Tuesday 30 August 2011
Note to self:
I will be writing some stories soon too. This blog is not just going to be book reviews, as I have promised to have 'words of all kinds.'
Graphic novels: I am not wearing a hat yet as it is still sort of summer, but if I was, I would take it off to you...
Three weeks since my last post! I could not have been busy enough to create a baby inbetween posts this time (If I had conceived since then, would it even be an embryo by now?) I will stop referring to my posts in terms of pregnancy, as I realise it's a bit odd, and a bit sexist for a woman to be relating everything to babies.
I have digressed. I wanted to talk about graphic novels. I have only recently discovered this medium of literature and I am hooked. I was always put off before by the comic book look when I flicked through. The first graphic novel I gave in and read was 'Pyongang' by Guy Delisle. A friend recommended and leant me the book so my curiousity caved and I succumbed. (Thank you Sophie)!
The book unravels Guy Delisle's experience as an illustrator working on a project in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. He is assigned a 'guide' upon arrival to North Korea and is not allowed to leave his compound without his 'guide'. There are pictures of Kim Il-Sung (the deceased, but "Eternal President") and his son Kim Jong-Il (the current Leader) on every wall of every public space.
Delisle is taken to 'The International Friendship Museum' - a hilariously conceived example of propaganda imposed upon the North Koreans to convince them of their own regime? The museum is full of valuable gifts of 'thanks' bequethed upon Kim Jong Il and the late Kim Il-Sung by leading figures from countries all over the world. Gifts are displayed from over 146 countries - a supposed show of reverence and adoration to the North Korean Leaders from around the globe. (Of course, the fact that this gift-giving is mere protocol for any official visitor entering the country is a small-print fact of little relevance).
Delisle probes a little to try and dig beneath the conditioned veneer. Are the North Korean population actually convinced? Brainwashed? Too afraid to speak their true minds? He lends his guide a copy of Orwell's '1984' to see if he can open up a dialogue. I won't give anymore away...have a read.
The book is simple, funny, moving and a really interesting and eery insight into the workings of North Korea, possibly the most isolated country in the world in a day and age where people read all the versions of 'the truth' they can lay their hands on and blab their opinions in blogs like this all over the internet.
I have since read other graphic novels too. Some of Marjane Satrapi's books (Thank you Mike), including the highly acclaimed 'Persepolis' (which was also made into a film in 2007, co-directed by Satrapi). The three books I read were set in and around Tehran during the Islamic Revolution. They are based on Satrapi's own experiences growing up in Tehran and Europe. 'Persepolis' (Parts 1 and 2) are highly personal and I love the quirky, insightful and intelligent perspective cast upon life and the important political events of the time by the confused and rebellious adolescent Satrapi, who narrates the story.
J.P. Stassen's 'Deogratias, a tale of Rwanda' provides another interesting read. It was first published in Belgium in 2000 and tackles the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. The tale focuses on Deogratias, a young Hutu man who has been driven crazy as a result of living through the genocide, which saw longstanding tensions between the majority Hutu tribe and minority Tutsi tribe explode in the most tragic way. An estimated 800,000 people were killed in roughly 100 days. The story takes place before, during and after the genocide and traces the struggle of genocide survivors to continue living 'a normal life', having witnessed such atrocity.
I have just read 'Stitches', by David Small, another fantastic and highly original creative accomplishment. This chunky volume is made up more of pictures than words. Small's autobiography recounts memories of his grim childhood and strange, shockingly unaffectionate parents. The terrifying facial expressions of the Mother and Grandmother stuck with me. Small's drawings are so vivid that we experience this tale very much through the eyes of Small's young self.
I found all of these books deeply engrossing. The graphic novel is a powerful medium often used to tackle difficult and dark themes, both political and emotional. The genre seems to allow apt exploration of the dark and often repressed or less talked about face of human nature. The patchwork of words and pictures together provides a channel to focus in on these dark subject matters in a thought-provoking, but simultaneously, somehow lighthearted way. The books themselves (at least the ones above that I have read) are not depressing. Perhaps this is because descriptions in words are often kept to a minimum, with emotive but simplistic pictures weaving together the narrative. This allows for subjects that are often too atrocious to be described or adequately approached in words to be explored effectively, without tip-toeing or excuse-searching. These books are raw and vivid. I realise that I may well be generalising in a big way and these statements are rather sweeping, but I speak of the books I have read. And I urge you to pick up a graphic novel that grabs your interest and give it a go!
I have digressed. I wanted to talk about graphic novels. I have only recently discovered this medium of literature and I am hooked. I was always put off before by the comic book look when I flicked through. The first graphic novel I gave in and read was 'Pyongang' by Guy Delisle. A friend recommended and leant me the book so my curiousity caved and I succumbed. (Thank you Sophie)!
The book unravels Guy Delisle's experience as an illustrator working on a project in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. He is assigned a 'guide' upon arrival to North Korea and is not allowed to leave his compound without his 'guide'. There are pictures of Kim Il-Sung (the deceased, but "Eternal President") and his son Kim Jong-Il (the current Leader) on every wall of every public space.
