Textual Poaching

            First, I made a mistake. I forgot that the text we poached needed to be older than us. Princess Mononoke came out in ’97. Miyazaki is, however, an old man kind of guy and Princess Mononoke is a movie shaped by Japanese history that is much older than I am. It feels old, so at least there’s that.

            The identity I negotiated in my textual poaching comic is “boy” and “activist.” “Boy activist.” I’m a boy, so is Prince Ashitaka. He is struck with a curse and told that there is “evil at work in the land to the west” that he must confront with “eyes unclouded by hate.” In the modern world I feel struck with many curses. Depression, anxiety, alienation, eczema, maladjustment, addiction, etc. And lots of things tell me that there is evil at work in the west. Capitalism, consumerism, celebritism, hegemony, domination. I feel like I have some sort of call similar to Prince Ashitaka’s, a much vaguer call, to become an activist who does good in the world beyond my comfortable/understood home.

            But, where Prince Ashitaka immediately receives the call to act departing the very night he hears it, I get sidetracked by all the “things” I like and end up stopping before I ever really get started. I like, video games, candy, looking stuff up, buying cool stuff, thinking about what I’m going to do someday, etc. I like a bunch of gluttonous, selfish, consumerist stuff that I’ve liked since I was little, and I very often occupy a very traditional male role in which I forgot to do my part in my household because I’m absorbed in a game. I’m actively changing this role for myself, but it’s been a significant part of my identity my whole life until now.

            I negotiated the text by delaying Prince Ashitaka from his journey. He didn’t quite hear what the village priestess asked him to do. If she asked him what she said, he could probably repeat it, almost word for word, but he didn’t really internalize it. He’ll leave eventually, and when he does, he’ll probably do a good job. Delaying and playing videogames for too long will make him feel embarrassed though, so he might not be very polite when he leave. He’ll also need to rush and hurry which won’t necessarily stop him from getting the job done. It will, however, increase his stress and anxiety making him a pain to live with.

            I tried to do what Henry Jenkins described, performing “home improvement” on the text. I don’t usually do that, I think I feel pretty separate from texts. But it was a fun and productive exercise. In my case, it let me wrestle with what I feel is holding me back from developing my identity into what it could be. I’ve been thinking a lot about Early Cartoons, and Early Animation as well as Jan Svankmajer’s animation and Norman McLaren’s. They all operate on principles of transformation and metamorphosis, a principle which so seldom applies to people who are rather inert and dead. I don’t want to avoid facing a world that needs changing forever, pursuing consumerist pleasures that stick me to the same spot. I want to unstick myself and because active, an activist like Prince Ashitaka.

Historical Script

https://WriterDuet.com/script#QNTNE_72AKRQKVEEUFZ

Artist's Statement

In working on Jerry and Jimmy one of the priorities of the story that we wanted to highlight specifically was historical accuracy. This fairly mundane, humorous event is complete true. My grandfather still takes great pride in telling it, knowing full well how idiotic it makes him sound. While a few events have been modified slightly, including Glen being an amalgamation of two people that Jerry was actually there with, and some of the more humorous signs, the majority of the story, like Jimmy Carter’s visit, the botched handshake, the sign “Not Just Peanuts”, and Carter’s interview with Playboy (including the praying 25 times a day), is accurate. Unfortunately, Jimmy Carter and my grandpa never made a 1980 run at the White House together, which is probably a good thing.

            While the story is already inherently funny, one of the reasons we went all-out in regard to comedy in the piece, something we both feel is an asset here, is because of a historical source found in preparing to pitch Jerry and Jimmy. A 1976 article found talked about three farmers trying to go to meet Jimmy Carter, whose likeness they had captured in an oversized papier mache peanut. Ultimately, they failed, but the bizarre nature of the story inspired our own, hopefully positively.

            The story itself features some pretty interesting commentary on the way that we perceive celebrity. The chaos of the crowd, plus the extremely embarrassed reaction that Jerry has to the mishap, is heightened by the presence of Jimmy Carter. We see Jerry is elated to speak with Jimmy Carter, envisioning a bright, if wholly unrealistic, future with the man. Upon realizing he’s speaking and shaking hands with Glen, he’s mortified. Furthermore, we’re constantly seeing how different people perceive the politician. We see signs that support Carter and signs that don’t. Jerry seems to be more interested in meeting Jimmy Carter than Glen is. Celebrity, like history, is just as much influenced by perception as it is by fact. Jerry and Glen, our protagonists, represent this ideal fairly well. Their behavior and actions are influenced considerably by the context of the situation.

             Writing Jerry and Jimmy, we started out with the desire to write something that was true and funny. As we wrote, we were pleased with the interesting ideas presented that we were able to work in between the humor and truth of the subject matter. While we could have written the script to be more focused on further examination of how context impacts action, we are pleased with the good balance we were able to work out in Jerry and Jimmy.