Sophie Collins in Currently and Emotion states, “Ekphrasis is a mode plagued by sexist designs due to the wholesale reliance of many of its critics on the analogy of the male gaze. The fact, then, that Allen is a female looking in ‘4chan Poems’ is central to the text’s dynamic, especially given their operating from within 4chan’s overtly misogynistic environment. Here, just as in the gallery or museum, women experience primarily absence, except in images that do not necessarily reflect their own sense of themselves.”
Exp. From Rachel Allen's 4chan Poems
“Animu&Mango” /a/
The main bit’s where Naru and Kietaro kiss and, in character, Kietaro and Declan
who lived in Pensilva and had a cast and wore school uniform even after school (poor)
and I was Naru. In one scene I made Declan promise we’d go away to college together
but I don’t think he understood, we were far beyond the slap-pink and heavy breathing of
a slow Chinese burn but would carry on doing them in silence or burn shag bands on hay
bales that were shrink wrapped in the nearly-dark and as he burnt grass I dreamt heavily
and cleanly about our future together it was in truth a sluggish start anyway he’s in the
navy now and probably knows how to make a promise.
For my “Emerging Ekphrasis” series, I wanted to mimic Allen’s ekphrasis poetry in which she narrates the pictures posted on 4chan.org as a defiance to the male gaze. I chose her poem ANIMU&MANGO/a/ due to the fact that Allen was not only criticizing the misogynistic environment of the 4chan forum but the Anime and Manga industry as a
culture that flourishes on the presentation of women primarily for the male gaze and as spectacles or commodities to be won.
Emerging Ekphrasis: /a/—Anime & Manga
PTSD 'Her Fate'
For my poem, I chose a scene from an anime titled Sword Art Online Gun Gale Online due to the fact that the anime is based off a light novel series by Reki Kawahara: (Sword Art Online Phantom Bullet). In the novel, Sinon is a 16 year old girl who suffers from PTSD due to a traumatic incident that occurred in her past—(Shino was witness to a
post office armed robbery and in self-defense she kills the criminal with his own handgun—she was 11 years old at the time). Sinon isn’t afraid to face her trauma head-on and as therapy she delves into the virtual game world of Gun Gale Online, facing the very object that triggers her panic attack—guns. Once inside the Battle Royale she encounters
the gun from her past—Type 54 Black Star and suffers an in-game panic attack but recovers on her own merit and with dignity. However, the anime changes this approach of self-sufficient Sinon in favor of a helpless, shattered, Sinon making her a clichéd “damsel-in-distress” turned “manic-pixie-dream girl” in order to transfer the heart of the story over to the male protagonist, Kirito— (granted he suffers from his own fair share of trauma) but still the inconsistencies are uncalled for.
“Allen decontextualizes the visual materials on the 4chan boards, selecting images
that correspond with adolescent experiences—both her own and countless others from the
born-digital generation—and reappropriates them as unlikely emblems of girlhood.”
(Collins 202)
Likewise, I decided to choose the scene that was reimagined inside the anime and rewrite the story as is written through the eyes of Sinon in the original novel to take back what was erased and maintain the true trauma Sinon suffers as opposed to the display of typical “teen-girl angst” used inside the anime. The poem instead, seeks to delve into Sinon’s traumatized mind and her experience as an adolescent girl who is battling PTSD and uses online gaming as a coping mechanism for therapy. . .
'Her Fate'
She might be able to accept her fate, to acknowledge that she was meant to die
here. But getting him involved, that innocent boy. . .he was like my mom. Sinon thought.
As a matter of fact, she hadn’t made lengthy contact with another person like this for
several years. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d cried in front of someone.
And as his hands stroked her hair comfortingly she said, “[Kirito], Your hands feel like
my mom’s.”
The main bits where Sinon and Kirito are stranded in the desert cave and Shino as
Sinon and Kazuto as Kirito and both are trapped with their own trauma, intertwined
suffering alone together. And I was Sinon and I told Kirito that I was tired of living in
fear and didn’t care if I died and I wanted to die—that it was probably my fate—to live
alone and to die alone. He told me that it was impossible for people to die alone—that
when someone dies, they also die within those who knew them. So I said, I never
entrusted myself to anyone. But he yelled at me, “We’re involved in each other’s lives
now aren’t we?! There’s already a Sinon within me!” So I took him by the collar and I
shook him as I screamed, “In that case, protect me for the rest of your life!” And so that
day, trapped in the cave, unable to escape, confronted by the phantom of my past, Kirito,
made me a promise, but I told him, “Knowing you, you’ve probably got some crazy idea
in your head that you need to ‘protect me’ or something.” His head tilted slant and he
flashed me that sarcastic smirk of his. I wanted to slash that smile off his adorably girlish
face as I spat, “Well, that’s crap! I can take care of myself! I hate you!” A pang of sweet
pain stung my heart as I cried, “I can take care of you!” And as the tears streamed down
my cheeks, I collapsed against him and whispered, “Even though I hate you. . .let me lean
on you. . . awhile longer.”
