Cyclopedia Exotica

By Sarah Tillery

Cyclopedia Exotica is a graphic novel for an adult audience that covers the various trials, tribulations, and discriminations that a minority goes through in the everyday acts of living. It does so through the metaphor of the fictional people, the cyclopes, who–in Cyclopedia Exotica’s world–have lived in tandem with their two-eye brethren, but not always easily. A typical cyclops (the singular like person, while cyclopes is the plural, like people) is a humanoid vaguely related to the creatures of Greek Mythology, who possess one eye and one pectoral, as opposed to the two-eyed humans two eyes and two pectorals. The sense of humor that colors every page is dry and plays on reader expectations of the punch line often; not just leaving us with a good, unexpected laugh, but a new perspective, recognizing our, or the world’s prejudices. While it focuses a great deal on microaggressions and discrimination, the very soul of this graphic medicine work is very warm: everyone is welcome in this story. Everyone, all their quirks, differences, and eccentricities, are celebrated. There is understanding of every choice, making no judgments. Cyclopedia Exotica simply wants to share.

I originally kept up with Cyclopedia Exotica as it was being posted to Instagram. I remember delighting every time I saw an update as I was passively scrolling–each time, clicking back to author and artist, Aminder Dhaliwal’s Instagram page to read through issues that I had missed, to enjoy more of these sad, familiar, and so very “human” cyclopes within. I very distinctly remember the day the comic ended, with promise for future projects, but no new Cyclopedia Exotica. Though I had mostly read as a lurker, I was compelled, as many were, to leave a comment to say goodbye to these lovely folks that I’d come to know, and I had to tell Dhaliwal thank you.

Rereading now, as the final collected Graphic Novel, I am able to see the through line that I missed as a passive, occasional reader, and it is lovely. The narrative starts with an encyclopedic background into cyclopes, delving finally into our story’s bookend character: Etna. She cheerily interrupts the dry encyclopedic definitions of cyclopes and their experiences in a two eyed world, breaking through the lines of text describing her place in history to inform the reader that she’ll take it from here and show us the real thing. Occasionally appearing in some of the episodes herself, her story has impacted each of the characters within the narrative, and all of them have to contend with Etna and her legacy. That legacy? Etna was the first cyclops to be on the cover of a nude magazine, Playclops, both opening the door to representation for her people, and all the various ups and downs that come with it. The overall story surrounds the thematic struggle of wanting to be seen, understood, and respected, while also trying to balance the desire for privacy, and humanity. Etna personally has struggled with her own perceptions of her experiences doing Playclops and the comic shows how the public’s perceptions, especially her fellow cyclopes’ perceptions, changes over time. Following a large cast of characters over the course of about a year, each cyclops relates back to Etna’s original struggle. The ensemble shows a rich tapestry of experiences and stories, all relating to the central metaphor of the minority experiences through the fictional cyclopes, but you can see the diversity of those experiences–even within the narrative, cyclopes are not a monolith. From another hopeful cyclops model, Latea, who has almost given up on love, and feels dejected having to accept jobs with companies that promote products that have hurt cyclopes in the past; to miserable Bron, who after a failed, experimental surgery to make him two-eyed, has to straddle the strange place in the middle not feeling one-eyed enough and not feeling two-eyed enough, and all the resentment that builds up, and to Tim and Pari, a human and cyclops couple, respectively, about to start having children, navigating the fears, anxieties, and joys that come with that experience (plus many more!), we see a funny, poignant, and honest story of everyday life as a cyclops/human couple.

