On page 63 of "Understanding Comics," Scott McCloud introduces the idea of closure, or "observing the parts but perceiving the whole." Heartbreak Soap is a graphic novel that demands that the reader actively participate in closure. Gilbert Hernandez has created a series of mini stories within the story of Palomar. By combining all of these stories, one can create an identity for Palomar. It is a community where every story is in some way related to another. The reader is the one who Hernandez asks to create a “whole” out of each of these moments.
One important way we create closure is through the actual stories. Between each there is a definite passage of time. A large portion of the lives of each character is left out yet we can perceive their entire existence. For instance, the ending of the novel focuses on the character of Israel. The last we heard about Israel was that he had an affair with Carmen and never returned to Palomar. A period of time occurred between the time Israel had the affair and when we see him next with the Old Man. As active readers, Hernandez asks us to create closure. He gives us parts of Israel's life (as in the ending of the text each section is a new episode in Israel's life) and we must perceive what has taken place between the then and now.
McCloud makes a very valid and very important point that as readers of comics we must "read" in between the panels. Yet, he also notes that in every day life we "often commit closure" (p.63). The stories given to us in "Heartbreak Soup" are everyday stories and we commit closure to piece them together. "Heartbreak Soup" is in a sense like a comic itself. Each story can be compared to a panel that is juxtaposed with another panel to form a complete sequence. The complete sequence does not end with the last image of Israel's ambiguous smile, but continues in the other stories in part two. There too, I’m sure Hernandez will require us to commit closure between Israel's smile and the opening story in "Human Diastrophism."
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3 comments:
I completely agree with what you have to say. I think that Gilbert Hernandez really challenged his readers with "Heartbreak Soup" by asking us to establish backgrounds and identities for many of the most important characters, namely Chelo and Luba. I think his minimal character description juxtaposed nicely with the sometimes overwhelming amount of plot that he provided us.
The post and comment both raise a pair of questions in my mind.
First, is McCloud's concept of closure almost too powerful as a hermeneutic tool? That is, if closure doesn't just describe the reading of juxtaposed panels but also the interpretation of any and all juxtapositions in life, is it more a description of human perception than a doctrine of reading?
Second, given the apparent richness of Hernandez's storytelling that leaves gaps for us to wonder about, should we draw the corollary that his stories might be weaker if he in fact provided fuller information about his characters and their backgrounds? (On that note, I think it interesting that _Poison River_, the graphic novel about Luba's childhood and early adulthood, does NOT appear in the collected volumes of the Palomar stories but is issued separately.)
In response to the last comment, I agree that McCloud's idea of closure is "more a description of human perception than a doctrine of reading" because closure is a tool people use in many aspects of life when they make assumptions about things they do not know all the details of. As far as it applies to comics it seems more like common sense than a theory that needs to be deeply explored.
Having said that, I do think that "Heartbreak Soup" would have been "weaker" as a collection had Hernandez filled in the gaps which the reader fills in using closure. One of the aspects of Hernandez's collection which makes it interesting to read is that active engagement the reader must have with the text to make sense out of it. Had the Palomar stories been arranged in chronological order the need for the reader not only to employ closure but also to actively engage with the text would be less, thus making for a less enjoyable reading experience.
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