Embroideries by Marjane SatrapiMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
I was disappointed by this thin volume, not because it was thin, but because it was flat. The narratives didn't engage me, the characters seemed empty and wooden, and the issues were too conventional. The art struck me as rushed and sloppy - not like the iconic Persepolis, which I loved.
Basically, this is a graphic novel illustrating an afternoon of women's gossip. Around the samovar, nine women gossip about their own and others' sex lives. Marji, our narrator, is mostly just an observer in this book. I missed her playing a more active role.
I suppose it didn't help that just the day before, I had cracked open Alison Bechdel's comic collection, The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For. Bechdel's drawings have to be pored over and admired at length. I found myself studying each page and re-reading several times before moving on to the next installment. Her characters have so much individuality and personality and the drawings are full of subtlety, love, passion and humor.
In contrast, Satrapi's figures float on a white background and are only drawn in two poses, in profile or facing fully forward, contributing to the feeling of flatness. The characters were hard for me to recognize or distinguish between at times. The figures are stiff and don't move naturally. The drawings just don't seem very imaginative or well-designed; witness horrible disembodied lips and the overused talking heads (on nearly every page).
And then there's the Bechdel test. The Bechdel test (originating in Dykes to Watch Out For) can be applied to both film and literature:
1. Does it have at least two women in it,
2. Who, at some point, talk to each other,
3. About something besides a man.
Nina Power, author of One-Dimensional Woman, in which she cites the Bechdel test, goes on to say "Once you know about the test, it's impossible not to apply it" (39).
What is this a test of? Loosely, of a work's feminist credentials: how far does a work break out of the conventional mold, in which women are portrayed through the male gaze and who are always defined in relation to men? How radically does the work operate to free women from the confinements of patriarchal society?
Was Satrapi aiming to write an emancipatory, feminist graphic novel with Embroideries? Perhaps not. In any case, Embroideries fails the Bechdel test. Yes, it's full of women, and they do lots of talking, but men are their only subject.
Men: how to attract them, how to keep them, how to deceive them, how to leave them. Plastic surgery (including breast and nose jobs) to make oneself more attractive, and even vaginal enhancement surgery, to restore the appearance of virginity, are the topics of conversation.
This is not to say that Satrapi failed at what she set out to do. It's just to say that at this particular moment, my reading of Embroideries is that it is anything but feminist. Unfortunately, it also did not strike me as particularly well done.
Perhaps Alison Bechdel is to blame for setting the bar so high.
I read this for the Women Unbound Challenge and the People of Color Reading Challenge.
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