Babel Molotov reviewed My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf
My Friend Dahmer Review
3 stars
If you are interested in Dahmer's life, read this book as it provides an interesting and detailed insight of what was the life of the troubled adolescent, and his social interactions with people of his youth. You will learn some of the struggles he had to endure, told with sensitivity and compassion to a human whom society denigrated and malformed into what he later became, leading to the horrendous incidents until his arrest. If you are not interested in this, I would stay away and watch the film which in my opinion is highly superior because of the reasons I will describe below.
I have two main issues with the comic.
First, and this is related to the narrative and flow of the story, the author uses a narrator to tell the story, through and through you will hear Backderf's words encompassed within the panels of the comic strips. It's …
If you are interested in Dahmer's life, read this book as it provides an interesting and detailed insight of what was the life of the troubled adolescent, and his social interactions with people of his youth. You will learn some of the struggles he had to endure, told with sensitivity and compassion to a human whom society denigrated and malformed into what he later became, leading to the horrendous incidents until his arrest. If you are not interested in this, I would stay away and watch the film which in my opinion is highly superior because of the reasons I will describe below.
I have two main issues with the comic.
First, and this is related to the narrative and flow of the story, the author uses a narrator to tell the story, through and through you will hear Backderf's words encompassed within the panels of the comic strips. It's a shame that he decided to use this method to tell the tale, one would expect to experience this medium mostly, if not all, through graphic depictions of the event, rather than reading a narrator that is reminiscent of a novel or a Netflix's TV show. The film, surprisingly doesn't share the same sin, which is a way more common mistake in cinema, that contradicts one of the most important commandments in storytelling: show, don't tell.
My second issue is, that even though what I wrote in the first paragraph is true, the author also shares some views regarding Jeff which I am against that are not present in the film.
From the preface:
It's my belief that Dahmer didn't have to wind up a monster, that all those people didn't have to die horribly, if only the adults in his life hadn't been so inexplicably, unforgivably, incomprehensibly clueless and/or indifferent. Once Dahmer kills, however —and I can't stress this enough— my sympathy for him ends. He could have turned himself in after that first murder. He could have put a gun to his head. Instead he, and he alone, chose to become a serial killer and spread misery to countless people. There are a surprising number out there who view Jeffrey Dahmer as some kind of anti-hero, a bullied kid who lashed back at the society that rejected him. This is nonsense. Dahmer was a twisted wretch whose depravity was almost beyond comprehension. Pity him, but don't empathize with him.
From the end notes:
The premise of this book is that Dahmer was a tragic figure, but that only applies up until the moment he kills. After that horrible day in June 1978, the only tragedy is that Dahmer didn't have the courage to put a gun to his head and end it. More than anything, Dahmer was a coward. He was afraid to confess to his dad —the one adult who tried to help him over the years— about what was going on in his head, terrified of being caught.
In these two fragments we can perceive what is Derf's view on the topic, and how negligent it is towards it. He is failing to see the political implications of psychology in society; for him Jeffrey was a twisted wretch, not someone damaged by homophobia, toxic masculinity, intrafamilial conflicts and a myriad of other factors; he is a person that should rather be dead than treated; someone who is not worth of out empathy. This view, that is shared towards many that committed heinous crimes is short sighted at best and dangerous at worst, it is a rejection of the need for politics to intertwine within mental health and that these individuals are not born with the seed of evil within them, or with a cursed DNA or something similar, they are humans that are hurt, damaged and affected by our current social and material reality who end up being traumatized until they sublime all of that into horrendous acts. These are lives that need to be taken into account into a bigger scheme of things where they can be treated and cared, not public scapegoats to ostracize where the media can hide the dirt under the rug and then celebrate once thy are sentenced to death.
