{"id":2127,"date":"2018-09-20T13:37:38","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T13:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gemmaplum.nl\/business\/?p=2127"},"modified":"2019-05-02T11:22:47","modified_gmt":"2019-05-02T11:22:47","slug":"simplicity-and-responsibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gemmaplum.nl\/business\/simplicity-and-responsibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Simplicity and Responsibility in Graphic Narrative"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

The Power and Dangers of the Law of Simplicity<\/h3>\n

The Law of Simplicity or Pr\u00e4gnanz<\/span><\/h4>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_single_image image=”2132″ img_size=”large” css=”.vc_custom_1537390429015{margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1537382514718{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”]Chris Ware, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (2000)<\/small>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_column_text]The Law of Simplicity is also known as the Law of Pr\u00e4gnanz. Although \u2018Pr\u00e4gnanz\u2019 would be a perfect name for a German scientist real or fictional, it is not (not yet anyway). It is a German term that can be translated as \u2018succinctness\u2019 or \u2018concisness\u2019. The art of keeping it simple to enhance communication by eliminating redundancy without omitting important information<\/del>.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Chris Ware uses a wonderfully stylized (yet very precise) way of representing things. An eye becomes a speck, a brow just a delicate line. Facial expressions are accomplished with a bare minimum of information. His protagonist Jimmy Corrigan comes to (a pitiful) life, his posture revealing more than any amount of added information would do.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Our brain likes it simple. If less important information or background information can be minimized, simplicity in framing can bring the eye directly where it is desired. The eye preferably follows the simplest way or the most obvious path or pattern.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Even if simplicity is not provided the mind will analyse what it sees (or experiences for that matter) chopping it to manageable bits (or simple terms). Complex things will be dissected and seen in simpler forms. Preferably forms we recognize.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_column_text]Our brain loves symbols. And symbols can be very powerful tools in storytelling. It can help convey ideas faster giving the mind to focus on different things.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The fact that we understand symbols in a quite universal way can simplify some aspect of storytelling. An oval with an eye is a head, a square with a triangle on top of it is a house[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]In comics symbols are an often used resulting in a style that is easily understood (Like the style Chris Ware uses in Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth<\/a> (2000) (US Link<\/a>)) and can be read at some speed, helping the eye keep a steady pace and keeping the illusion of passing of time alive. But the use of symbols can do so much more guiding the mind toward concepts and abstract ideas.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Picasso at some point choose to work with symbols (even though he was an excellent draftsman) it gave him room to play with other concepts, like time and space. An eye was represented giving the idea of an eye not an exact description. Our brain gets the symbol immediately and understands the rest of the painting in the same symbolic language, looking for the face to go with the eye and the hair.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_single_image image=”2131″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” css=”.vc_custom_1537437811432{margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1537384291993{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”]Pablo Picasso, Bull (1945) A series of eleven lithographs published in:
\nPicasso: Forty Nine (New) Lithographs toghether with Honore Balzac’s the Hidden Masterpiece in the form of an allegory<\/a> (US Link<\/a>)
\n<\/span><\/small>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

“In the old days pictures went forward toward completion by stages. Every day brought something new. A picture used to be a sum of additions. In my case a picture is a sum of destructions. I do a picture \u2013 then destroy it. In the end, though, nothing is lost… But there is a very odd thing \u2013 to notice that basically a picture doesn’t change, that the first ‘vision’ remains almost intact, in spite of appearances…”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1537440177234{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”]Pablo Picasso in
\nPicasso: Forty Nine (New) Lithographs toghether with Honore Balzac’s the Hidden Masterpiece in the form of an allegory<\/a> (US Link<\/a>)
\n<\/span><\/small>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”2134″ img_size=”large” css=”.vc_custom_1537390524768{margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1537383010755{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”]Pablo Picasso, Stylized portrait of Jacqueline (1962)<\/small>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Lars von Trier uses our ability to this more abstract way of seeing thing in Dogville<\/a> (2004) (US Link<\/a>). He draws the whole decor on the ground, like a floor plan, a city map. We understand it is a village, houses a place where people live. This is a simple way of representing something (for the story) unnecessary complex.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]How the houses look doesn\u2019t matter for the story. The story is about human relationships. These relationships get extra attention because everyone is visible all the time; no wall to hide behind. The symbolic design of the \u2018decor\u2019 gives the story a symbolic load; the lives we\u2019re looking at, even though they might have been persons with names get an symbolic value too, telling a story not about humans but mankind.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”2178″ img_size=”large” css=”.vc_custom_1537447324763{margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”2179″ img_size=”large” css=”.vc_custom_1537447354345{margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”2176″ img_size=”large” css=”.vc_custom_1537446973397{margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”2177″ img_size=”large” css=”.vc_custom_1537446997058{margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1537447514478{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”]Lars von Trier, Dogville (2004)
\nIn the last shot it’s not clear if they are in the same room or not. But that doesn’t matter. The lives of these people influence each other, what one does affects the other, walls no longer protect them.
