Narratives: Readings

GRAPHIC NARRATIVE (EXCERPT)

Lynda Barry writes the weekly comic strip Ernie Pook’s Comeek, which can be found in many alternative weekly newspapers. Barry’s work is often funny but serious, sad but optimistic. When she writes about herself, as she does in this excerpt from the book One! Hundred! Demons! (2002), she is very honest about her own past. She currently teaches a popular writing workshop called Writing the Unthinkable. Barry has written seventeen books; her most recent is the collection Blabber Blabber Blabber: Volume 1 of Everything (2011).

Lost and Found

Lynda Barry

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“Lost and Found” from One! Hundred! Demons! by Lynda Barry (Sasquatch Books, 2002). © 2002 by Lynda Barry. Courtesy of Darhansoff & Verrill.
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Reading the Genre

Question

1. Even though this essay is in comic form, it also addresses literacy directly, discussing the author’s early reading experiences. As a literacy narrative, what does “Lost and Found” teach us about the author’s approach to reading and writing? (For another example of a literacy narrative, see Allegra Goodman’s “O.K., You’re Not Shakespeare. Now Get to Work”.)

Question

2. Unlike many other comic authors, Lynda Barry provides descriptions for some of her pictures. Why do you think she does this, and how do these descriptions contribute to the essay?

Question

3. How is Barry’s artistic and storytelling style different from that of Marjane Satrapi in the excerpt from Persepolis?

Question

4. If Barry had presented her story without images, do you think your response to it would be different? How do comics present information, and why might a writer or artist choose this medium? (See Chapter 32, “High, Middle, and Low Style.”)

Question

5. WRITING: Craigslist might be the online equivalent of the newspaper’s classified section. Go to www.craigslist.org and find an advertised item that suggests a story to you. (Hint: Try looking at the lost-and-found section or the ads for free items.) Draw a picture of this item and write a short imaginative narrative about it. (See “Finding and developing materials”.)

Question

6. COMPOSING VISUALLY: This essay comes from the book One! Hundred! Demons! The concept for the book comes from an ancient Japanese painting exercise in which artists painted about things that worried or challenged them. As she began painting and writing about her demons, Barry explains that “at first the demons freaked me, but then I started to love watching them come out of my paintbrush.” Try drawing or writing about memories from your own past as a student. What have you struggled with? In writing about these memories, have you also come to better understand them?
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