In the spring of 2011, I taught the senior thesis class at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Mel Werschky, a senior illustration major from Italy (English is his second language), chose to illustrate 1984, the novel by George Orwell. I commented on Mel’s rough draft of his thesis essay, and then we exchanged emails.

Mel and I talked about work, 1984, freedom, swearing, honesty, being pissed off, and much more.

Mel Werschky: My objective is to remind the reader that the only true freedom anyone has is individuality.

David Barringer: Individuals can be free, of course, or work to achieve freedom, but governments fill prisons around the world with individuals! In law and government, we consider freedom as a bundle of rights. So someone could have a specific freedom restricted (prisons restrict the freedom of movement of prisoners, for example), but that person could retain other freedoms (prisoners read, think, write, practice religions, and even study law!).

Philosophers define freedom in a variety of ways, depending on context and purpose: freedom of personality, freedom of action, freedom of thought. Historians often think about freedom in terms of the style of governance of a country (democratic, for example, with citizens enjoying the right to vote for their leaders and representatives).

We often think of freedom in all sorts of ways, from being free to do something, like speak your mind, to being free from something, like invasions of privacy. So be careful to define what you mean by freedom in your very particular case. It’s a critical theme for you, so take your time with it!

MW: Ever since I read the book, the idea of turning George Orwell’s 1984 into a graphic novel has been roaming my mind, and the senior project seemed to be the perfect opportunity to do so.

DB: Simplify your sentences! “I love the novel 1984 by George Orwell, and I wanted to turn it into a graphic novel for my senior project.” Simple!

MW: During a major group critique, many of my teachers and peers suggested that the text should be completely abandoned and that I should only concentrate on the illustrations. So I would put myself in the shoes of the protagonist and draw every situation lived by him. This is how the final version of my project came to be.

DB: People can say all sorts of things, but why did you listen to them? It’s great you’re telling us the reactions of people during your critique, but just because someone told you to do something doesn’t mean you should do it! You started out saying your project was about freedom, but you keep presenting your decisions as if you do not have free choice. You let other people make your choices for you. It’s fine if you accept criticism, but obedience is not a creative or artistic justification. You can’t just say, “I did it because they told me to.” Are there good reasons for changing your project in this way? What are those reasons?

MW: One very important aspect of the newly born project is achieving the effect that the drawings actually reflect the point of view of the protagonist, his emotions. One of my advisors didn’t hide the fact that this could be difficult to accomplish. The thing that bothers me the most is that solving the problems presented by my teachers doesn’t seem to be really hard.

DB: You are in conflict! I’m sorry to hear this. It’s always tough to work on a project that you are losing excitement with.

MW: Instead of drawing the main character, I just take him out of the picture, and the only times the readers catch glimpses of him is if he passes in front of a mirror, a very reflective surface, or a dream. Other than that, I show floating arms or hands, legs without upper bodies, what any human sees when awake and living.

DB: Ah, I know this feeling. You are illustrating with a vengeance! That is because you let others guide your choices. You are obeying what people told you to do, and you’re feeling spiteful about it. This is a very Dostoevskyian emotion, eh? Be careful with spite and illustrating with a vengeance: you only hurt yourself. Work itself can liberate you. Work can create your personality through time. What you do with your life changes you, builds you over time into someone stronger or weaker, someone active or passive, someone motivated or depressed. You must build a habit of understanding your own desires, acting on those desires (which means working, imagining, drawing, creating!), and then reflecting on your judgments and your creations. You have to work hard to become free.

MW: As for accomplishing the project, I read a few paragraphs and then draw them on paper, and I do this until the whole thing is finished. It bothers me that it’s that simple. I don’t need to look at references, no complicated symbolism that I can’t come up with on my own. It’s just like copying word for word. I also feel like I’m ridiculing my classmates, especially the illustrators, the ones with whom I can directly sympathize, because I know the amount of trouble they’re putting themselves through to end up with something worthy of being called art, while I just doodle and smoke an unhealthy amount of cigarettes.

