Paper Girls, Issues 1–5

“Horizon of expectation”¹

• Genres help readers decode and appraise new texts through prior experience with similar texts.
• Without prior SF reading, you can’t tell which elements of a given story are SF conventions, and which are specific to this work.
• But if you have read a lot of science fiction, you can recognize recurring elements (e.g., future settings, alien contact, time travel, new technologies, etc.) as science fictional

“Estrangement and cognition”²

• “Estrangement” means that we feel at some remove from the world as we know it.
  • “Defamiliarization” is also sometimes used to describe this sensation.³
• Why “estrangement and cognition?”
  • It’s possible for something to be estranging without being thought-provoking
  • Suvin says fantasy does this
  • AI slop is a good contemporary example
• Estrangement and defamiliarization demonstrate the power of art to see the world anew.

A famous example of estrangement

For most of the 20th century, speculative fiction (SF) was not considered literature

• Literature was imaginative and aesthetically ambitious writing, especially poetry, fiction, and drama.
• SF was considered entertainment, not literature, art, or philosophy
• Literature was valued because it rewarded careful, repeated reading
• SF was valued as quick and entertaining reading.
• Its modes of production and distribution reflected this:
  • Mass-market printing, pulp, genre fiction, often advertised to young readers

SF print modalities then

Aesthetic judgments that genres like SF were “trashy” reflect its modes of production:

SF print modalities now

Consumer culture has radically changed SF print modalities, such that SF collector’s editions ($100 to $250+) are much more expensive than most mass-produced hardcovers ($25-$40):

SF print modalities now, continued

The Folio Society produces expensive editions of literary works, including the traditional literary canon, such as Shakespeare and Jane Austen:

But the same company also produces editions of contemporary SF like The Martian:

Print modalities and their implicit audiences

• Pulps, newspapers, magazines: Cheap paper, cheap printing, affordable to a lot of the literate population, including those with relatively little leisure time to read (short articles, short stories, etc.)
• Mass-market paperbacks, trade paperbacks: More expensive than newspapers and magazines, but cheaper than hardcovers. Targeting a wide audience with some disposable income and some leisure time.
• Hardcover and collector’s editions: The most expensive editions targeting people who have disposable income, leisure time to read, and pay attention to literary production either as fans or connoisseurs.
• The Lord of the Rings has appeared in most of these modalities.

Print modalities and their implicit audiences, continued

• In general, literary fiction debuted in more expensive formats (e.g., hardcover with dust jackets), and was later published in cheaper formats (e.g., trade paperbacks and mass-market paperbacks)
  • This implies a potential movement from elite culture to mass culture.
• In general, SF debuted in cheaper formats (e.g., pulps, mass-market paperbacks), and was later published in more expensive formats to indicate its consecration (e.g., collector’s editions)
  • This implies a potential movement from mass culture to elite culture.

What is a novum?

• Latin for “new thing”
• A device, especially in science fiction, that makes a fictional world recognizably different from the author’s.
• The novum causes both estrangement and cognition.
  • e.g., time travel

What is close reading?

• Focusing intensively on choices in one or more parts of a text
• Interpreting the relationship between choices made in those parts and the text as a whole

A classic example of close reading from SF

• Why is it called The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)?⁴
  • “Ounces” is abbreviated “oz.” Gold is measured in ounces.
  • In the 1896 US presidential election, the biggest point of debate was the gold standard. Should the dollar be backed by gold alone, or by gold and silver?
    • “Free silver” would put more money in circulation, which would have helped indebted farmers.
    • Keeping the gold standard favored banks and creditors.
  • Dorothy walks the yellow brick road in silver shoes (the film changes them to ruby).
    • At the end of the gold road, there is an allegedly powerful wizard who turns out to be a fraud.
    • Dorothy then learns that her silver shoes could have taken her home all along.
• Interrogating one word (“Oz”) reveals this latent meaning.

Comics and speculative fiction (SF) are closely connected

• Not all comics are SF
  • e.g., Charles Schulz’s Peanuts is not
• But many of the most popular comics are SF
  • Superheroes like Spider-Man
  • Fantasy comics like Monstress
  • Horror comics like Swamp Thing

Similarities

• Published in individual issues (serialized)
• Sequential art (i.e., ordered panels with gutters)
• Art style is cartoony (simplified and expressive)
• Speech bubbles with lettering
• Sound effects (e.g., BLAM)
• Emphasis on spectacle
• There is not one “author”—it’s a team effort (writer, artist, colorist, letterer)

Differences from other comics

• Stars four twelve-year-old girls rather than adult men
• Story is set in a specific time and place: suburban Ohio on November 1, 1988
• Finite story with a planned ending, not an unlimited serial (Batman can always save Gotham from another villain)
• Invented symbols for the “alien” language (aliens are often able to communicate in English)

Connections to SF traditions

• Explicit references to SF works (e.g., The War of the Worlds)
• Kids-on-bikes iconography links to E.T. (1982)
• Horror movies (Halloween costumes)
• Futuristic technology (e.g., time travel, ray gun)
• Cyborgs
• “Alien” languages (unknown symbols, future English dialect)
• Prehistoric creatures (pterosaurs)

Distinctions from the SF tradition

• Science fiction is usually set in the future, but PG is set in an alternate version of its authors’ past
• Alternate history overlaps with real history (e.g., Reagan)
• Heroes are ordinary girls in Ohio working a paper route, not scientists or chosen ones
• Old technology like walkie-talkies emphasized
• Girls don’t understand the science, so neither do the readers
• Generational conflict (kids vs. adults, present vs. future) rather than e.g., human vs. alien

The paper girls

• Erin Tieng: “the new girl.” Kind, rule-following, sensitive
• Tiffany “Tiff” Quilkin: smart, optimistic, interested in technology (e.g., walkie-talkies, video games)
• MacKenzie “Mac” Coyle: the first girl to deliver papers in the area, quick to anger, uncomfortable with emotion, uses homophobic slurs, seemingly poorer than some of the other paper girls
• Karina J. “KJ” Brandman: intelligent, loyal, athletic (field hockey), guarded

Seven types of word–image relationship⁵

1. Word specific — the words tell the narrative; the image ornaments it.
2. Picture specific — the inverse.
3. Duo specific — words and images carry the same message.
4. Additive — the words amplify or elaborate an image that is telling the story, or vice versa.
5. Parallel — words and images run on apparently separate tracks.
6. Montage — words are absorbed into the image and become part of it.
7. Inter-dependent — words and images convey something together that neither could convey independently

The artists on the look of Paper Girls

Themes and topics

• Coming-of-age
• Childhood vs. adulthood
• 1980s US suburbia
• Friendship
• Sexism
• Homophobia
• Class
• Media (e.g., newspapers)
• Communication
• Taking responsibility for the consequences of your decisions

The language of the time-traveling teenagers

• Heck and Naldo speak a future English that the book renders in unfamiliar symbols, but it’s a substitution cipher.
  • This means that each symbol directly corresponds to one English letter or punctuation mark.
• Puzzles, codes, and ciphers like this are common in SF texts.
• Solving these is a different kind of “close reading” than the interpretive close reading we were discussing before.