Wry Things

Have you ever asked yourself what exactly a comic is? If you have, you’ll realize the definition isn’t as straightforward as it might seem at first.

I wrote an essay tackling this subject for the same class I wrote a rhetorical analysis of Mere Christianity, a USP writing module. The full essay (with pictures!) can be downloaded at the link below.

Introduction:

What Are Comics?

“What are comics?” This seemingly easy question still puzzles scholars of the subject. Scott McCloud famously defined comics as “Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.” His focus was how images placed next to and with each other create a sequential narrative – a definition of form, not content. McCloud’s definition allowed him to incorporate sequential artworks such as the Bayeux tapestry and the Mexican codices under the umbrella of comics. He does so in order to propose that its form precedes the bad reputation it used to receive as unintellectual children’s entertainment. However, McCloud’s definition excludes one-frame gag cartoons that people would also consider comics. Also in disagreement with McCloud is Robert C. Harvey, who feels that such art pieces should not be lumped together with comics, simply because they aren’t perceived to be. To Harvey, what makes comics unique is how it ‘blends’ visual and verbal content. But Harvey’s definition excludes all comics without any text. Both McCloud’s and Harvey’s definitions are able to cover certain subsections of comics, but also ignominiously exclude many other works that would be considered comics and include some that aren’t. The flaw with both definitions is their attempts to identify a comic by its appearance, but definitions by appearance alone will fail as long as comic artists who experiment with form intentionally defy aesthetical and structural conventions. What we should realise is that people are somehow able to tell when something is a comic, and it is this subconscious knowledge I attempt to elucidate.

What Are Comics?

An essay I wrote for a class last semester, where I did a rhetorical analysis of Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. You can download it at the link below.

Introduction:

“A former atheist who was persuaded by his friend J.R.R. Tolkien to convert to Christianity, C.S. Lewis once gave a series of talks on BBC radio from 1941 to 1944 (the transcripts later published as his famous book, Mere Christianity) to tell atheists why there was a reason to believe in God. Mere Christianity belongs in the field of Christian apologetics, a discipline concerned with the defence of the Christian faith. This book is remarkable for how it has persuaded people since its publication till today to come to the Christian faith: people who have attributed their conversion to it not only include Lewis’s contemporaries such as English philosopher C.E.M Joad, but also people today, such as Dr. Francis Collins, former director of the Human Genome Project, and Charles Colson – infamous for his part in the Watergate Scandal – who post-conversion became involved in prison ministry. What enables Mere Christianity to remain so persuasive even to modern readers? The interplay between rhetor, audience, and timing within the rhetorical situation is of interest here. Every reader who picks up Mere Christianity creates a new rhetorical situation between C.S. Lewis, himself, and the moment he reads it. One can see how Mere Christianity as a book has to remain persuasive in each of these different rhetorical situations if it is to be an effective apologia. C.S. Lewis thus wrote an apologetic text that transcended his original rhetorical situation – his intellectual and empathetic authority appeals to a generally logically-minded audience in any time and place. It is this versatility of Mere Christianity that enables it to be just as persuasive even in the 21^st century.”

Mere Christianity – A Timeless Defence of Christianity

Of interest to NUS USP students: this was for the second assignment of the Writing and Critical Thinking module UWC2101B: Civic Discourse in a Fractious World by Dr. Mark Brantner.