fiction macroblog #1

I'm halfway into A Confederacy of Dunces by now, and I have to say I'm enjoying it.

The problem is that the cover is generally unappealing to me, so guess what I did for my blog project? 

That's right. I remade the cover. What can I say, I'm predictable!

Here's the original cover: 

To me, a cover should exemplify the book- its themes, symbols, events, etc- in a way that's interesting and eye-catching.

This is what I did: 

Let's start with color. I decided to stick with a blue, darker color scheme. This was done in reference to Ignatius Reilly's blue and yellow eyes (the yellow came off as a green, but that makes it look better in my opinion), but it was mainly geared towards the frequent mentions of smoke (even better- "blue smoke" is referenced several times as well). Throughout reading this book, though, it becomes apparent that "smoke" is primarily used in alliance with those who are hardworking in Confederacy. Take the most obvious example, Jones, a poor man who has been forced into working for a very low wage, in order to avoid being arrested. Whenever Jones is in a scene, the word "smoke" is mentioned at least once. He's even characterized as "a cloud of smoke," and serves as a symbol for poor, underpaid workers in the story. Another example of smoke is in Mr. Gonzalez, a worker at Levy Pants, one of Ignatius's temporary jobs. He smokes around ten cigarettes per day, whereas his coworker, Miss Trixie, does not smoke at all. One of the main differences in these two characters that the book provides is that Miss Trixie is old and senile, rarely doing work, whereas Gonzalez has been carrying their workload for the duration of his employment. Smoke can also be seen in the Levy Pants factory, with "smokestacks... discharged smoke of a very sickly shade." Of course, since this is a factory, workers are operating within it. A major motif and idea in the book is that the working world is brutal, and the idea of working and getting a job is seen in almost every character's plot line. The overall tone of the colors chosen is meant to show some sort of melancholy feeling, similar to what would be felt by a stressed-out businessman or underpaid worker.

There were two main symbols I chose for the next part of the design process, which is actually filling the scene with content. I can't just make it a blue-grey square. Well, I can, but that wouldn't go too well for me. The main things to note are the bottles in the background and the pot, both of which tie into the major plot points and ideas of the book. I decided that the more tangible items should be more recognizable, since it is only the cover and therefore provides a more "surface level" depiction of the book. The truer meaning behind the symbols would become more apparent upon reading the book and analyzing its contents. That's the beauty of a symbol- it can come off as meaningless, but holds much more depth. I took some inspiration from the cover of The Catcher In The Rye (please give me an A), which showed a horse symbol whose meaning may not be obvious to someone who hasn't read the book before. I enjoyed that cover. 

The pot focuses on a scene of the book that I found particularly interesting, which was when Ignatius receives a letter from his ex-girlfriend, Myrna, that essentially just insults him (all of these insults are reasonable). In disgust, Ignatius throws it into the fire that sits under the stew his mother prepared for him (Ignatius is an adult who lives with his mother). The complexity of this scene was pretty neat to me- Ignatius responds to the criticisms with simple, one-word declarations of disgust. This part stood out because of how well it describes Ignatius as a person. He lives in a delusional, selfish world, where he is perfect and "above" everyone. He calls Myrna "offensive" and seems to care very little about these apparent faults in his personality, despite Myrna pointing out obvious truths about Ignatius and how he attempts to "explain away [his] failures".

The pot, as well, is a reference to his mother- the stew inside represents Ignatius as the house-dwelling cretin he is, relying on the labors of his mother in order to get through life. Reading the scenes where his mother begs him to get a job is extremely painful. 

Ignatius is an interesting character- he constantly cites his "valve" as a source of laziness, and since the valve in question refers to a valve in his stomach, I decided that a pot would be a subtler way of addressing this (and honestly, this meaning would probably be overlooked) while also depicting another, more obvious scene. The valve is used for Ignatius to excuse his laziness- when he can't or does not want to do something, he credits it to his valve being closed. He even threatens others with his valve potentially closing- he's very dramatic. Overall, though, the pot depicts Ignatius as the lazy, foolish character he is, who uses excuses to ignore the problems and responsibilities of his existence. 

The alcohol is there too- this one's more obvious. It's the bar, another, secondary plot line to Ignatius's adventures. It's in the back because those scenes are not as prominent as those that involve Ignatius (at least they aren't yet). The bottles are knocked over and messy to represent disorder- similar to the disorder of a bar setting. The bar is the home to conflict and tense situations, whether it's Jones asking Miss Lee for a better salary or the bartender trying to ignore Ignatius and his mother. Alcohol and drinking is frequently addressed in this story, which goes hand-in-hand with the aforementioned smoking. Both are dangerous and deadly. Fun!

Stylistically, I wanted to keep the sketchier, simple coloring style that the original cover had- it was nice and tied into the goofiness of the book. Looking back I wish the smoke came out better (because I hate how it turned out), and that I used brighter colors, but I reached the point of no return. The perspective is off, too- it's my way of bringing more foolishness and zany qualities into this dull, dark scene. Plus, playing with composition is a lot of fun. 

I hope you enjoyed that. Thanks, everyone.