Abstract
The patterns of insomnia are abstruse. I have tried to explain the images and sounds and voices I see and hear when I cannot sleep, but words do not suffice. Nightthoughts is an experimental, poetic graphic novel that follows the disruptive experience of having insomnia, and the environmental and genetic factors that lead to a diagnosis. The panels may seem unconnected, as if there is no plot, but that is exactly the point: insomnia is an incessant jumbling of words and images and feelings. The plot-lessness of insomnia is the plot of Nightthoughts. Each panel and poem depict the guilt, anxiety, and depression I feel along with the internal, hyper-analytic monologue that carries into the night. Most think that insomnia begins at bedtime, but really, it begins at wake and that is why it is so difficult to treat— it is a negative infinity.
Included in
Nightthoughts
The patterns of insomnia are abstruse. I have tried to explain the images and sounds and voices I see and hear when I cannot sleep, but words do not suffice. Nightthoughts is an experimental, poetic graphic novel that follows the disruptive experience of having insomnia, and the environmental and genetic factors that lead to a diagnosis. The panels may seem unconnected, as if there is no plot, but that is exactly the point: insomnia is an incessant jumbling of words and images and feelings. The plot-lessness of insomnia is the plot of Nightthoughts. Each panel and poem depict the guilt, anxiety, and depression I feel along with the internal, hyper-analytic monologue that carries into the night. Most think that insomnia begins at bedtime, but really, it begins at wake and that is why it is so difficult to treat— it is a negative infinity.