6: Ambivalence Through Alterity, Love, and Escape in Charles Burns' "Black Hole"

No one, not two, Try to love through–  Shape change in the nether-pool and drown with friends To arise anew again and again After an emotional start, we get into the faithful and strange portrait Charles Burns paints of suburban 1970's American middle-class teen life in his graphic novel Black Hole. Odd weather patterns; weather as collective immune system; conformity and exile in American youth culture; zombified existence in consensus reality; the futility and lure of escape; consent and communication breakdowns in hookup culture; the dangers of insecurity; limerant love; STDs and stigma; homeless communities and drug spots; what constitutes safety?; coming of age as mutation; latent queerness in straightness; hotdogs as collective affect; passing; the personal in the political; comics analysis. Music by Reilly Brown, Zachary Paul, 7038634357, and outro by Quiet Light.

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