The art is beautiful–often very clean, simple, and emotive, and at key moments it explores the rich craft of comics making with excellent creative choices in lettering, paneling, while most of the moments of extreme detail focus on the Eye, of course, the central metaphor and struggle of our cast of characters. The Eye represents difference: physical body differences, which can be interpreted as othered bodies that are othered by racism, ableism, or cissexism. It can be read in any of these ways, and each of the stories hits on things that may feel familiar to anyone who has felt their body be othered by medicine. There are so many wonderful moments in this episodic tale that it’s hard to choose specific ones to talk about. From artistic cyclopes duo, Jian and Grae, whose work is intensely political, and when Grae separates to try and make it into Hollywood, feels the deep manipulation and exploitation that comes with turning that political art into something profitable. Grae says “It feels like the industry wants to buy my name and audience, not my ideas” (pg. 192-193). To the more medical stories, of which there are many, with deeply touching sentiments about the strange dance of overexposure and lack of real help that comes with having a body that is little understood by mainstream medicine (whether that is because of a disability, gender, or race). There are at least two comics which deal with doctors of different fields (an OBGYN and an optometrist) talking about how fascinating the cyclopes body is, and that being their main reason in becoming experts, despite being two-eyed themselves. Pari, a pregnant cyclops, has many small moments of medical racism that she encounters, from her experimental mastectomy that separated her one breast into two, leaving her unable to breastfeed, to microaggressions in the waiting room, and finally the most unnerving one: after giving birth to her first child, and waiting on her second (a feature of cyclopes pregnancy), a two-eyed pregnant woman stops in. In a moment that Pari hopes is one of compassion, and perhaps solidarity with a fellow pregnant woman, despite her discomfort, Pari explains as best she can the difference between their two pregnancies, and what she is experiencing, to assuage the two-eyed woman’s curiosity. When, as one might do to be polite, Pari asks after the other woman’s pregnancy, the two-eyed woman becomes hostile– “That’s personal” (pg. 180-181). Pari is not allowed privacy in her most vulnerable moment. She is forced to become an educator.

The story within Cyclopedia Exotica that focuses the most on medical racism is Bron’s. His narrative is bookended by two things: his hatred of the children’s book “Suzy’s One Eye” by a two-eyed author, and a surgery he elected to undergo as a young man, to split his one eye into two. “Suzy’s One Eye” irks Bron because how could a two eyed author know what Bron’s childhood was like–it’s optimism and hope rings hollow to him (pg. 150-151). He has never felt the acceptance that happens at the end of “Suzy’s One Eye”. The episode, Bron’s History (pg. 22-23), covers why he underwent the surgery, and how for a while, it was beneficial to his life–he felt more confident, secure, even happy. But eventually, one of the eyes died, as shown in a single panel with one large, detailed eye and another shrinking, pale eye. The image is not too graphic, but what it evokes is clear–you can feel the pain of the reaction within it, the suffering that must have gone into the slow death of the eye. The gutters here (the blank spaces in between panels) play a very key role, evoking time. The panel before shows an energetic, happy Bron hiking with his two eyes. The panel after his eye dies is the present, with Bron back at the optometrist’s office wearing his signature eyepatch. Throughout the comic, Bron wears that eyepatch, and feels like he doesn’t belong in either world–the world of cyclopes or the world of humans. He has many friends who did not undergo the surgery–he has many friends who are human, and none of them really connect to his personal struggle. The following comic directly after this, Bron asks his optometrist why she specialized in cyclops optometry–she tells him it is fascinating. But, in a panel showing her lounging on the beach, she tells the audience happily that it cuts her hours in half! It is clear the intention: even with good motivations, there is an edge of exploitation in her practice. The comic leaves it there for readers to ponder. I am a white cisgendered person, and while I can’t speak to it, my mind immediately went to stories of intersex, minority, and trans people’s experiences with doctors like this. Even with the best intentions, the differences between doctor and patient creates some disconnect that is notable, creating lack of trust, or discomfort, and it must be addressed. Bron’s story ends with him revisiting these things that he has resented all his life, and coming to terms with them, seeing them in another perspective–it’s beautiful. It’s the climax of the narrative, so I do not want to spoil too much, but it focuses on his reread of “Suzy’s One Eye” as an adult, with the hope to write a better one (pg. 224-268). It leads to a new perspective. And while the other characters do give Bron a little grief at his excessive pessimism, no one blames him–they all simply choose different ways to cope.

