A review by kinbote4zembla
Ripple: A Predilection for Tina by Dave Cooper
4.0
I don't know where to start with this. The most obvious thing, maybe, to a reader who browses through this in the store would be the frank (read: pornographic) depiction of an odd relationship. And, in the latter half of the work, it threatens to overwhelm the narrative. But that could very well be the point, so it doesn't feel right to discuss that aspect negatively.
The trickiest thing, for me, though isn't the sex. It is the suggestion that Tina is underage that really bothers me. Nothing is definite, sure, but the possibility alone nearly taints the reading experience, especially since that part of the book is presented almost as a twist. I don't know. This is a tricky area in art, in general. Is a representation of something dark, or awful, or illegal, really immoral? How do we reconcile our moral judgment of the act with a representation of the act? There are no definite answers.
And I would say that it speaks to the skill with which this "graphic novel" was made that I've rated it rather highly.
This is a work in which a lonely, isolated man finds solace in someone who is everything that is not ideal in his world. She is overweight, she is "ugly" (Tina's illustration borders the grotesque), she is stupid, she is ignorant of art, and she is young (Martin, the narrator, is 38 and balding).
I would argue that all of this is metaphorical. Why do we idealize things? Is it because Martin is alone and unsuccessful and broke - that he represents everything that is not ideal - that he finds solace in someone like him? At first, he thinks Tina is his foil. But she isn't. Tina is Martin. And in a Persona-level identity swap, the latter half of the work finds Martin in Tina's latex suit, imagining himself crawling into her skin so that he can become her.
It is really Martin that is grotesque. It is his insecurities and his anxieties projected onto the girl that makes this work really powerful.
Power relations, art, sex, all of these things are discussed. And, oddly, unexpectedly, this story has a heart. It's just a dark heart.
4 Premature Ejaculations out of 5
The trickiest thing, for me, though isn't the sex. It is the suggestion that Tina is underage that really bothers me. Nothing is definite, sure, but the possibility alone nearly taints the reading experience, especially since that part of the book is presented almost as a twist. I don't know. This is a tricky area in art, in general. Is a representation of something dark, or awful, or illegal, really immoral? How do we reconcile our moral judgment of the act with a representation of the act? There are no definite answers.
And I would say that it speaks to the skill with which this "graphic novel" was made that I've rated it rather highly.
This is a work in which a lonely, isolated man finds solace in someone who is everything that is not ideal in his world. She is overweight, she is "ugly" (Tina's illustration borders the grotesque), she is stupid, she is ignorant of art, and she is young (Martin, the narrator, is 38 and balding).
I would argue that all of this is metaphorical. Why do we idealize things? Is it because Martin is alone and unsuccessful and broke - that he represents everything that is not ideal - that he finds solace in someone like him? At first, he thinks Tina is his foil. But she isn't. Tina is Martin. And in a Persona-level identity swap, the latter half of the work finds Martin in Tina's latex suit, imagining himself crawling into her skin so that he can become her.
It is really Martin that is grotesque. It is his insecurities and his anxieties projected onto the girl that makes this work really powerful.
Power relations, art, sex, all of these things are discussed. And, oddly, unexpectedly, this story has a heart. It's just a dark heart.
4 Premature Ejaculations out of 5