Escapism can be a reward to seek through the indulgence of fiction. Stories have the ability to immerse into different worlds and lives separate from one’s own. Fiction may provide refuge from anything between daily stressors and long term trauma. However, fiction may not always serve as a means to escape one’s reality. Through One Hundred Demons, Lynda Barry demonstrates how fiction may not always serve as a literary escape from one’s life but rather a means to stay and endure difficult memories and conditions. Barry uses text and art to anchor her fictive elements to harsh truths as opposed to using them to alter key events in her life toward fantastical versions. She asserts that escapism is not always the answer and that the good or bad
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In “Magic”, Barry describes her best friend Ev who was “two years younger” than Lynda (102). Similarly, in “San Francisco”, Barry describes her best friend Gladys who was “about to start the 5th grade” as Lynda was entering the seventh grade (127). Both stories describe Lynda’s estrangement from her best friend “once [she] turned 13” and became “all teenagerish” (103, 127). Both “Magic” and “San Fransisco” describe the same schism between Lynda and her best friend occurring at the same period in her life. The same event is described in two different but this same friend is given two different names in the textual narrative. This conflict within the textual narrative suggests it is not an entirely reliable account. At most, one of the two names are real but there exists a sense of artifice in the way both stories are told as though they were different. Barry has included fictional elements to the textual accounts of her withdrawal from her best friend demonstrating the text is no less fictional than the …show more content…
Barry asks “which moments make up who we are”, and whether it is some or “all of them” (36). Because of her uncertainty, Barry must revisit a wide range of memories, both good and bad, to find which moments hold the makings of her identity. For example, in “Dancing”, Barry describes “the groove...we’re born with and we lose” in the process of growing up (48). It bespeaks of a child’s fearlessness in the face of judgement and expectation. Barry states this quality in babies “is always lost” and “very hard to get back” (46). She describes babies as “keepers of the groove”, the purest version of a child with the undiluted? capacity to dance without reproach?. Lynda stopped dancing when her peer revealed she was “something of a spaz” (44). Her friend’s words discouraged her from dancing such that the now self-conscious Lynda withdrew from dancing. “Music sounded less wonderful” and dancers “looked less beautiful, and more insane”
In “Magic”, Barry describes her best friend Ev who was “two years younger” than Lynda (102). Similarly, in “San Francisco”, Barry describes her best friend Gladys who was “about to start the 5th grade” as Lynda was entering the seventh grade (127). Both stories describe Lynda’s estrangement from her best friend “once [she] turned 13” and became “all teenagerish” (103, 127). Both “Magic” and “San Fransisco” describe the same schism between Lynda and her best friend occurring at the same period in her life. The same event is described in two different but this same friend is given two different names in the textual narrative. This conflict within the textual narrative suggests it is not an entirely reliable account. At most, one of the two names are real but there exists a sense of artifice in the way both stories are told as though they were different. Barry has included fictional elements to the textual accounts of her withdrawal from her best friend demonstrating the text is no less fictional than the …show more content…
Barry asks “which moments make up who we are”, and whether it is some or “all of them” (36). Because of her uncertainty, Barry must revisit a wide range of memories, both good and bad, to find which moments hold the makings of her identity. For example, in “Dancing”, Barry describes “the groove...we’re born with and we lose” in the process of growing up (48). It bespeaks of a child’s fearlessness in the face of judgement and expectation. Barry states this quality in babies “is always lost” and “very hard to get back” (46). She describes babies as “keepers of the groove”, the purest version of a child with the undiluted? capacity to dance without reproach?. Lynda stopped dancing when her peer revealed she was “something of a spaz” (44). Her friend’s words discouraged her from dancing such that the now self-conscious Lynda withdrew from dancing. “Music sounded less wonderful” and dancers “looked less beautiful, and more insane”