What I found incredibly intriguing about Fun Home was the concepts of "home" and "family" portrayed by Bechdel. In conversation, I constantly accidentally refer to the book as "Fun House," before realizing that that's just a creepy carnival attraction. This got me thinking, though about the difference between a house and a home. Typically house is the noun used in reference to the physical structure, something detached and unemotional. A home is something more-- somewhere a family resides, filled with love and laughter and all that cheesy stuff. When Bechdel refers to her "Fun Home," though it's technically just a shortened version of funeral home, it implies she's talking about her own museum-like house, where her family resides. In this case, though, there is none of the typical cheesy "home" qualities, but a lot of secrets, angst, and struggle.
As exemplified in the scene to the left, the family cohabitates but is not terribly interactive or affectionate. Bechdel at one point describes it as being less like a family and more like an artists’ colony where everyone just does their own thing.
Yet she clearly sees them as somewhat “family-like,” because when she comes home from college, she feels like something is missing as they all go in different directions right after dinner in the scene below.
Family, I suppose, is what you make it. For Bechdel, this strange together-but-separate/distant dynamic is part of her family life. Though I struggled with the cold, unemotional nature of their interactions, to them that was normal, expected. And because she feels that familial connection, she can comfortably call the house a Fun Home.
I had not picked up on the overwhelming differences in the ideas that the words "house" and "home" embody, so that was a very keen point (in my opinion). I would be interested in hearing more about the stark contrasts in your family life and the Bechdels' (as hinted at in how you "struggled with the cold, unemotional nature" of their family's interactions). Additionally, how does Bechdel's perspective on her family change throughout her life - notably, what impact does coming out have on her relationship with her father and how does her father's suicide affect her relationship with her mother and brothers? There are definitely moments when the author begins to view her life differently and the adult vs. child perspective of a "Fun Home" would be really interesting to hear you write about.
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