Craig Thompson - BLANKETS - Analysis

Carson and Sean tackle the immensely influential Blankets by Craig Thompson, and talk the formal aspects of the book, as well as the possible therapeutic strengths (and potential limitations) of autobiographical comics.
Blankets
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Living The Line
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Carson Grubaugh
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Sean Robinson
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Living The Line intro animation produced by Matt Battaglia
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[@WARdROBEPlaysWWII]

I read blankets 18 years ago and my remembrance having not looked at it for 18 years: beautiful (symbolism, art, and meanings) and at the same time awful (too good of a depiction of truly awful things that people do to other people.). Deep and sad enough that I didn’t need to return to it. Your channel (recently discovered) is so good because you talk about the art and meanings behind the art in ways I’ve never Thought of. Now, I wish there was a better platform for this but I would love more info on the Plato Christianity discussion. I just did a quick search, but I would love to know more from your perspective. So good.

[@LivingtheLine]

@@WARdROBEPlaysWWII thank you very much for your kind and thoughtful comment.

[@buzzawuzza3743]

This was a library book a lot more than it was ever a comic shop book. Like Why I Hate Saturn.

[@clubgrubbug]

That is a great distinction to make. If the book market had been bigger back then it would have really killed, I am sure.

[@LivingtheLine]

@@clubgrubbug I'm pretty sure it was wildly successful in the book market. Paved the way for broader GN acceptance, in fact.

[@clubgrubbug]

@@LivingtheLine Well, thank you Craig Thompson, then!

[@dvhstudios]

Hey Mr. Grubaugh, I'm confused, I was sure that in the video about Maus with your mom you mentioned being Jewish yet in this video you talk about your Christian upbringing.

[@clubgrubbug]

That is a very common reaction, based on a strange misconception that being a "Jew" means a practicing member of Judaism rather than a member of a bloodline. Hitler wasn't trying to eliminate a religion, he was committing genocide on an ethnic group. It is a bloodline lineage that is maternal. If your mom has Jewish blood you are a Jew according to the rules of the ethnicity. My mom is what people call a Messianic Jew, a person of Jewish decent who believes that Jesus was the Messiah predicted in the Torah, basically an ethnic Jew who is a practicing Christian. Modern religious Jews do not believe Jesus was the prophesied Messiah, and so stick to the Old Testament. Messianic Jews believe he was, so add the New Testament to the Old and become Messianic Jews. Muslims believe Jesus was just another Prophet, like Abraham or Moses, as well as Muhammad. People often misunderstand these as entirely separate religions, rather than Judaism and two debatable extensions thereof; the three major Abrahamic Religions.

[@dvhstudios]

@@clubgrubbug Thanks for clearing that up.

[@dvhstudios]

@@clubgrubbug Although (maybe I shouldn't say more about this since I am clearly ignorant about the subject), I think your use of the word "misconception" is imprecise since a Caucasian North American can convert to Buddhism, but they cannot convert to become Asian. It appears that this is not the case for the Jewish identity, which is probably why I was confused or how it can lead to confusion.

[@clubgrubbug]

@@dvhstudios Yeah, it is a problem of using the same word for two different things. But, the religion is tied to the ethnicity so closely, believing that the Lineage of Abraham is what makes a Jew a Chosen One, that it makes internal sense. These are the religious rules the members of the ethnic group are to follow. Not religiously Jewish enough to understand how conversion works in that model. I assume strictly Orthodox Jews try to not marry outside of the bloodline and more modernized Jews believe in conversion. Obviously Messianic Jews believe Jesus solved the issue by expanding the Savior function to Gentiles (non-Jews) as well. Which is probably part of the issue an Orthodox Jew woukd take with a Messianic Jew. But, if you are not spiritual at all, like myself, all of the above sounds totally silly and I just mean it in the sense of a Maternally-determined bloodline.