fry. (n.d.). Retrieved July 28, 2018, from Housing Works: https://www.housingworks.org/events/love-that-bunch

#author #background #biography

Need More Love Chapter 5: Voice and Tone

In the final chapter of the memoir, which is really just a wrap up interview with Aline and her publisher and friend Zaro, we get to see a glimpse of how she was around the time of publishing (2007). She and her daughter have a much more copacetic relationship, and Sophia even acknowledges how her mother was the forefront of women's comics, even though she still sees her mother as a bit crazy. Her husband Robert also wrote about their life together and how he thought she was a going to be a tortured soul before he met her, only going off of her comics. The two are still married and living in France, and Aline has done some modelling work. From the interview, you can tell how content Aline is with her current life and how she wanted to keep making it a good life. She never wants to stop getting more love and is learning that she has quite a lot of it from her friends and family.

Kominsky-Crumb, A. (2007). Need More Love. New York: MQ Publications.

#NML CH5 #sleepingupsidedown

People ask, “Why the title Need More Love?” Well, obviously that is what I find lacking in human relationships and society in general. Look at the nightmarish world we live in… don’t we need more compassion and empathy?

Aline Kominksy-Crumb

Kominsky-Crumb, A. (2007). Need More Love. New York: MQ Publications.

#title analysis post #lowknees

Need More Love Chapter 2-4: Voice and Tone

As Aline leaves home to enter art school, she goes down a path of a hippie, flower power and all, and we get to see the distance she puts not just from her family and audience, but from her self and her memories. All throughout the beginning of chapter 2 when she is still trying to discover herself, Aline writes in a way to truly show how lost and disconnected from life she was. Events were described vaguely and gave that's part of her life a kind of fog, just as she felt it. As we get into later events where she meets her future husband and joins Wimmens Comix there is more clarity but still a sense of floating as she goes through this stage of her life.

In chapter 3, we see her start to settle into a more domestic life with Robert and hone her skills in the comic publishing world. There are times she writes of simple pleasures, it's interesting she included something as slow as learning to play an instrument from a family in the town. Something so small and yet she write it with such a wonderful sense of nostalgia, the audience can get the sense that she was truly revealing in such little pleasures during that time of her life. It's interesting then, that she uses an even grander sense of wonder when Aline speaks of her first time in Europe and how she was never the same after that. The last major section of this chapter has to be the birth of her first child, and yet, from how she writes it, there wasn't a lot of attention given to Sophia even in the blurb written for her.

Once Aline realized that she was spiralling into the domestic wife life, she uprooted her life and took Robert and Sophia to live in the south of France. Aline writes this chapter with a kind of rejuvenated sense of self, as if life had been weighing so heavily on her and now she was free, even though it was at the expense of her daughters young life being completely uprooted. Sophia unsurprisingly was bullied and estranged and grew up estranged, just like her mother, and yet while eating this, I couldn't sense any kind of regret or remorse for this. It seemed that Aline was simply happy that she had a new sense of self.

Kominsky-Crumb, A. (2007). Need More Love. New York: MQ Publications.

#NML CH2 #NML CH3 #NML CH4 #sleepingupsidedown

Need More Love Chapter 1: Voice and Tone

In the beginning of Aline Kominsky Crumb’s Need More Love, she tells us about her childhood and high school years. Throughout the chapter she describes the events with a kind of vagueness of avoiding what happened. From her father telling her “you can’t shine shit” while she was in a particularly self-deprecating mood, to Al abandoning her after having sex with her and calling her a slut, we see that the tone she uses to speak of these things is almost resigned, and at times seems that she was completely accepting of these events. As, at the time these events were happening, it was common place to dump the blame onto the women in these scenarios and not the men who did the hurting, I can understand that this was simply a way of life. However, as this is a memoir, one would think there to be any kind of anger or feelings of injustice towards these events, but instead a kind of resignation. She has very easily been able to recall all of these events and how she felt during these events without her present self imposing emotion on what happened. Crumb has been able to distance herself from her past while still remembering exactly how she felt.

Kominsky-Crumb, A. (2007). Need More Love. New York: MQ Publications.

#NML CH1 #sleepingupsidedown

Welcome To the Analysis of Aline Kominsky Crumb’s “Need More Love”

This blog goes over all of the nooks and crannies of the memoir Need More Love, presented by Allison Lownie, Mustafa Kirgul and Mai Israel.

The Moderators/Authors:

Sleepingupsidedown - Mai Israel

lowknees - Allison Lownie

mustafayasor - Mustafa Kirgul

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Need More Love: A Graphic Novel By Aline Kominsky-Crumb