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Aaron Willmore
VanderSlik
English 100 15
30 October 2014
Faceless Fear
This image, titled Revolution, is about the constant expectations thrown at everyone
in todays society and the negative repercussions that people have when trying to follow all
of them perfectly. The bugs are saying words to the man while crawling on his head and
emotions are written out in dark bold letters around then mans head. Ryan Rossdirks
replication of Roland Topers picture on the cover of his novel, The Tenant, shows how
much negative influence that societys impossible standards have on people.
When I look at this image the first thing I notice is the four words written in bold
lettering: Fear, Anxiety, Doubt, and Terror. It draws my attention because the words are
bold. This picture reminds me of a popular video game character known as Slenderman.
Both the man in this image and Slenderman are wearing a suit and tie, as well as both of
them having a blank white face. This picture has a lot of qualities that relate to me. All the
words are thoughts that I have thought before, and the words that are bold are emotions I
have experienced, because of the thoughts. This picture makes me feel sad, and glad at the
same time. I feel sad because there are people who suffer, and I feel glad because I know
there are others out there like me who suffer from societies overwhelming expectations. I
wonder if the meaning behind this is to inform people of the problem society is doing to
people or to inform people of a problem the artist has.

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On March sixteenth, 2011, Ryan Rossdirk published this picture on
mutliorb.wordpress.com. It is titled Revolution and is based off an original picture created
by a French surreal artist, named Roland Topor. Not much information is released about
this image, other than the fact that Ryan is a student who created this picture for his
revolution zine class. The original image is on the cover of a book written and illustrated by
Roland Topor titled, The Tenant, which was published in 1964 in France. It is all about how
people define themselves and how people treat others.
The first noticeable aspect of the picture is the words floating around the head of the
subject, which can be assumed is a man by the suit and tie. There are words in bold black
lettering that stand out the most. They have a swirly look to them, so they are not straight
across. These bold words are feelings. The other words are a lighter shade of black that still
stand out, but not as much as the bold words. They are words that are being said, and are
not feelings. These words are also smaller than the bold words and look as though they
were scribbled.
Looking at the picture more closely, it becomes noticeable that Ryan does not
understand shadows. He uses a cross hatching technic to shade in the man, but does not
accurately account for where light would hit the subject. Both ears look as though there is
light hitting the edges of them where as the rest of the ear is shaded. The face shading
seems to gradually fade to light towards the mans chin and then it picks up again under the
chin, which is good. It gives the chin a three dimensional look. Light hits the subjects neck
as well. Now what is the most awkward aspect of this picture is the fact that the shirt the
man is wearing is solid white. There is no shading on it, which diminishes the effect of

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shading. Since there is no shading on the shirt it is unclear where the light is hitting the
subject.
There are bugs crawling on this mans head. It can be assumed that the bugs
represent people who are constantly saying the words that are floating around him. The
insects have a constant chirping noise, just like how the words seem to be constantly
hitting the man in the head. He has no face, so it is not to be attached to one specific
individual. The viewer can assume that it is anyone. It also shows that we cannot really tell
if this is a man or woman so it could be ether.
Behind this image is a message screaming out to all who lay eyes upon it. It is saying
that the standards that society puts upon everyone are inducing mental problems. Anxiety,
fear, doubt, and terror are all problems that are brought on because of all the different
standards of perfection that everyone is trying to follow. Since everyone wants to be
perfect they are making others feel like they need to be perfect, which is causing problems
with the way everyone thinks. Since these standards of perfection are what everyone is
striving for, everyone thinks they have to be perfect. This is impossible because no one can
be perfect. This image shows how society is messing with the emotions of people.
Throughout assessing the image in this paper my view has not faltered from my first
impression. I still believe that it is about societies impossible standards of perfection,
causing emotional distress in everyone who is trying to live by those standards. Every
aspect of my paper enforces how I first viewed this and still view this image. I believe that
Ryan Rossdirks replication picture is showing how much of a negative influence societys
impossible standards have on people and how mentally unhealthy it is making humans.

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Work Cited
Rossdirk , Ryan. Revolution Comic MultiOrbital Thought Bubble. 16 March 2011.
Web. 9 October 2014.