Category: Student Posts

We have discussed many times in class how Tillie Walden’s graphic novel “Spinning” cannot be described as being “about figure skating.”  “Spinning” is more of a coming of age story of an adolescent trying to find herself as she is growing older and realizing she is unlike those around her.  Though she is writing about her true scenario where she practically grew up on the ice skating rink, the story uses figure skating as more of a metaphor for how Tillie is going through her life.  I decided to focus on seven different characteristics that together are what figure skating consists of for Tillie; they differ from positive to negative and from striking to obvious.

From an outsider’s perspective figure skating consists of sparkles, elaborate costumes, and particularly outstanding posture; they see it as a very feminine sport.  But, such positive aspects, as well as the genuine thrill of succeeding in the craft, take place very rarely within “Spinning”. I noticed this while reading the book but wanted to see what aspects were overpowering these positive ones.  Everytime Tillie talks about having to put on makeup, do her hair, and wear the proper shade of tights she dreads it. In addition, the genuine thrill of success only takes place four times throughout the entire story based on the data I gathered.  Behind the sparkles there is exhaustion, particular technique, constant discipline, expensive rink time, and competitive teammates. These characteristics burden Tillie constantly, as I expected. But, I just was unaware of how drastic this difference is.  I went through each chapter constantly adding ticks to my spreadsheet next to the technique and discipline sections because this is what the intense sport of figure skating is truly made of.

The hard work and dedication to move forward and upward in the sport of figure skating mirrors the hard work it takes for Tillie to attempt to fit in with everyone else.  She is not surprised when she passes her tests on the rink because she “always [passes]”. In the judgemental teenage state she is in, she is afraid to show her true colors and come out as gay to those around her.  She is able to “pass as straight” even though she has always known something else was a part of her. This is similar to how she is able to cover up the discipline, emotion, strength, and hard work that goes into this sport as outsiders just see as feminine and natural.  

The striking aspects of figure skating also corresponds to Tillie’s family life.  Instead of her parents watching her compete, easily pay for rink time, and supporting her as she grows as a figure skater, her personal life at home is consistent with the hardships and intensity within figure skating.  

My map is a simple bar graph that is split up by chapter and color coordinated by characteristic.  I collected data chapter by chapter simply but there were definitely points where this was challenging as I had to decipher what category certain scenes would fall into and choose breaking points for these scenes.

In general, it is obvious that the red, green, and yellow bars of technique, fake friendship and loneliness within the team, and critique drastically overpower.  However, the visual effect of my map is flawed as I split it up by chapter. If I skipped doing this, you would be able to compare each characteristic to each other rather than only within a specific chapter.  For example, the black bar is very high for chapter three which looks like it is taking place a lot while in respect to the entire novel this true friendship characteristic rarely takes place.

When I read the instructions for this project, I was stumped not because I didn’t have an idea, but because I had too many. I started thinking about how I read the book and then I remembered times where I did not actually read, I just watched. I thought about the memoir almost as a film, more than the other graphic novels we read in class. I read the book quickly yet still processed it almost like I do in a movie. I decided to count the pages where there is no text on the pages, only images. Although in most chapters there was only a few, in chapter 8, there were 10 pages dedicated to only pictures, around 20% of the entire chapter. The drawings were short snapshots into Tillie’s life following her sexual assault. It almost felt like we were living her life, brief snippets clustered together, almost as a way to experience her sadness, her fear. The map shows that chapter 8 has the most text-free pages due to its large size in comparison to the others. I wish this map could show more into where in the chapter these pages were found. However, I could not find a way to accomplish that. I feel like this map simply shows where the places are and it is up to the reader to interpret why.

Image taken by me

I really enjoyed making this project, it brought light to another way in which I can view books I read in the future. I didn’t think that my data would really make any sense, as my topic is kind of subjective, but it turned out to look pretty good. I used a photo of page 67 is the novel as the background for my graph, as it is a sort of “map” that relates to Tillie and the novel as a whole. I then made all of the elements of the graph either purple or yellow to continue with the overall color scheme of the novel.

For this project, I chose to count how many times Tillie Walden mentions being gay or shows interest in girls/women she is surrounded by. When I began reading the book, I noticed some fluctuation. A reader does not discover Tillie is gay until chapter 2, she completely neglects to mention this daily important piece of information in the whole entire first chapter! Not only does this seem nonchalant, but maybe even a little neglectful. Immediately, I was curious how much of a role homosexuality was going to play in this novel. While reading, I noticed after chapter 2 Tillie does make mentions of her sexuality, but not as frequently in some chapters versus others. For example, chapter six is when she has a sleepover with Rae, and chapter seven her mother finds the doodle of the two girls. These two chapters have a lot to do with Tillie’s self-esteem and personal image. She finally realizes that it is now appropriate to tell her friends and teammates that she likes girls. Tillie starts telling her peers in chapter seven. On the contrary, chapter 8 only has one mention of her sexuality, as this is the chapter that includes the encounter with the SAT tutor, and after the incident Tillie seems to shut down. After analyzing the novel, I thought it was really interesting how the book peaked in the middle when speaking about Tillie’s sexual orientation, it doesn’t seem to be a main theme in the beginning and ending of the novel.