City of Glass

Wow, city of glass was a real trip to read. What is initially a short story about the nature of twisting language and reflexive narration, just gets even more interestingly intertwined when translated into the graphic novel format. The way the words, narration and art all interacted and seeped together was really flawless, otherwise it just would not have worked properly. The most fascinating part of the book was when Stillman the younger delivers is introductory rambling monologue. The first thing I noticed was that the type face of his words and the shape of the bubbles was the same as it was when he was talking on the phone, immediately associating his voice with distance, with the mechanical. The way the panels stayed centered on his face, and his mouth never changed made it almost as though the words were seeping out of his mouth. As the monologue goes on, his mouth morphs into a number of unliving objects, some of which are mechanical in nature. This had a really interesting effect because instead of merely using the pictures to depict physical action, or using the shape of balloons to dictate the feeling of the sound, we visually see the sound becoming different objects. In scanning across the page, the "sound" of Stillman's voice gets mingled in with all manner of objects, giving the otherwise unbroken monologue a distinct rythmic feeling. The story reminded me of some of Borges' Ficciones, it that it is a story about a story, in which both stories are kind of a puzzle, leading to an ultimate realization. It's a really impressive kind of writing, which must take huge amounts of skill and precision to execute.