The descriptions that the author uses allow the reader to points of entry into the book. First it allows the reader to understand the character and secondly, to see the events occuring through the character's eyes. This connection creates a shared consciousness between the reader and the character that permits the voice of the author to articulate the intensity of his or her interest. There are three necessary points of reference for this discussion, three pairs of eyes that must be taken into account. What is read, or the readers eyes, what is conveyed or facilitated through the eyes of the character and thirdly, the what the eyes of the author who is the only one who actually knows the is usually best understood as we did in class through additional footage of interviews with the authors who would describe what exactly did and did not mean in their writings. I would like to conclude this discussion with a look at two of our major authors from this semester, Art Speigelman and Herman Melville. I do not fee that a lengthy analysis would offer more than a gross attempt to restate that which we have already discussed in class. Therefore, I will present a couple of paralleling passages that demonstrate the key difference in their styles

The Writing of MAUS

Speigelman, discusses a topic that nearly everyone has heard or read about in today's society. Spiegelman's unique presentation of facts and emotion provides a clear, concise, and innovative look at the past. His use of the visual forces the book into a dimension that would make it uncomparable with the other novels from the class if not for the scenes and descriptions of Art and Vladek at the time of the novels publication. The scenes that provide a glimpse into the present brings the comic to life. Without the examples of how Vladek was effected long after the event Art would not have been able to manipulate the reader quite as easily. As the book is written, the reader can listen to Vladek recall the events with intricate detail and description. The frequency of the small, dark holes that simbolize the eyes of the characters become an effective tool for making the reader simply another faces body seemingly right beside Vladek as he recounts his story.

Through oversimplification, Spiegelman entices his readers to realize the very expansiveness of the Holocaust, the uncommunicable horror of Auschwitz. The understated character of his drawings, especially the lack of identity among his mice, compels us to be more aware of the act of attempting to undertand the Holocaust. Use of spare black-and-white sketches of mice(Jews) and cats(Nazis) also forced Spiegelman to boil down his father's stories, reconstructing them only within the bounds of the page's ten-square-inch framework. Sarah Toner

The Writing of Moby Dick

While Speigelman used pointy, succinct passages that required the reader to fill in the gaps, Melville used long elaborate explanations that traced Hermann's thought through every occurance upon the boat. Both authors made excellent points. However, I doubt that Melville would be remebered as half the author we now consider him, if he had simply recounted the daily events of the ship as Spiegelman did of the Holocaust. A large part of Moby Dick's luster derives from the timelessness of his descrptions. The completeness, even over explanation of events has created a novel that will probably long outlive the interest of Spiegelman's comic. Primarily because the majority of readers in the future will not have as much first hand knowledge to fill in the gaps that Spiegelman leaves, just as readers today have little experience with sailing and even less with whaling. Therefore the logical connections he makes and the stories he tellswould not have any grounding and, hence, effectiveness if they were not, in a sense, spelled out very blatantly for the reader. Although the reader may feel that he has listened to the character speak his mind for years it is necessary and later appreciated when the novel is finished.

The Writing of Ceremony

Here again Sarah and I both agree on the effectiveness of a literary tool but differ on whether the device is consequential of the background of the author. The following passage by Sarah perfectly explicates the difference between written and oral narratives.

What makes any written novel unique as opposed to an oral story is that it is completed before the reader has ever opened the book. An oral story on the other hand is momentary, only existing as it is spoken, existing among whoever is present at the exact moment at which it is told. No method of recording or recalling can recreate a story in the precise way it was communicated previously. While oral traditons and narratives are modified bit by bit every time they are said, this quality also gives them a different kind of value than any printed word has. Sarah Toner

However in a related section of the paper she portrays the descriptions of memory in the text as simply infinite.

Oral communication is served almost completely by memory, and memory itself is nonlinear, nonchronological, and hence cyclic by nature. Because it is cyclic it is infinite . . . Congruous with this, Silko's style of writing Ceremony is cyclic, adhering to no formal boundaries except the ones imposed by the physical nature of the book itself. Sarah Toner

The medium of language available to describe the character's perspective is similar to the problem of our memory. There is an infinite depth in memory, primarily because each person's constantly evolving with more and different connections made every day; however, there is a finite means of describing those memories and a limited vocabulary to express the hours of thought that authors use to effectively connect with the reader. Therefore, a limit exists in the ability to retell the memory, hence, if it can't always be effectively communicated then it falls under the previously discussed border of articulating the exactness of intensity.

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