We begin to move into a ‘formula’ here as our protagonist Rienne metaphorically ‘tears down’ yet another ‘institution’ of the arts. What removes this from the previous strip is that Rienne’s environment has shifted from that of the gallery to that of the ‘whole wide world’.
In the first panel, Rienne reveals a distate for Realist poetry. In the second panel, this is reinforced by referring to Realist Poetry as both ‘dull and pedantic’.
In the third panel, Rienne exclaims instead his preference to ‘Symbolist Poetry.’ He proceeds to name ‘Rimbaud’, ‘Valery’, ‘Mallarme’ as his favourites. ‘Rimbaud’ is one Arthur Rimbaud, ‘Valery’ is Paul Valery, and ‘Mallarme’ is Stephane Mallarme. The ‘French’ motif sneaks up in La Vie Vide again? Say it isn’t so!
The gritty truth of things is revealed again in the ‘punchline’ panel of the strip as the ‘Realist Poetry Thug’ as I hae dubbed him appears, baseball bat in hand, to dish out service to this pseudo-intellectual Frenchie! This panel is a lynchpin, of sorts, to my ongoing theory of this strip being the cartoonist’s own handling of the US/French conflict (culturally of course). What role will the Realist Poetry (the avatar for middle America) play later on? Only time will tell.
delightful!
— jghatch Nov 10, 23:35 #We begin to move into a ‘formula’ here as our protagonist Rienne metaphorically ‘tears down’ yet another ‘institution’ of the arts. What removes this from the previous strip is that Rienne’s environment has shifted from that of the gallery to that of the ‘whole wide world’.
In the first panel, Rienne reveals a distate for Realist poetry. In the second panel, this is reinforced by referring to Realist Poetry as both ‘dull and pedantic’.
In the third panel, Rienne exclaims instead his preference to ‘Symbolist Poetry.’ He proceeds to name ‘Rimbaud’, ‘Valery’, ‘Mallarme’ as his favourites. ‘Rimbaud’ is one Arthur Rimbaud, ‘Valery’ is Paul Valery, and ‘Mallarme’ is Stephane Mallarme. The ‘French’ motif sneaks up in La Vie Vide again? Say it isn’t so!
The gritty truth of things is revealed again in the ‘punchline’ panel of the strip as the ‘Realist Poetry Thug’ as I hae dubbed him appears, baseball bat in hand, to dish out service to this pseudo-intellectual Frenchie! This panel is a lynchpin, of sorts, to my ongoing theory of this strip being the cartoonist’s own handling of the US/French conflict (culturally of course). What role will the Realist Poetry (the avatar for middle America) play later on? Only time will tell.
— Olaf Demeanor Dec 17, 18:00 #