Hello everyone. Today I'd like to talk about a graphic novel I recently read called As the World Burns and a graphic novel series that I've loved for many years call X1999. This may take a bit so please make sure you have popcorn soda and anything else that you may need during this reading. Also, emergency exits are to the right and to the left depending on your political preference as I am sure that both sides will in some way disagree with me in the course of this reading.
As the World Burns is a graphic novel by Derrick Jensen and Stephanie McMillan. It's a graphic novel with a very pessimistic view of the future. The novel is incredibly well-grounded and self-aware of its themes. It's a story about the environmental crisis and people's blindness to the fact that simply doing small things on a checklist won't save the world. However, the tone of the book changes about halfway through and starts to shift towards a more extremist point of view.
While I agree with many things in the book, I find that the more extremists aspects pushed me away from the later half of the book. Another thing they got to me a bit, was some of the scientific inconsistencies I noticed. They are far and in-between but they are still present. In the end the novel was far to binary in nature for me to truly embrace any of its ideology. You are either part of the problem even if it's through inaction or part of the solution even if it means to going to extreme acts. It does not leave room for any middle ground and act as if there is no other solution. This made me think of another series that I really love, but also has a binary choice between two extremes.
X1999 is a graphic novel series by Clamp. This graphic novel blends various religions into a single story about a savior must choose between saving the planet and saving humanity. It works on the premise that we could save humanity, but they would destroy all of nature, but if you choose to save the world it would require the destruction of all humanity. Unfortunately may never know what ending the artists intended for the series as it was put on permanent hiatus. This was due to the fact that in the series there are decapitations, earthquakes, and a strong theme about humanity's destruction of the environment. At the time of the last chapters release, an earthquake happened, a murder happened, and they were having trouble with eco-terrorists. For this reason the series was put on hiatus and for some reason was never continued later.
X1999 is a graphic novel series by Clamp. This graphic novel blends various religions into a single story about a savior must choose between saving the planet and saving humanity. It works on the premise that we could save humanity, but they would destroy all of nature, but if you choose to save the world it would require the destruction of all humanity. Unfortunately may never know what ending the artists intended for the series as it was put on permanent hiatus. This was due to the fact that in the series there are decapitations, earthquakes, and a strong theme about humanity's destruction of the environment. At the time of the last chapters release, an earthquake happened, a murder happened, and they were having trouble with eco-terrorists. For this reason the series was put on hiatus and for some reason was never continued later.
One of the interesting things about X1999 is that the whole story involves a fight between dragons of Earth, the seven angels, and the dragons of heaven, the seven seals. Should the dragons Earth defeat the dragons of heaven then the world will be saved and humanity will be destroyed. The anime series adaptation gave fans some closure with its own ending that felt fitting to the theme of the story. For that reason I will also refer to points in the anime as well as the manga.
Also spoiler warnings. I would strongly suggest reading both before reading the article because both graphic novels are truly interesting and it would be sad not to read it spoiler-free.
For me to truly talk about As the World Burns I felt that I needed something to contrast it with. That is why I chose X1999. I'm also going to be referring back to a book I consider a dear friend Understanding Comics. Because books are people too you know.
The art of as the world Burns is very interesting. Almost all the panels and pages are liking any background. This allows the reader to focus solely on the characters themselves. The characters are drawn in a very abstract cartoonish style that lends itself well to allowing readers to project themselves into the characters. Scott McCloud said in his book Understanding Comics, “but when you enter the world of the cartoon you see yourself" and describes abstract cartoon characters as empty shells that we can inhabit. This is a great way to convey messages for social change because it allows the readers to empathize with the characters on more personal level. But this can be a double-edged sword because if you're trying to convey a particular message you have to be careful how you do it because your audience is internalizing what these characters are saying.
Also spoiler warnings. I would strongly suggest reading both before reading the article because both graphic novels are truly interesting and it would be sad not to read it spoiler-free.
For me to truly talk about As the World Burns I felt that I needed something to contrast it with. That is why I chose X1999. I'm also going to be referring back to a book I consider a dear friend Understanding Comics. Because books are people too you know.
The art of as the world Burns is very interesting. Almost all the panels and pages are liking any background. This allows the reader to focus solely on the characters themselves. The characters are drawn in a very abstract cartoonish style that lends itself well to allowing readers to project themselves into the characters. Scott McCloud said in his book Understanding Comics, “but when you enter the world of the cartoon you see yourself" and describes abstract cartoon characters as empty shells that we can inhabit. This is a great way to convey messages for social change because it allows the readers to empathize with the characters on more personal level. But this can be a double-edged sword because if you're trying to convey a particular message you have to be careful how you do it because your audience is internalizing what these characters are saying.
