PAGE 21
Panel 1: Echoing the “stinging spray” in the final
panel of the previous page, the news vendor is hanging a covering over his
newsstand as it begins to rain.
Also,
his statement, “don’t it ever let up,” is juxtaposed against the “Black
Freighter” caption box, which tells us that the shark eventually died – it finally let up.
Panel 2: More juxtaposition of the dialogue from Moore as the “Black
Freighter” caption states that the shark “stopped swimming” as the news vendor
complains that his job is like “paddling against the tide.”
Panel 3: More (or is it Moore?) narrative
juxtaposition as the news vendor asks Joey, a driver for the Promethean Cab
Company, if the Promethean is “still bringing light to the world,” as the
“Black Freighter” caption reads, “relief was fleeting, my prospects still
dark.”
Panel 4: The news vendor tells Joey, in response to
her dire comment, that “Afghanistan’s
a long way away,” which is juxtaposed against the “Black Freighter” caption box
that says, “sharks circled closer than was comfortable.”
Panel 5: This panel is focused on vulnerability as
readers get four comments upon this aspect.
The news vendor feels Pakistan is the country that should be worrying
about Afghanistan as “they’re wide open,” followed by Joey saying, “we’re all
pretty vulnerable,” while she opens up her copy of Hustler to see the
centerfold (a nude woman holding her hands over her exposed crotch, a classic
image of vulnerability), all of which is echoed by the “Black Freighter”
caption in which the sailor relates that the other sharks worried at his raft,
which he hoped “would satisfy them” otherwise he would become far more
vulnerable than he already is.
Panel 6: Joey asks if the news vendor could put up a
poster for her so that it wouldn’t “get torn up,” which mirrors the commentary
from the “Black Freighter,” in which the sailor states that the sharks departed
and “for the moment, [he] was safe.”
Panel 7: This panel is a close-up of the panel readers
saw as they “looked” over the young Bernie’s shoulder in the previous panel.
We get
more narrative juxtaposition as the “Black Freighter” caption reads, in part,
“I would have chuckled at the inversion of natural roles” as the sailor supped
on the shark that had attacked him earlier.
This is echoed by the news vendor’s remark to Joey, “Gay Women Against
Rape?” (an inversion of expectation) “Is
this a joke?” (echoing the “chuckled” from the caption).
The
“inversion” can also be seen as a commentary upon the image in this panel,
which shows the shark’s reflection (reinforcing the thematic overview of the
chapter) in the ocean as an inversion of itself.
Panel 8: We get more word play as Joey threatens the
news vendor with “alter[ing] [his] looks” if he does not put the poster up,
mirroring the sailor’s thought that, “[his] raft grew increasingly grotesque,
reflecting (thematic reinforcement)
my own gradual transformation.”
Also
note the triangle motif is part of this poster, as Pink Triangle – a band – is
the headline act for this benefit concert featured on it.
Panel 9: Again, the two narratives juxtapose with one
another as the “Black Freighter” caption reads that the sailor drifted “into
the dawn” as the news vendor, in response to her bullying, makes a sarcastic
remark to Joey, “bring light to the world.”
The ad
on the back of Joey’s Hustler magazine is for the cigarettes readers have seen
Laurie smoking, and the ad is “For Smokers With Balls.”
Also
note that the news vendor in this panel – as he puts up the poster using his
right hand – is a mirror image of the first panel on this page – in which the
news vendor was putting up the covering on his newsstand with his left hand –
again reinforcing the reflective and symmetrical imagery throughout this
chapter.
No comments:
Post a Comment