WP2: Pre-write 1

This first thing of note when comparing this comic to others (and in fact the majority of the other xkcd comics) is that it has a very simplified form. All people as simple stick figures without even the dot dot line face seen in many. Despite this, the movement between panels and the curved positions imply a stronger connection from which we can still derive feeling, etc. This, coupled with the handwriting type, gives a simple ethos, relating it as something of a quality the audience could make themselves, especially those with no artistic talent, the quality coming not from technical implementation but instead the story or dialogue occurring, again, something the audience could do themselves given the time or spark of comedic insight.

The backgrounds a similarly sparse (many times not existing), only shown when necessary to the story being told (here's an example of where a simplified background is used to tell the story but is still de-emphasized). This inclusion or exclusion strongly shows the management of the number of elements in each frame. Apart from simply not including them when not necessary to save time/work, it strongly emphasizes the elements that are left, leaving the audience no choice but to focus on them. Whenever the background or props are included in a strip it is because of their importance in the story. The only sort of background in this comic is the chair, desk, and computer that the man is sitting at, used to show, when taken with the other man's statement, that he is posting something online that somebody might find objectionable in the future (not even a floor or any other sort of environment is included). And after the the computer is no longer necessary (once the speech has started) it is no longer included, no longer needing to serve a purpose.

Another trait of many xkcd comics, this being a prime example, is the emphasis on the dialogue taking place, wherein the majority of the comedy occurs. This comic contains significantly more dialogue than most xkcd comics, to the point of emphasizing a long drawn out (and well spoken) speech. The length and coherence of this speech provides much of the comedic value created by the contrast of the unexpected final three panels. By the end, the audience is expecting a continuation of the ethos established by the long speech, finishing in a sophisticated and intelligent, even if simple, conclusion. The disparity created by the simplistic, swearing, approaching slang finale is what creates much of the humor. By doing the unexpected the audience is amused and finds novelty in the story.

Furthermore, the way the panels are split up continues to show the emphases of the comic strip, the middle panel containing the entirety of the long speech, emphasizing that its one speech and especially its length when given the context of average comic dialogues. The final three frames each contain one word in large bold type with a period, emphasizing what he is saying and that it is i.e. louder with pronounced pauses between the words.

WP1: Final Draft

Author’s Note:

When first approaching the analysis of this photograph, I didn’t have any kind of specific argument or even direction for an argument that I was thinking of taking (which is most likely the correct way to approach such analysis). This said I started with the uses of technical elements, for instance the ones I ended up using were framing, cropping, and coloration, looking for arguments that they made. However, it was still a process searching for those sub-arguments, lacking an overall direction to tie them into.

To start off, I played it safe by staying as general as I could with my thesis (stating the argument I was analyzing). My first thesis even stayed away from making even any direct argument, noting the industrial decay (my first jumping board) and the pathos developed by the elements I was discussing, “Taken in November of 1938, John Vachon’s photograph American Smelting and Refining Company: largest iron smelter in the world illustrates the industrial decay of the Great Depression and develops a tired, run-down pathos through the technical elements of framing, cropping, and coloration.” In my second draft, this evolved to a vague connection relating the pathos developed to a comparison with the attitude of the American people at the time of its taking. The thesis I ended with in my final draft was much more specific on the connections within the essay. The contextual development was also a source of change in my drafts. Although the general information remained generally the same, the organization and connotations used evolved several times. Specifically, a couple of my original wordings carried connotations of improving conditions instead of emphasizing the setbacks.

Similarly, the general ideas of the body paragraphs remained largely the same. However, several of them required wording changes or additions to emphasize their connections or impacts to the over-arching argument. By further relating the connections to the development of the thesis, it strengthened each respective sections support. Another specific expansion occurred at the end of the paragraph about the impact of the coloration. In addition to the pathos developed by the dominant grays of the image, I added a note that the fact that it’s a black and white photograph reminds the audience (especially contemporary audience) that it is a historical photo.

The biggest change from the first two drafts to the final was the explicit explanation outlining how the pathos developed by the different elements symbolized the attitude of the time. Incorporated into the conclusion because of its contextual information and final development of my thesis, it again explains the general attitude of the Great Depression and how the pathos illustrated that attitude. This not only provided corroborated my claim of the mirroring but provided a conclusion that showed the developments from the body of the essay, not merely a restatement of the introduction.

Another noted change is that I had not originally included the multimedia elements or relevant hyperlinks in my rough drafts (or citations in my first). This was not an oversight as much as, still unsure of the directions I was going to be taking (not even having a concise thesis yet), I felt that including those elements among content that was apt to change wasn’t going to be particularly useful (the main thing to discuss with any multimedia elements is there relevance to the essay and the local information of where they are in the essay, something fairly simple as long as it’s account for, and the focus of the revisions was on the content and organization of the written text). So while keeping ideas and possibilities noted, those elements were not physically included in the drafts.

First Draft

Second Draft

Statement of Purpose

Final Draft:

By 1938, the Great Depression had been going strong for almost a decade and although some improvements had been made, the second recession in 1937 had set back most of the progress made. After the second recession, unemployment had risen again to 19% and industrial production had fallen 25%. Economic recovery was slow and significant improvements were still required for a return to normalcy. In fact, it would take the United States’ sudden involvement in World War II to finally break its economic slump (Smiley). Taken in November of 1938, still before the recovery from the second recession, John Vachon’s photograph American Smelting and Refining Company: largest iron smelter in the world uses the industrial decay of the Great Depression to develop the rundown pathos of the poorly maintained environment, symbolically mirroring the general attitude of the American people from the time of its taking, through the technical elements of framing and cropping and coloration.

