Public Secrets: Is the author a secret too?

Browsing through multi-media projects has become somewhat of a pasttime for me; the story of the tranquil, homey town called Pine Point, tragically removed from the United States map as a town, leaving citizens without a place to call "home-town," to the drastically different media project of Snow Fall, a New York Times article that utilizes images, maps, and design to convey the terrifying yet entrancing story of an avalanche at Tunnel Creek. These projects blur the boundaries between author and audience, creating an interactive space that forces us to put aside our traditional notions of the linear way we normally understand that we receive text.

The *iconic* "Arab in America"

Toufic El  Rassi's graphic novel, "Arab in America" provides a fictional account of his own childhood experiences in the United States.  And graphic it certainly proves to be, both through his images and in his descriptions and anecdotes.  Even the purpose of the novel functions in a graphic way, as he stereotypes several tropes and identities (usually those that exist in the "majority" of the United States population), in an attempt to provoke his intended audience.  His narrative illustrates a continuous journey and search for identity as he recounts events that may or may not have occurred in the order he writes them in.  These questionable factors make his audience question his reliability as a narrator, but even more importantly, elicit discussions from his readers regarding the presence (or lack thereof) of realism.  Whether or not realism exists within the novel is a critical point to consider, especially in the context of McCloud's theory of icons presented in "The Vocab of Comics." El Rassi and McCloud are pertinent figures to examine in determining these issues, particularly in garnering sufficient evidence in an author's ability to the transcend cultural norms that guide us.