Architectural Grounding in Miller's Elektra: Temporality and Spatiality in the Graphic Novel

When we say we are "caught up" in a story or that we "get lost" in a novel, it doesn't mean we have lost our orientation in traversing the terrain constructed by the writer. We really mean the opposite, that we are so fully and deeply oriented within that world that we have lost, for the moment, our connection with our own. This process is simple in that it takes place quickly, and without our realizing anything has transpired. Yet it is also complex, for if we try to examine the manner by which we accumulate a medley of coded information to follow the story and to position ourselves in a world of someone else's creation we may easily become mired. In literature, as in architecture or urban situations when narratives or places flow smoothly from one location to the next, they create a seamless exploration of a particular world. Narrative breaks, temporal shifts, or gaps in circulation on the other hand, make us look up and take account of where we are going and where we might have arrived. We may find ourselves in an unusual space or situation, a place not yet encountered, that somehow seems strangely familiar and we "recognize" it. Somehow, no matter how strange, we "know" how to find our way. Elektra: Assassin, a graphic novel scripted by Frank Miller and illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz provides an excellent example for exploration of these principles that apply not only to textual media in general and to sequential art in particular, but also architecture and the city.

Citation:
Tobe, R. (2006) ‘Architectural Grounding in Miller's Elektra: Temporality and Spatiality in the Graphic Novel.’ ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies. 3 (1)..