Alison Bechdel
Spent: A Comic Novel
Note: Town Hall events are approximately 75 minutes long.
Spinning together fine-tuned self-critique and sharp comedic reflection in her newest autofiction comic novel Spent, acclaimed cartoonist Alison Bechdel questions passion, politics, and personal investment in the increasingly complex modern world.
Spent follows the main character – a cartoonist conveniently named Alison Bechdel, running a pygmy goat sanctuary in Vermont – on an existential descent into political panic at the state of the world outside of her own bubble. Faced with the great looming doubts on climate change, capitalism, and civil unrest, she ponders a great question: Can she pull humanity out of its death spiral by writing a scathingly self-critical memoir about her own greed and privilege?
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As Alison’s mental burden grows, her world moves on without her. Her graphic memoir about growing up with a taxidermist father becomes a hit TV series, winning Emmys and pushing her from the margins into the mainstream. Meanwhile, her Pauline Bunyanesque partner Holly goes viral for a wood-chopping video, leaving Alison wondering—why couldn’t she reclaim control and focus on things that matter? Why couldn’t she be the writer for a wildly popular reality TV show…like Queer Eye…showing people how to free themselves from consumer capitalism and live a more ethical life?!
Spent highlights Bechdel’s career investment in putting herself first in line when it comes to criticism and cultural analysis. Longtime Bechdel fans will delight in familiar faces from Dykes to Watch Out For, recognizable but freshly re-imagined with a modern slant and a few more years under their communally-living-in-Vermont hand-woven belts. With a signature wit, Bechdel stacks Spent with keen observations and humor ranging from clever to absurd to deeply relatable – making the case for seizing what’s true about life at this moment, before it’s too late.
Alison Bechdel is a cartoonist and author known for her work depicting lesbian & queer culture, as well as her darkly humorous graphic memoirs. She is a recipient of Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellowships. Her previous works include the ground-breaking weekly comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, which ran for twenty-five years, as well as graphic memoirs Are You My Mother?, The Secret to Superhuman Strength, and Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, which was later adapted into a Tony-award winning Broadway musical.
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