\n<\/small><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”2146″ img_size=”large” onclick=”link_image” css=”.vc_custom_1537426766581{margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1537385020115{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”]Emmanuel Guibert,
\n<\/small>How the World Was. A California Childhood (2014)<\/small>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text]But symbols don\u2019t have to take the shape or form of simplified reality, they can be more abstract and work on a more unconscious level. Emmanuel Guibert uses the same white in How the World Was: A California Childhood<\/a> (US Link<\/a>), the biography of WWII Veteran Alan Cope. He uses it to focus on the human interactions in the book; His mom dressing him, his grandpa talking him on long walks, a neighbourhood boy bullying him. These are the things that matter, where these scenes took place is just background, just the setting. He shows us what’s worth remembering.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]White background doesn\u2019t take on the same meaning in every context, though. The white in the famous and classic silent movie The Passion of Joan of Arc<\/a> (1928) gets a totally different depth. Director Carl Theodore Dreyer uses the law of simplicity and counts on the viewers understanding of symbols and uses these visual keys to show context in his movie. He uses this method to illustrate the power of the church. But he arrives at this affect through different reasoning. He said that once he understood what the story is about he wanted to show nothing but that. He didn\u2019t want to make an epic drama or a bio pic. He wanted to show Joan conviction.<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]He tossed all but the necessities to accomplish this goal; he tossed the original script deciding to use the archives and transcriptions of the real trail. Shooting everything in close-up. Focussing on faces and the facial expressions of all involved. Laying bare the innocence and bravery of Joan, the misguided and heartless corruption of the 29 cross-examinations that put her trough trail and torture. (Dreyer and Editor Marguerite Beaug\u00e9 used 1500 cuts<\/a> to get this cross-examinations effect not to create the hectic atmosphere I mentioned in the post on continuity<\/a>, but the feeling she is surrounded and has nowhere to go.)[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The power of the church is illustrated in a sober yet very effective way. Using high and low angles to show who is in power and who is overruled and powerless. The background is simple a occasional Gothic window pane sets the scene the angle the framing adding meaning; the church rules all. But what is \u2018the church\u2019 it is left \u2018blank\u2019 and gets its \u2018face\u2019 from the people representing it.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”2158″ img_size=”large” css=”.vc_custom_1537436457459{margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”2163″ img_size=”large” css=”.vc_custom_1537436199587{margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”2160″ img_size=”large” css=”.vc_custom_1537436275367{margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”2161″ img_size=”large” css=”.vc_custom_1537436251969{margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”2159″ img_size=”large” css=”.vc_custom_1537437483037{margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”2162″ img_size=”large” css=”.vc_custom_1537436227515{margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1537456556974{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”]Carl Theodore Dreyer, The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)<\/small>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]In the beautiful Three Colours Trilogy<\/a> Blue, Blanc and Rouge (US Link<\/a>) by Krzysztof Kieslowski the colours dominating the background are used to symbolize the mood of the protagonist. Each of the three movies has it\u2019s own colour and theme. The colours, resemble the colours of the French flag and symbolise the ideologies that drove the French revolution; Libert\u00e9, \u00e9galit\u00e9, fraternit\u00e9 which translates as liberty, equality and fraternity.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The atmosphere, mood and colour is all present all absorbing. This concept uses the law of simplicity in all its facets. A beautiful method with some stunning narrative impact.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]The symbols work their magic but by \u2018manipulating\u2019 the background giving it a conformity in these symbolic colours Kieslowski<\/span> makes the environment into a whole. Giving the protagonists not only a clear context but giving the surroundings, the \u2018world\u2019 the role of the antagonist in the story….