DB: You are Underground Man! You’ve read Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground, yes? A person spiteful of others wages war with himself. You gotta get out of this mindset right away. It will corrupt your relationship with your work.

Perhaps you might transfer these feelings into your artwork? Perhaps your feelings might give you an insight into how Winston (or anyone) might feel in a society in which an oppressive government demands obedience? You obey others and rebel only within yourself. How might you express this conflict in your work?

You are stuck. Unstick yourself. Go back to your original desire. What inspired you to draw scenes from 1984 in the first place? Return to those feelings.

MW: I never read Notes from the Underground. I never read anything by Dostoevsky. I always heard that what he wrote was boring, too long and wordy, so I never gave him a chance.

DB: Not Underground. It’s short. You’re thinking of his big novels, like The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment.

MW: In one of your notes, you said, “You must build a habit of understanding your own desires, acting on those desires (which means working, imagining, drawing, creating!), and then reflecting on your judgments and your creations. You have to work hard to become free.” What if my desires are wrong, and then the mistake I make by acting on those desires can’t be undone? Have you ever been in a situation like that? Are “desires” the same as “gut feeling”? I hope I don’t come off as a chicken-shit who’d rather hide than act, but whenever I follow my desires, bad things happen.

DB: No such thing as wrong desires, only morally wrong actions. You don’t get thrown in jail for thinking and feeling, only for acting on those thoughts and feelings. You have to harm another person, not just think bad thoughts about them! But you bring up a good point. People have desires that, if acted upon, hurt others. To wit, see any Law & Order episode or episode of Cops! So as a society we insist that, when people follow their desires, they have to modify them in accord with The Good, that is, a moral good. The desire I’m talking about is the desire to do a certain kind of work. It’s like a calling. You are called to be an artist! So you make art. It’s that simple. Now, if you wanted to kill someone, cut them in half, and display each half in separate tanks of formaldehyde at MOMA, then you will really be the bad boy of the art world!

So when I say act on your desires, I don’t mean whim or caprice or lust or greed or any of that. I mean there’s some part of you that has to be an artist or a doctor or a racecar driver, and so you listen to that desire, act on it, and in that process of working in that capacity, you become a full person with a personality. If you deny that desire, if you resist your calling and go to law school or medical school instead of being an illustrator or chef (or become an illustrator or chef when you should be going to law school or medical school), then you will be an unhappy, unfulfilled, depressed and spiteful person who lacks a developed personality. People who resist their desires like that are stunted in their growth.

So in your project here, I only mean to say that you must have had a strong desire to work with the text of the novel 1984 and to illustrate scenes from it in some way. So go back to that desire to create work in honor of 1984. And those feelings will help you make decisions about your illustrations.

MW: Mr. Barringer, are you telling me to be pissed off and use the pissed-off-ness to make my project the perfect project?

DB: Ha! I don’t know if pissed-off-ness is the right emotion. Sometimes rage makes good art, and sometimes rage blinds you, and you make didactic, preachy propaganda. But if pissed leads to perfect, then here’s to the perfect piss!

MW: When I read 1984 for the first time, I saw in it what went on in our world. I still see it. Not to be the guy who sees everything black, but Orwell was kind of prophetic, don’t you think?

DB: Wait until computers—and ads—are in our brains. Wait until The Singularity! (Google it.)

MW: It pissed me off, too, because some things are so plainly wrong and keep being wrong, even with a warning like 1984. I was 21 when I first read 1984 (it’s not required reading where I come from). I was working in a cubicle as a human answering machine in an emergency room. It made me angry that I was there doing nothing about the “wrong” I saw. And now I’m only drawing about it.

DB: This is wonderful motivation!

MW: Should I talk about that in the paper?

DB: Why not? It’s relevant and important and informs your inspiration and possibly the expression of your work.

MW: Should I talk about my feelings at all?