Emerging Ekphrasis: /a/—Anime & Manga
'Her Light'
"Allen decontextualizes the visual materials on the 4chan boards, selecting images that correspond with adolescent experiences—both her own and countless others from the born-digital generation—and reappropriates them as unlikely emblems of girlhood." (Sophie Collins Currently and Emotion 202)
I decided to explore the idea of acceptance through an ekphrasis poem. To connect to Rachael Allen's 'emblems of girlhood' would require a little background on adolescent psychology. Erik Erikson's 5th stage of Psychosocial Stages of Development is Identity vs. Role Confusion in which the main virtue is Fidelity and the main question being:
Who Am I and Where Do I Belong? Teenagers at this stage are trying to fit in, to find a place of belonging and acceptance in which they will feel cherished and valued for their presence by whomever they are seeking solace from. This pursuit of acceptance can then be extended to the world in its entirety in which even in our modern society we are constantly bombarded by all of the prejudices, racism, discrimination, segregation, xenophobia, and hate that reveal themselves through people who succumb to their fears of the unknown. I decided that this poem would be dedicated to the hardships and struggles of people who have been marginalized so that the poem could be held up as a sort of mirror so that the people may see themselves within it and find hope. I chose Akatsuki no Yona in imitation of Rachael Allen's 4chan poems as "an emblem of girlhood" particularly because Yona is a Princess and as Sarah Crew states in Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess: "I am a Princess. All girls are. Even if they live in tiny old attics. Even if they dress in rags, even if they aren't pretty, or smart, or young. They're still Princesses! Whatever comes. . . cannot alter one thing. If I am a Princess in rags and tatters, I can be a Princess inside. It would be easy to be a Princess if I were dressed in cloth of Gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all of the time
when no one knows it."
Sinha
I had been cursed with the power of the blue dragon so that my eyes could see
further than anyone's in all the land; but even though I could see brilliantly, all that I saw
had no light.
For 18 years all I knew was the darkness. I was enveloped in it, nurtured by it,
found solace in it. Until the day you came to take me away. Do you know how hard it
was for me to turn you away? My heart felt like it was being torn apart. I cast you out in
order to protect you and yet you are the one who ended up saving me. You granted me
release in an offer of friendship—that simple gesture of acceptance was something I had
yearned for for so long but had forgotten. And even though they said I had been cursed
with the power of destruction, you decided you could live with that if it meant that I
could stay by your side.
Before, no one ever acknowledged me as a person, but you accepted me as human.
When you found me I was alone—an outcast, shunned by my own people, banished to
live by myself in an endless tunnel of darkness, till you brought me out from my isolation
and into the light. All my life, I had no name, so you gave me the first name I ever had—
Sinha meaning 'moonlight'.
Despite the darkness, he was peaceful and warm. He's a kind person. Why doesn't
anyone try to understand the Blue Dragon's kindness? I knew right when I saw you, that
it would hurt my heart to leave you. I was familiar with the state you were living in, for I
myself had been trapped inside the castle grounds for 15 years so I hated to see you alone
like that. I begged you to join me; I wanted to welcome you as a friend. Was it impudent
of me to want to help you when we'd only just met? I meant it when I told you that I'd
tear down the darkness for you and take you to a place where you could be yourself. But
you refused saying your eyes were cursed. Then your mask fell off and I saw your eyes
glimmering golden in the darkness and I thought, I don't know what this "curse" entails
but I do know that he has breathtakingly beautiful eyes. Of course the 'curse' itself wasn't
true. It was a myth invented by your people to explain what they could not understand.
The curse was an excuse to ostracize you. They feared you for your differences when
they should have embraced you because of them. You are unique and special. Besides,
even if I do not know, if that warm touch belongs to someone who's cursed . . . then I
don't see the problem. It doesn't bother me because how can someone who is so warm
and comforting, be cursed? You led me by the hand through the darkness and into the
light; Blue Dragon, you are my moonlight.
