Spent, the new Alison Bechdel graphic novel is here! The top story is the return of (some of) the Dykes To Watch Out For cast – who had been – with one brief exception in 2016 – absent from our universe since 2008. Here in the pages of Alison Bechdel's Spent, we have a fictionalized "Alison", author of a graphic memoir titled Death and Taxidermy (an excerpt from which is shown to be very much in the style of Fun Home) – along with her partner, "Holly" mixing it up with a cast of characters of her own creation – Ginger, Sparrow, Stuart and several additional and adjacent characters fronm the DtWOF Universe – thus making for a bit of a hall of mirrors of art imitating life imitating art imitating life.
A central accomplishment of the work – and, implicitly, of Bechdel's career – is its simultaneous embodiment and demonstration of the reality that in the interregnum between the conclusion of the original Dykes to Watch Out For run and the publication of Spent, lesbians and lesbianism have successfully fought their way into the mainstream of American life – well, at least in Vermont. Reading Spent, it is self-evident that its cast of characters represent the diligence, ethical behavior, and common decency that we were taught to see as values central to the traditional American identity (as well as being a bit self-satisfied about it all, which, too, is a part of the American identity).
Which brings us to the title itself. What has been – is being – "spent" here? Bechdel clearly wants her readers to be considering this question. Upon opening the book, the first thing we are presented with is a table of contents showing that the entire work is organized around chapter headings taken verbatim – if more than a little ironically – from (the English translation of) Karl Marx's Das Kapital (Capital), an illustration of an open copy of which is shown below, as a clue to those who may not be familiar enough with the work to otherwise make the connection. The noun "capital" and the verb "spend" are both multivalent and related: In addition to financial capital, there is human capital, social capital, sexual capital and creative capital – to name a few – all of which are shown being spent here. The title also seems to bring with it a hint of finality, of something – some or another form of capital – having been depleted; spent, as in nothing left. One gets the sense upon completing the book, that the conclusion it has reached is that capitalism itself is now in the process of revealing itself to be a spent force.
There's a solid sneak preview that will give you a head start in reading along with a nice look at the vivid color work by Bechdel's partner Holly Rae Taylor (and solid shadowing by CCS faculty member, Jon Chad), HERE.
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