DB: I’d love to insist that you only talk about my feelings, but sometimes my feelings are very simple. I’m hungry. I’m tired. Charlie Sheen is funny. My back hurts. You know, pretty simple stuff. Your feelings are probably much more interesting and dynamic, and you probably know more about your feelings than about my feelings or about Charlie Sheen’s feelings. Yes, I’ve decided. You must talk about YOUR feelings and not mine or Charlie Sheen’s!

MW: During the big critique, I mentioned the revolution in Egypt (people going against their oppressive government). Should I mention it in the paper? Same thing goes for Yemen or Libya.

DB: You can talk about anything as long as you do so respectfully, carefully, and relevantly. Is it relevant to your inspiration, work process, or the themes of 1984 that you expressed in your illustrations? If you can work it in, do it. Don’t write six pages about Egypt if it has nothing to do with your project. You’re not blogging about current events. You’re writing about the judgments you made in your project. So you only talk about something that’s relevant. That’s why it’s easier to start within your project and then go get research that fits into a certain section. It’s too hard to do a bunch of research and then try cramming it into your paper.

MW: Should I treat the project as a personal project or as a job from a client? Part of being an illustrator is being able to forget about my view and obey my client’s wishes. I guess I’m trying to say, should I put myself in the project, or should I pretend like Orwell was telling me what to draw?

DB: What do you mean “a job from a client”? What client? There is no client! This is your senior year, your senior thesis project, your choice of subject, your choice of media. It’s all you. You didn’t work with a team or a group or a company. No one’s paying you. You’re an independent worker, an entrepreneur, a self-made man! That’s why you have so much to write about. You have to make all these decisions yourself! So you talk about how and why you made all these decisions. That’s it. Yes, in the future when you work in a job or as a freelancer, you will work for clients and have to deal with them. But that’s not where you are now. Don’t pretend this project is anything but what it is. Be honest. It’s a school project, period. And you’re responsible for all of it. It’s wonderful! Enjoy it!

MW: Using “I” too much is a bad thing, right?

DB: No one likes to be used, least of all “I.” But the world is a cruel place, and “I” feel like “I” am being used every day. “I” hate it. But what can “I” do? No, it’s not a bad thing. Quit trying to lie! Your teddy bear didn’t do the work, did he? So be honest! You did the work. You’re not outsourcing this to Seoul or Shanghai, are you? No? Good. So say “I.” Hold yourself accountable.

MW: How vulgar and honest can I be? Can I be vulgar at all? The reader is aware that bad words exist, right? I mean, why is it so wrong to write, “Fuck,” instead of, “I am feeling very upset at the moment”? Is it just that it shows lack of good taste?

DB: I’m quite sure you can be as nasty as you wanna be, to quote 2 Live Crew. Keep the reader in mind. Use slang, curse words, and other words with the reader in mind, which means use bad words when they are relevant, when they are important, when you must use them in order to be honest and true. Don’t use them gratuitously or just for the fuck of it.

MW: It took me almost more than an hour to write this message. What can you extrapolate from that?

DB: A bell curve. It’s hard, but I can extrapolate a bell curve from a set of data points as long as those data points come from an email message that took almost more than an hour to write. I can also extrapolate that I am a smartass. Don’t worry about how long the writing took you. Your writing in this message is far more entertaining, honest, clear, and fun than what you struggled to write in your paper. Don’t try to write like you think a term paper should sound like. Stick to your project, write honestly and thoughtfully about it, and write like you’re telling this to a friend who’s never seen your work before or read 1984. So you are patiently explaining everything to him, respectfully, carefully, but in your own voice, simple and clear and no screwing around. No faking it.

MW: Sorry for the lengthy message. Thank you again.

DB: You’re welcome again.

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Mel Werschky graduated from Winthrop University with a BFA in Illustration. He has a soft spot for comic books, fine art, and good stories. He creates graphic novels through digital and traditional media.