No Good at Dancing

So, I just finished my initial read through of Waltz with Bashir by Ari Folman and David Polonsky and my initial reaction feels like a big ol' 'huh'. Don't get me wrong, it's a great story, and graphics are outstanding, but it didn't really make me feel. Like emotionally. That might just be an issue with me and a poke at the fact that society today is so perpetually tuned in and over saturated in the age of a 24 hour news cycle that its darn near impossible to evoke any honest-to-god emotional response.  Time cites the story as "Exemplary... The message of the futility of war has rarely been painted with such bold strokes." On the grand scale, I get it. The whole story never really resolves anything and the main protagonist isn't able to solve his initial question. His friend's suggestion on page 91 even reinforces that assertion. His memory is only significant because he a) had significance tied to an earlier similar event and b) because the memory is absent. It isn't the presence of memory that spawns the journey, but rather the holes that exist in its place.

Technically, the novel is rendered in a style reminiscent of rotoscoping.If you aren't aware, there's a pretty awesome description of rotoscoping HERE. Yes, it's Wikipedia, but it's a fairly decent run down. There is enough detail to make it feel real,but everything past the characters-- and even some of the background characters themselves-- seem to carry the foggy importance of memory background. I mean, I know that they're 'real' in the sense that they are real places and probably real people, but they aren't the focus. The entire novel is heavily reminiscent of Waking Life, which is a pretty awesome movie that I totally recommend.

ETA (12/4) So, it's not rotoscoping, but adobe stills that are manipulated to make it look like motion. Still, pretty amazing use of technology to create some seriously stunning visuals. Even more amazing when you realize that the movie was first and the graphic novel was made from the movie's storyboard.  

I read this comic twice, I wanted to make sure I did not miss anything. This comic reads like a movie, and the almost photo-realism only adds to the effect. We are taken on a journey with Ari as he tries to find his memory about his part of the war. As the story progresses, we see the various stories of his friends. The transition between these stories is smooth. 

At first it was just a well written and drawn comic, until I heard the story from Professor Solomon. This is the story about the soldier who was able to cope with the war by seeing everything through " the camera lense". When he is looking into the eye of the dead horse the war became real to him. At this point the book became a true story. I can't explain it, but it seemed at this point I realized what I was reading a true story. 

Like with all good novels(for me anyway) you are compelled to turn the page because you must know what happens next. I felt this way throughout the book. I wanted to know who's story was next. Unfortunately the novel has left me feeling empty and annoyed. Don't get me wrong I was not expecting Ari to have some great Epiphany or anything. I feel that it just ended to abruptly, there was just death. Perhaps that was his purpose, but I fell rather cheated.