I believe the story is meant to be completely satirical and not meant to promote violence in real life. Though it's completely possible that I am wrong about that, as the story could be taking the opposite position. Because of that ambiguity, it does make the story potentially dangerous when coupled with an art style that allows a greater empathy. this might have readers internalizing the hopelessness of the actions they thought we're helping save the planet and lighting a fire under them to move in more extreme directions. That or they might just fall into hopeless despair.
In contrast x 1999 features incredibly detailed art style that uses large eyes beautifully drawn characters to allow the reader to empathize with characters while still keeping their sense of self separate from the character. While we can't see ourselves in the character we instead empathize with the character at the same level we would have friend or a loved one. The backgrounds in the majority of panels set the tone atmosphere and emotional framing of every scene. With a strong sense of depth using extreme blacks and extreme whites to either lighten the mood or add weight to it. Unfortunately, while visually striking, this means that it has less impact on an individual's belief system and so it's not as efficient vehicle for social change.
On the narrative side of things as the world Burns is clearly hammering out a message with a strong aim for social change. On the other hand x 1999 is concerned about the individual struggle between two binary ideologies. As the world Burns makes you the reader feel like you're either on the right side or the wrong side. X1999 shows the struggle of being caught between saving the world from humanity by destroying all of humanity or preserving humanity for as long as possible on the premise that human lives are too precious to simply exterminate. Both handle there narrative endings in polar opposite ways. As the world Burns chooses to end it by choosing what the book perceives as the right side and defeating its opponents. It shows both sides as polar opposites, black and white ignoring that gray even exists. X 1999 on the other hand chooses to allow the protagonist the struggle in the middle ground. Acknowledging in a world of black and white that gray exist. In the end the main character finds a way to save both humanity and the world. It's ending message is not that we must choose between two sides, but that we must always try to save the things we love and there is always another path.
So why did I feel the need to compare these two graphic novels? Because to explain my opinion on As the World Burns I needed an example of complexity to compared to its simplicity. While satirical in nature, it still has incredibly strong influence over its audience. I feel there is a danger to its simplistic portrayal a real world problems. People tend to gravitate towards simplicity because complexity it’s so much harder.
As the world Burns I feel ignores some of the scientific achievements that are currently being worked on and have been worked on for a while now. Necessity is the mother of invention and humanities more than capable finding solutions. Things like genetically engineered crops that can end world hunger and carbon air scrubbers capable of taking carbon from the atmosphere. Solid state batteries, once perfected, will make electric vehicles far more cost effective than gasoline vehicles. And of course quantum computers capable solving incredibly difficult problems. Yes the climate crisis is very important, but we should face it with ingenuity and creativity not the polarization of ideas in the separation of ideologies.
In contrast x 1999 features incredibly detailed art style that uses large eyes beautifully drawn characters to allow the reader to empathize with characters while still keeping their sense of self separate from the character. While we can't see ourselves in the character we instead empathize with the character at the same level we would have friend or a loved one. The backgrounds in the majority of panels set the tone atmosphere and emotional framing of every scene. With a strong sense of depth using extreme blacks and extreme whites to either lighten the mood or add weight to it. Unfortunately, while visually striking, this means that it has less impact on an individual's belief system and so it's not as efficient vehicle for social change.
On the narrative side of things as the world Burns is clearly hammering out a message with a strong aim for social change. On the other hand x 1999 is concerned about the individual struggle between two binary ideologies. As the world Burns makes you the reader feel like you're either on the right side or the wrong side. X1999 shows the struggle of being caught between saving the world from humanity by destroying all of humanity or preserving humanity for as long as possible on the premise that human lives are too precious to simply exterminate. Both handle there narrative endings in polar opposite ways. As the world Burns chooses to end it by choosing what the book perceives as the right side and defeating its opponents. It shows both sides as polar opposites, black and white ignoring that gray even exists. X 1999 on the other hand chooses to allow the protagonist the struggle in the middle ground. Acknowledging in a world of black and white that gray exist. In the end the main character finds a way to save both humanity and the world. It's ending message is not that we must choose between two sides, but that we must always try to save the things we love and there is always another path.
So why did I feel the need to compare these two graphic novels? Because to explain my opinion on As the World Burns I needed an example of complexity to compared to its simplicity. While satirical in nature, it still has incredibly strong influence over its audience. I feel there is a danger to its simplistic portrayal a real world problems. People tend to gravitate towards simplicity because complexity it’s so much harder.
As the world Burns I feel ignores some of the scientific achievements that are currently being worked on and have been worked on for a while now. Necessity is the mother of invention and humanities more than capable finding solutions. Things like genetically engineered crops that can end world hunger and carbon air scrubbers capable of taking carbon from the atmosphere. Solid state batteries, once perfected, will make electric vehicles far more cost effective than gasoline vehicles. And of course quantum computers capable solving incredibly difficult problems. Yes the climate crisis is very important, but we should face it with ingenuity and creativity not the polarization of ideas in the separation of ideologies.
Comments
Post a Comment