The framing of the photograph American Smelting and Refining Company: largest iron smelter in the world naturally creates hierarchy in its elements. The first area the eye is drawn to upon looking at the photograph is the foreground, which consists of the scrap yard and adjacent buildings. Being the closest and thus easiest to see, this gives the scrap yard an emphasis over the rest of the factory’s grounds. Furthermore, the height of the shot, possibly taken from atop a nearby building, looks into the yard and shows the factory behind but isn’t high enough to give a clear shot of the latter. This gives additional emphasis to the yard, its view being unobstructed unlike those further back. Given its prominence in the photograph’s hierarchy we take the yard and its contents to be more important than the other things in the image. Examining the yard shows that it is filled with what appears to be scrap (old metal to be re-smelted and recycled) although the piles could include trash of other sorts as well. Given the large drop in industrial production during the Great Depression, still continuing to the taking of this picture, it’s a reasonable conclusion that this scrap wasn’t being used simply because of low demand. Also given the cultural context and associations of sitting scrap metal with poorer areas (i.e. in the poor part of town or in enervated rural regions), it speaks to the general condition of the Great Depression whilst also carrying with it the pathos of the audience’s experiences (or lack thereof) with such areas. Specifically, by generating the sense of economic dilapidation and decay, the photograph develops a feeling of a lack of progress, opportunities, and even to an extent, hope.

The surrounding buildings, and indeed the rest of the yard itself, continue the dirty, worn down appearance of the scrap. The buildings, likely meant for storage instead of work, seem even broken in parts but certainly unclean and not of expensive make. This setting strengthens and reaffirms the aforementioned impact of the scrap located within. It is only in the background that the cleaner factory, and its many smoke stacks, can be seen, carrying its connotations of technology, production, and modernism. Analogously, the Great Depression gave emphasis (especially in a historical context) to the decline in production, unemployment, and economic stagnation that came with and after the initial recession, placing it in front of any continuing activity and production.

Another consideration derived from the framing and cropping of the photograph is the noted lack of any people, even any plants. First, this gives further emphasis to the other subjects of the photo, reducing the number of elements hence making it easier to distinguish the intended focus(es). By not having people included in the image, it clears the image of further clutter and takes them away as possible targets of discussion (despite the fact that their lack has sparked this note). Secondly the lack of people, and more specifically people working, further illustrates the impact that the Great Depression has had on industrial production; it certainly wouldn’t have served this argument’s purposes to show a yard crowded with men at work. The removal of the organic also serves to continue not only the industrial motif but the rundown pathos developed by the image, removing empathy and increasing the sense of desolation.

The cropping plays a role in its own right as well. Being a single photograph of this subject, the issue of cropping comes down to the question of what lies beyond the edges of the photograph and why were things included or not. First, the edges of the yard are cut off by the edges of the photograph. This denotes a lesser importance or emphasis on those things not included completely in the picture, in this case focusing on the center of the yard instead of the buildings the run off the edge, including both those in the foreground and the factory in the background. Secondly, the cropping does not include many of the boundaries of the factory grounds, only a small portion of the fence visible at the bottom of the picture. This lets the audience extrapolate the content of the image beyond its physical edges. In this picture, cropping lets us imagine the scrap yard expanding beyond those boundaries, likely surrounded then by additional industrial areas and buildings not of the American Smelting and Refining Company proper. This continuation strengthens the photograph’s argument as one that is much more universal than a particular instance, that it is a general situation instead of specific condition.

The coloration also plays a role in the development of the photograph’s arguments, or as should be said, the lack of coloration. Being a black and white photograph, it only contains the achromatic spectrum. The colors of an image contribute to the pathos therein, drawing on what the audience has learned to associate with them. This photograph is primarily made up of grays, only including small spots of strict white or black. The grayness again continues the industrial motif, mirroring the impact that the exclusion of anything organic has. This is emphasized further by the fading (likely just from the camera or developing of the photograph) and the visible, white smoke which create a sense of haze and less than clean air quality, tying again into the audience’s associations with industry. Secondly, the colors create a tired, dreary, or even gloomy pathos that ties into the aforementioned rundown pathos. By lacking any vibrant hues or even stark contrast, the coloration makes the picture seem emotionless (unlike this colored illustration of the factory). The black and white nature of the photograph also, especially for contemporary audiences, clearly reminds viewers of its historic context. To an extent, this decreases the audience’s (again, especially contemporary and younger audiences) ability to relate with the photograph, although the current recession makes such relations more apt to happen.

Knowing the context of the photograph, these combined technical elements serve as logos to the symbolic comparison of the nation’s general attitude of the time. After almost a decade of the Great Depression and shortly after a second recession, America’s economic prospects, and thus the American people’s prospect, did not lean towards the hopeful. With so many unemployed and more who lost their savings, the Great Depression didn’t breed optimism. The lack of opportunities and progress, in fact facing regression, the national outlook for life and the times to come was not good. The photograph works to mirror this state of mind by developing a similar pathos. By focusing on the dilapidation of the scrap yard and extrapolating it beyond the photograph’s edges, it emphasizes the time’s economic conditions. This coupled with the removal of the organic and the dominating use grays serves to portray the aforementioned outlook even further. Through this pathos, developed by the technical elements of framing and cropping and coloration, the John Vachon’s photograph American Smelting and Refining Company: largest iron smelter in the world illustrates and reminds its audience of this attitude.

Broad, Mark. "I remember the Wall Street Crash." BBC News. BBC News, 6 Oct. 2008. Web. 17 Feb. 2010. (Site)

Smiley, Gene. "Great Depression." Library of Economics and Liberty. Library of Economics and Liberty, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2010 (Site)