Pictures and Words

Unusual in Citizen 13660 is that it is structured as a sort of pictorial history, with ink drawings anchoring caption-like text that refers to the drawings, at least in part. This style in fact mirrors Mine's decision to favor objectivity over subjectivity quite nicely. With the text, the narrative, functioning as captions, the text is constrained by the drawings. Though there are exceptions (especially, for example, when Mine explains some of the army orders and other historical aspects of the relocation directive), the text can't but describe what is depicted, as is the function of a caption. In this way, Mine's lack of emotion/personality/beliefs are practically dictated by the picture/caption relationship. Like a photo-journalist (except armed with ink instead of a camera), Mine has gone to the battlefield, recorded visual representations of what she found, and then has reported back to the reader, explaining...