Emerging Ekphrasis: /a/—Anime & Manga
'Her Highness'
For this poem, I wanted to experiment with a "Reverse Damsels in Distress" theme
since traditional narratives tend to follow a "locked in a high-tower passively waiting to
be rescued damsel-in-distress" theme. However, there are emerging narratives that
disrupt this form (exp. Tangled, Frozen, and an example from my last post: Yona of the
Dawn in which Princess Yona is the one who saves Sinha from the Dungeon of
Darkness.) So, in going along with this 'Princess as savior/heroine theme' I decided to
follow Isayama's narrative of Historia Reiss as a descendant of the royal bloodline not as
someone in need of being rescued but rather as the rescuer. Firstly in rescuing Eren from
certain death:
And then in saving all of humanity:
/s/—Sexy Beautiful Women
You are the most beautiful, glowing sun goddess.
She has long golden hair and blue eyes. She's the smallest girl in our group. Armin called
her “cute”. She saved Sasha, Jean, and Armin who all thought she was a Goddess. Reiner
wanted to marry her. Reiner, are you delusional? I told her that the next time I saw him
I’d kill him. “You want to?” she asked, "I have to!" I replied. Because I am NOT
prepared to sacrifice Historia.
She said that she was not cut out for the role of Queen—that she was "unfit" to rule
humanity, but Historia you're wrong. Your own actions can attest to that. You were
always one step ahead of everyone else in thinking about how humanity would react to
your new role. "Do you think the people are so naïve they'd obey a ruler in name only?"
You wanted to earn your place in their hearts as a fit ruler.
No one could talk you out of fighting in the front lines. You would not take no for an
answer. Not from either commander. Not even after they warned you that you could
potentially die in battle. But of course you already knew that. You said so yourself,
"Eren, I'm sorry. . .I wanted to think my father was right. I didn't want him to hate me.
But now I have to say goodbye."
/cm/—Cute/Male
We had a lot more in common than one would think. We were both known as
‘humanity’s hope’, you being mankind’s 'secret weapon' and I, humanity’s true ruler,
which is why we were always getting kidnapped together—first by Reiner and Bertholt
and then by my dad. You had been through so much. You always seemed to blame
yourself for our predicament, "I never needed to happen. . .me, my dad, just because of
my father and I. . .so many people died. Armin's grandad, Thomas, Mina, Marco. . .
everyone in Squad Levi, the residents of Stohess District, the soldiers who tried to rescue
me, Mr. Hannes, and so many more I don't know. I could never atone for all that. It never
needed to happen." That’s why I couldn’t stand to see you rendered immobile, and crying
about how nobody needed you; how there was nothing special about you because I felt
the same way about myself. All of my life I was told that I should never have existed. My
mother told me to my face that her life would have been better if I had never been born.
/s/
Historia, you've become so strong. I thought that you were weak—but now I
realize it was the other way around. Somewhere along the line I started to think that I was
special. That's why I accepted it as being unavoidable when other soldiers died for my
sake. That's truly how a weak person thinks. How could I—an average nobody, save
humanity? It’s humanity as a whole that’s the unluckiest of all for having someone like
me as a secret weapon. I was never humanity's hope.
When we were kidnapped in the cave you said that you thought humanity was the
problem; that we should just let mankind get destroyed; that you were humanity’s
enemy—the worst most despicable girl in history. You told me that you were going to
destroy everything after you helped me escape but I warned you,
a sweaty voice in your ear
saying—
leave,
run away from me now
i don't know what i've become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here
/cm/
So when I saw you rendered immobile with your face drenched in blood, sweat,
and tears, I couldn’t help but empathize, because Eren you were wrong. How can you say
nobody needs you? What about your foster sister Mikasa and Armin, your best friend?
Doesn't it matter to you how much they worry and care for you? How can you say there's
nothing special about you? What about all of the hundreds of soldiers who sacrificed their
lives to rescue you? What about Squad Levi who died protecting you?—Petra and her
kindness to you? And Mr. Hannes who saved you twice. Are you saying they died in vain
because your life was not worth saving? How can you say that it's bad for everyone if you
keep on living? Didn’t Captain Levi say that when you sign up for the Survey Corps you
automatically sign your life away knowing that some lives are more valued than others?
So I couldn't leave you. When I see someone crying, saying no one needs them, I want to
tell them it's not true! I may be humanity's enemy, but I am your friend Eren.
/s/
Everything you did was contradictory to what you said. Your actions spoke louder
than your words. You said we should just let mankind get destroyed, yet you were the
one who gave your father the killing blow before he could destroy us all; you said you
were an unfit ruler, yet humanity flourished under your rule; you said that you were
humanity's enemy, and yet the people assigned you the endearing nickname of 'the
cattle-farming goddess', (they meant it lovingly of course); you said you were the worst
most despicable girl in history, but the first thing you did was to seek out those in need,
find them and care for them. No matter who, no matter where, you'd come to the rescue.
Historia, you're amazing.
