Sunday, July 1, 2007

Comments on This Section of "The Clan of the Poes"

The previous page is what I believe is the end of the October installment of the 4-part story "The Clan of the Poes," as it was originally serialized from September to December 1972 issues of Bessatsu Shojo Komikku.

As you can see from the cliffhanger ending of this last segment, Edgar has inadvertently and clumsily revealed his intentions to Allan, which should lead to a very sudden change in action and course of events.

There is a concept called 起承転結 (pronounced kishoutenketsu), which literally means "intro-development-turn-conclusion" or "start-continue-change-conclusion," if you prefer. It is possible that Hagio Moto is intentionally following this specific 4-part story structure, which originated long ago with Chinese poetry, but now refers to a very popular style of story structure in Japan for longer (as well as shorter) literary pieces, as well as manga.

So the previous installment would have been the setup wherein we became familiar (or more familiar) with the main characters, were introduced to Allan, and the basic groundwork of the story was laid out. And the end of this last segment is clearly leading into a new "turn" in action and drama.

Incidentally, I had already mentioned that the psalm Allen recites on Pages 126 and 127 is Verse 19.1. This particular version is the King James Version.

No comments: