Matthew Rosenthal
English 1012
Prof Caroccio

The idea of closure in a graphic novel interested me. From my understanding, closure is how the spaces between panels of a comic are interpreted to give an implicit (and sometimes explicit) meaning to the images that were scene. The example that William Bradley gives is how, if you see batman reaching for his utility belt, a batarang flying through the air, and the Riddler being crippled by the batarang, you will naturally assume that batman threw the batarang at the Riddler to defeat him. Bradley is especially interested in the way that Bechdel uses closure to allow the reader to gain insight into her life: you see her (the main character in Fun Home) reading a certain book, and if you are familiar with the book, you will be able to assume certain things about her life. This way of communicating is more subtle than traditional ways of writing and, in a way, is more close to the way we speak (the way we imply certain things with our tone of voice, our references to pop culture, and our dialect).