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The Cape makes use of many of the defining features of Elit put forth by Hayle’s. Specifically there are scenes where text does not immediately appear but is timed to fade in and out, emerging for a short while and then disappearing. This is not possible in works of traditional print media as words appear in a particular order, and are at best (with comics and non-linear texts) disordered. The Cape juxtaposes text next to, and inserts text on top of pictures. While print works may choose to place text separate from pictures or embed it on top, rarely will a work do both. This ability of the text to work with or in contrast to other media gives the impression that the text is both weighty and weightless. The text can anchor the pictures, or it may float above it, or it may become obscured by it entirely.
The Cape by J.R. Carpenter is a work of compiled artwork with an invented story. Each page is a unique experience involving a government issue graphic combined with a pseudo-true (fictitious) story interwoven. The pictures are all black and sometimes pieces are ‘sliced’ out of the original revealing a glimpse of another black and white image beneath. Other images are merely graphs or charts that are emotionless at best.
These images, if taken on their own, convey a heavy sense of sadness through the bleak imagery of empty beaches and the use of black and white as the main color palette. The story that is loosely pieced together through the pictures ameliorate the weighty feelings and have a quality of reminiscence about them that parallels how a child would retell a story (indeed the pictures, obviously antique, also parallel that feeling but only within the context of the story). In this way the heavy kinesthetic feeling is lifted from the pages through the context of the story.
Undressing After Work. Here is the scenario, you’ve just worked a 12 hour shift on Black Friday at a retail store at the mall. You drag your exhausted shell home and into the bathroom. Slowly you remove your uniform. First the hat comes off and you can feel the pores on your head sighing with the delight of fresh air. Next come the shoes (oops, forgot to take those off at the door didn’t we?) and again a chorus of appreciation erupts from your swollen feet. As each garment is shed you feel exponentially lighter. Finally the last fetter of clothing falls to the floor and you almost imagine the light cotton thudding like steel. As you stare at the pile of disheveled apparel you think something magical must have happened. Surely the clothes on the floor weigh no more than 5 pounds, and yet, now free of the uniform you feel as though you are Atlas, and you just shrugged.
You are experiencing lightness. The emblem I chose to represent lightness is a uniform crumpled on the floor. Many a day have I come home and experienced an otherworldly sensation of lightness just by changing out of my work uniform. The action of taking off ones clothes is simple, repeated daily, and generally mundane, and yet in the context of an especially long day, removing my uniform transforms from a mundane exercise into a blissful rebirth.
The Runner’s High. When the body undergoes a physically taxing, stressful, or pain situation it naturally releases endorphins from pituitary glands. These endorphins are chemically similar to opiates. They block pain nerve endings from connecting and thus alleviate the feeling of pain a person would normally feel after injury.
Run Run Run as fast as you can!
In this manner a situation that would normally be construed as negative (working out [ick]) or worse (physical accidents) can result in the exact opposite reaction. Much like literature then, the body is able to lighten a situation through the acute release of endorphins. There is also a certain sense that although the feeling is somewhat artificial – that is that the feeling doesn’t match up with the situation – one can genuinely feel a certain way.
Calvino describes lightness as that attribute of literature that removes the weight of the world from the reader. It is the ability of a text to speak of heavy matters in such a way that renders them them weightless. He uses the symbol of hopping over a gravestone to show how even in a regularly heavy situation one may attain a modicum of lightness. In contrast with lightness is heaviness, a quality that demands attention. Heaviness can be thought of as potent words that mire the reader and would put the world atop Atlas’ shoulder.
Heaviness then could take a situation light in connotation and shroud it in the shadows. A contrasting analogy would be the news of a cat being rescued from a tree (an airy situation indeed) being recounted with such words as to evoke worry and consternation on the listener. In terms of perspective, then, lightness would clearly place things in perspective while refreshing and absolving doubts whereas heaviness would skew perspectives while suffocating and multiplying doubts.
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