Anthropocenes in “The Many Deaths of Laila Starr”

In his article on “Comics Anthropocenes,” Mike Classon Frangos argues that the unique nature of the Laila Starr story highlights a world view that moves away from “undifferentiated humanity” and into a more complex portrayal of intersecting timescales. #lailastarr #comicsstudies 1/9

Frangos notes that the surreal and inhuman nature of the protagonist pushes the reader to identify more with the setting they inhabit across multiple eras, creating a geographical anchor point in which the setting is foregrounded in the comic. 2/9

At the same time, the city’s growth is seen to be deeply impacted by planetary developments: “Laila and Darius’s narratives are interrupted by ecological catastrophes…connecting the linear and cyclical times of the narrative with both planetary and historical time.” 3/9

The reader thus becomes aware of different timescales interacting with each other: people living in cities, cities living in planets, etc. This manifests directly in the conclusion of the story, which shifts from Mumbai in order to signal the broader meaning of the story: 4/9

“The turn away from scientific progress is reflected in the change of locations from the hypermodern city of Mumbai to the beach in Goa, associated with a countercultural search for alternatives to Western modernity.” 5/9

In this case, the choice of location symbolizes Darius’s rejection of unfettered progress. Darius chooses death, in more ways than one, and must accept a slower pace and slower space in order to signal that decision most effectively to the reader. 6/9

The choice to send the secret of immortality adrift in the ocean thus represents a further step away from humanity, a step toward the primordial, even. As the maker of this decision, Laila, having generated perspective from her many deaths, is likewise implicated. 7/9

For Frangos, this narrative participates in a broader speculative fiction movement that “call[s] into question the ‘human’ as a geological force.” The city, the planet, the ocean, the cosmos, all are presented in Laila Starr as bigger than any one life. 8/9

Laila Starr is ultimately a narrative that affirms the value of life through the act of dying, and thus an acceptance of our very small place in a very large world is the key to unlocking the empathy necessary to grasp that choice and the worldview it endorses. 9/9