[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The movies are heavy with these emotions. Colour symbolics are stretched to their max without losing their meaning, giving the film a wide emotional range. In the trilogy, “Blue” is the anti-tragedy, “White” is the anti-comedy, and “Red” is the anti-romance. Film critic Roger Eberts remarks<\/a>.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”2151″ img_size=”large” css=”.vc_custom_1537435605610{margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”2150″ img_size=”large” css=”.vc_custom_1537435627435{margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1537456447579{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Blue is about grief, loss, despair, being alone, the painful balance between fate, the freedom to choose your own path, finding yourself and obligation.<\/small>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”2152″ img_size=”large” css=”.vc_custom_1537435569728{margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”2153″ img_size=”large” css=”.vc_custom_1537435585288{margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1537456430280{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Blanc is about innocence and new beginnings, marriage, disappointment, heartlessness, hopelessness, opportunity and revenge; equality in marriage or the lack thereof and the consequences…<\/small>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”2154″ img_size=”large” css=”.vc_custom_1537435549279{margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”2155″ img_size=”large” css=”.vc_custom_1537435525428{margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1537456406145{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 15px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Rouge is about life (and death), love, passion, unfulfilled longing, judgment, acceptance and warmth.<\/small>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][lab_divider][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]Symbols can be a powerful tools in any type of narrative but with them comes grave danger and great responsibility.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Sometimes symbols get so strong we forget they are symbols and confuse them for the real deal. We start using them mindlessly, recycling them until they become meaningless and cliche, lifeless shortcuts, zombies…[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Unfortunately the use of mindless cliches does not only harm your story… Cliches, find there way easily into character design. The strong white male hero, saving the damsel in distress. Preferably blond and wearing pink so she could not possibly have saved herself. Nerds being ugly wearing glasses and turned \u2018pretty\u2019 and better going for contacts, people in wheelchairs either helpless or an amazing role model, the dumb fat guy, evil villains with bad teeth and uni brows, people of colour thieves and hoodlums, Asian sexy martial artist, Indian cabdrivers… These choices hurt people, they keep prejudice alive making people blind for the reality that is so different.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Stories are powerful. They can communicated ideas, inspire and help innovate<\/a>, they can help create understanding and empathy<\/a>, give courage, take you on adventure and give you experience making you a richer person or they can confirm petty believes and feed prejudice.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]This problem was already noticed and fought in the early Hollywood days. In 1941 a group of actors formed The Actors’ Laboratory Theatre. A politically active theatre company and acting school which “prided itself on having opened its doors to students of all races.”<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]Sadly these ideas got drowned in the fear of communisms and many actors and writers with the same convictions got blacklisted<\/a> and were boycotted.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The then most famous but now almost forgotten actor blacklisted was John Garfield, who run his production agency. He had fought to get black actor Canada Lee<\/a> cast in the role of a boxing champ in his boxing movie Body And Soul<\/a> (1947) (US Link<\/a>) directed by Robert Rossen (an inspiration for Sorcesese’s movie Raging Bull<\/a> (1980) (US Link<\/a>)). When he was asked in a production meeting; \u201cWhy you don\u2019t you just avoid any trouble and make the champion white.\u201d His answer was short and sweet: \u201cFuck you!\u201d.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Although Body & Soul was a massive hit and won Oscars an FBI informant filled a rapport containing a negative report of the movie, which they denounced for showing a \u201cnoble black man\u201d while portraying the \u201crich and successful man in a bad light\u201d.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]