Bron’s story in particular I think is a valuable one to read by the medical profession. I am new to the world of medicine and health care, and as a medical librarian, I can look up a few articles and try to help the reader understand the science from an outside perspective–which I did. At the end of this review, I list some articles that I think may be quite relevant–but what I was struck by in trying to find scientific research into this similar phenomenon (which to my lay person mind immediately recalled eyelid surgeries some Asian people get to achieve a more “Western look”), I could not find any research that really explored the long-term psychological effects of these surgeries. They covered the psychology, 6 months later, often, focusing mostly on the benefit these surgeries have had on their patients’ psyche. Very little talked about the particular dynamic that race could play in that reaction in a long-term sense. And we see that with Bron–there was indeed a benefit. But the effect lasts longer than six months–they last lifetimes. One article I found was about breast reconstruction, not totally relevant to Cyclopedia Exotica, but I thought at least interesting in how it acknowledged the multitude of thought processes behind plastic surgery^[1]. The assumption of surgeons was that if African American women were not often getting breast reconstruction after a mastectomy that this must mean there is a racist barrier–the article still acknowledges this may in fact be the case. However, the research asked patients why they made the choices they made, and found that many African American women did not, for various reasons, believe that they needed to–it was unnecessary to their worldview^[2]. It erased the things they experienced, it was not within the realm of their religious beliefs, or they did not think they needed to appeal to a western beauty standard that ignored their struggles ^[3]. Like Cyclopedia Exotica shows in its expansive cast, there are many varying experiences and points of view that are often unheard if we do not simply ask. Bron shows this in two ways: the failure of his surgery, and how he has had to live with that failure, and what it has done to his psyche, but also how he has built a worldview around his resentment of this children’s book. It is only upon revisiting and rereading “Suzy’s One Eye” that his mind opens, and his resentment doesn’t totally fall away, but we have hope by the end of the narrative that he is beginning a new direction of coming to terms with the totality of his experiences and who he is. He is both an incredible character to understand a patient’s perspective, and also a fantastic reflection of all of us–when we refuse to reengage, to reevaluate, we limit ourselves. Much of the medical research I have read and engaged with so far seems to want to begin that step–but in my conversations with professionals in this field, there are some things that are still difficult for healthcare professionals to let go of. For example, fatphobia, old notions of professionalism, fasting and dieting recommendations are just the things I have personally witnessed. I am a white, disabled, queer nonbinary woman, so while I do fit some categories, my experiences cannot touch the experiences shown through the cyclopes in Cyclopedia Exotica. That’s only one reason I find these stories so touching and valuable–it is also funny, heartwarming, and infinitely charming–but it also asks–to the very bones of its joke structures–us to reevaluate and reengage often and in many facets of our lives.

For a little of the research, I did to find topics thematically related to Cyclopedia Exotica, please look at the sources that follow. However, I’d love to read more on this topic, and welcome feedback, or article suggestions on this topic as well!

1. Constantian, Mark B. M.D.; Zaborek, Nick M.A.. The Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences, Body Shame, and Revision Request Rate in 218 Plastic Surgery Patients: What Drives Postoperative Dissatisfaction?. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 148(6):p 1233-1246, December 2021. | DOI: 10.1097/PRS.0000000000008567
2. Myhre A, Råbu M, Feragen KJB. The need to belong: Subjective experiences of living with craniofacial conditions and undergoing appearance-altering surgery. Body Image. 2021;38:334-345. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.05.008
3. Lu, Tracy J. MD, MBA*; Nguyen, Anne Xuan-Lan†; Trinh, Xuan-Vi‡; Wu, Albert Y. MD, PhD, FACS§. Sentiment Analysis Surrounding Blepharoplasty in Online Health Forums. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open 10(3):p e4213, March 2022. | DOI: 10.1097/GOX.0000000000004213
4. Rubin LR, Chavez J, Alderman A, Pusic AL. ‘Use what God has given me’: difference and disparity in breast reconstruction. Psychol Health. 2013;28(10):1099-1120. doi:10.1080/08870446.2013.782404

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Sarah Tillery is the Medical Librarian and CME Administrator at TMC Health in Tucson, Arizona. They became a librarian after working many years as a freelance artist, and though it’s been awhile, she hopes to get back to her and her partner’s two webcomics once they get the hang of this Medical Librarian stuff. You can find her artwork at these sites:

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^[1]   Rubin LR, Chavez J, Alderman A, Pusic AL. ‘Use what God has given me’: difference and disparity in breast reconstruction. Psychol Health. 2013;28(10):1099-1120. doi:10.1080/08870446.2013.782404

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