Skip to main content

It's All New

Most of us have heard about North Korea, correct? I’ve heard about this country since middle school, but if I’m being quite honest, I don’t know much about it, and I’m not the type to assume things based off rumors or stereotypes, so reading Guy Delisle’s Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea really gave me an insight on what this country is like.

Delisle, Guy, and Helge Dascher. Pyongyang: a Journey in North Korea. Drawn & Quarterly Books, 2018. 


Pyongyang is the type of graphic novel we as readers rely on both the art and the text because we are learning about a country completely different from our own. One page before the one above, we are told about the importance of Kim Il-sung but are then shown on page 8. If we take a look, there are two panels that have no words whatsoever, so we rely on the previous written information. The two wordless panels emphasize Kim Il-sung’s significance. The people are looking up at it and are even leaving it flowers, so we get the sense that this statue must mean a lot to the people of North Korea. Both the words and the images work together and rely on each other to deliver the full message. Delisle takes us along on his journey in North Korea. We discover a new world together. It is clear that this story is directed to people who are new to the country.



Delisle, Guy, and Helge Dascher. Pyongyang: a Journey in North Korea. Drawn & Quarterly Books, 2018.

Now, when learning about a new country, especially one that is so different from ours, it is important to visually see what it is like. This new country can be described to us with words only, but we would have to rely heavily on our imagination. Wait a second. How can we imagine something we’ve never even seen? That’s difficult to do, so it is best to use images. On page 32, we are told about the Pyongyang Subway, one of the nation’s prides. Delisle’s work is very detailed here, perhaps more than other panels. The amount of detail emphasizes how North Koreans feel about this particular area, but of course, we would not be able to fully understand what the location is about without being guided with words.

We can see how Delisle uses aspect-to-aspect transitions.There is so much that we need to take in as learners, so that is the best way to show us as much as possible. The whole page sticks to one topic like the statue of Kim Il-sung and the Pyongyang Subway, but we get to see a lot of different details regarding them because of the aspect-to-aspect transitions, and that really helps us understand this new country much better.

Delisle informs us about North Korea in the form of graphic journalism. It isn't simply just another little story. The graphic novel form is great for reporting because, like I’ve mentioned before, it is a unique way of traveling through the event and experiencing it, but believe it or not, some might not consider this type of work journalism because it is easy to automatically assume it is more of a historical story, but it will just take some time to adjust to what this genre is about as it is also very new to me. But it's great! I'm into journalism and into learning new things, so I'm going to give this genre a chance and so should you!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Analysis of Aya: Life in Yop City

To begin this week's post, I'd like to first address a few things about the author's duty to his/her readers. When we think of reading material from other countries or cultures, what factors are important to us? What information do we need in order to recognize the significance of the author's work? For me, it's important for the author to find some way to connect to me as a reader. Do we share a common experience? Can I relate your story to mine? This is not to say that a writer's work is rendered unimpressive if they choose not to do this. But I do think it goes without saying that most impressionable works hit us emotionally. I also think that an author should be conscious of the world that they are painting for the reader. Is it true what you're writing? Does it provide some sort of insight into the world as you see it? Are you confirming outside opinions of your culture, or are you breaking the stereotypes that have been placed upon you? That being sai...

Bringing Africa into the Fold

The comic Aya: Life in Yop City does a fantastic job of illustrating a culture different from the more popular Western variety. For those reading this, have you ever considered Africa in any way that was not influenced by main stream media? No? Well me either. It is sad to say, but my view of Africa was just - more or less - a vast land of chaos and poverty. Why? Because is that not what the media would have us believe? As a western country ourselves - presuming, of course, that you are reading this from the US or some European country - we do not consider other nations to have much value in comparison to our own. Because we have created a Eurocentric view of what society should be, we have disallowed other countries to feel that their own culture is worth portraying in novels or media. For example, most people are lead to believe that Africa is riddled with disease, famine, and "uneducated" people who are in dire need of help. This just isn't true! There are places ...

The Two Faces of Anarchy in V for Vendetta

As someone who has only seen the movie version of V for Vendetta once many years ago and have never read the graphic novel, I wasn’t exactly sure how similar or different the movie version would be to the graphic novel. I was in for a surprise when I discovered just how vastly different, they are from each other. With that being said, they do have some similarities when strictly looking at the motives of the characters. Let’s dive into those motives and how the author and illustrator of V for Vendetta achieved getting these motives across to their readers. In Scott McCloud’s chapter of Understanding Comics “ Blood in the Gutter ” we are presented with different panel – to – panel transitions, and an introduction to the term “gutter” as being the white space between the panels which is where the audience of reader “takes two separate images and transforms them into a single idea” (McCloud, 66). After finishing reading V for Vendetta , several themes or ideas that were most prevalent...