Introspection & Ideology
As I read through Frank Miller’s 300 again and again, counting panels, analyzing every little detail, a shocking realization began to hit me.
I have been striving to attack my pre-conceived biases as a result of consuming the Snyder 300 film as a young teen. By going through the graphic novel to count panels, I was focused on identifying the disparity between representation on the pages. I am focused on things like how many panels depict women, Persians of color, and those with physical deformity versus strong white men. In addition to basic counting of representation, I sought to classify some of the panels as negative depictions — i.e. naked women, Persians as dark evil beings, and namely the hunchback Ephialtes as also evil — compared to the heroic and strong images of white Spartans.
I am using strategies of semiotics as outlined by Roland Barthes book Myth to identify the signs and ideologies of these panels. By doing this, I attempted to support my connotative interpretation of these panels as negative.
At many points, I found it easy to derive the negative connotations I was looking for; however, there was a major insight in my own mind.
As a writer and storyteller myself, I couldn’t help but understand why and how Frank Miller may have been encouraged to present these ideologies.
The Persians were the enemies of his narrative. Ephialtes is the evil traitor who betrays his kinsmen. The Spartan warriors need to be depicted as strong, heroic, and powerful. Was Miller trying to simply tell his narrative and establish his characters, or did he have this subversive plot to offend those with special needs and those of color?
I suddenly realized that perhaps the answer to that question doesn’t matter.
As artists, we need to be aware of our impact on our audiences. This is already intrinsic in efforts to sell art and narratives; Miller wants his audience to feel the stress and excitement of war. But he should be able to recognize and mitigate the negative feelings that also may be enforced through his powerful medium.
Yet another difficult realization the came from this realization is that I was adversely impacted by Miller’s depictions which were translated to the film version. As a straight white male who grew up in a rural California community, I am already susceptible to racial bias and other discrimination in general. My young humor was tainted by these issues, but as I have grown, I have made conscious efforts to counteract the prior judgements I have.
Working on this project as expanded my ability to recognize and decode how these images impact me and impact others. I have hopes that this project helps my own art as I carefully craft representation in my writing.