Delisle is taken to 'The International Friendship Museum' - a hilariously conceived example of propaganda imposed upon the North Koreans to convince them of their own regime? The museum is full of valuable gifts of 'thanks' bequethed upon Kim Jong Il and the late Kim Il-Sung by leading figures from countries all over the world. Gifts are displayed from over 146 countries - a supposed show of reverence and adoration to the North Korean Leaders from around the globe. (Of course, the fact that this gift-giving is mere protocol for any official visitor entering the country is a small-print fact of little relevance).
Delisle probes a little to try and dig beneath the conditioned veneer. Are the North Korean population actually convinced? Brainwashed? Too afraid to speak their true minds? He lends his guide a copy of Orwell's '1984' to see if he can open up a dialogue. I won't give anymore away...have a read.
The book is simple, funny, moving and a really interesting and eery insight into the workings of North Korea, possibly the most isolated country in the world in a day and age where people read all the versions of 'the truth' they can lay their hands on and blab their opinions in blogs like this all over the internet.
I have since read other graphic novels too. Some of Marjane Satrapi's books (Thank you Mike), including the highly acclaimed 'Persepolis' (which was also made into a film in 2007, co-directed by Satrapi). The three books I read were set in and around Tehran during the Islamic Revolution. They are based on Satrapi's own experiences growing up in Tehran and Europe. 'Persepolis' (Parts 1 and 2) are highly personal and I love the quirky, insightful and intelligent perspective cast upon life and the important political events of the time by the confused and rebellious adolescent Satrapi, who narrates the story.
J.P. Stassen's 'Deogratias, a tale of Rwanda' provides another interesting read. It was first published in Belgium in 2000 and tackles the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. The tale focuses on Deogratias, a young Hutu man who has been driven crazy as a result of living through the genocide, which saw longstanding tensions between the majority Hutu tribe and minority Tutsi tribe explode in the most tragic way. An estimated 800,000 people were killed in roughly 100 days. The story takes place before, during and after the genocide and traces the struggle of genocide survivors to continue living 'a normal life', having witnessed such atrocity.
I have just read 'Stitches', by David Small, another fantastic and highly original creative accomplishment. This chunky volume is made up more of pictures than words. Small's autobiography recounts memories of his grim childhood and strange, shockingly unaffectionate parents. The terrifying facial expressions of the Mother and Grandmother stuck with me. Small's drawings are so vivid that we experience this tale very much through the eyes of Small's young self.
I found all of these books deeply engrossing. The graphic novel is a powerful medium often used to tackle difficult and dark themes, both political and emotional. The genre seems to allow apt exploration of the dark and often repressed or less talked about face of human nature. The patchwork of words and pictures together provides a channel to focus in on these dark subject matters in a thought-provoking, but simultaneously, somehow lighthearted way. The books themselves (at least the ones above that I have read) are not depressing. Perhaps this is because descriptions in words are often kept to a minimum, with emotive but simplistic pictures weaving together the narrative. This allows for subjects that are often too atrocious to be described or adequately approached in words to be explored effectively, without tip-toeing or excuse-searching. These books are raw and vivid. I realise that I may well be generalising in a big way and these statements are rather sweeping, but I speak of the books I have read. And I urge you to pick up a graphic novel that grabs your interest and give it a go!
Thursday 11 August 2011
Long time, no see
After struggling to figure out what my password was for this account for a good 10 minutes and finally caving and resetting it (I know it was 'Pancakes' related, but just couldn't remember the finer details), I had to laugh at the one single lonely post I had put up here. In November. 8 months ago. It is now August. The snow has melted, England is past its most bitter winter in 20 odd years and thawed out again into the summer heat of the inane teenage hoody riots. During this time I could pretty much have created and fully grown a baby.
If it's any consolation (to myself), I'm almost certain I started out like a million other bloggers did. With a post about my good intentions and my love of words and my 'meaty wisdom' to all wannabe writer's to get on and just bloody write...and then...of course...by being mute for 8 months. If I had created a baby fair do's, but I haven't.
So, password reset (nothing to do with pancakes, it was making me hungry anyway), I am up for giving this another go.
Have just finished reading 'Under the Jaguar Sun' by Italo Calvino. A fantastic little book made up of three short stories. He died whilst writing the book, which was intended to be a book based on the five senses. The three stories are all consuming. They do not describe or focus on senses. They are the senses. Calvino writes through the organs of the mouth, the ears and the nose in his three pieces. The writing is unusual and fragmentary, but oh so flowing at the same time - if it can be these two contradictory things at once, which it seems to achieve. Fragmentary perhaps, because it disclocates us from the whole body. It hones in on that one sense like it was the only sense. The only perception. And then the writing, the story, the ideas, the feelings flow beautifully and intrinsically through this single organ. There were many sentences that struck me. I love books where a sentence, or a few lines here or there just stick out. A piece of art in their own right. A little truth in amongst the lovely jumble sale. Here are a few lines, precisely like that from the first story in the book 'Under the Jaguar Sun':
"Olivia had waited for me, our teeth began to move slowly, with equal rhythm, and our eyes stared into each other's with the intensity of serpents' - serpents concentrated in the ecstasy of swallowing each other in turn, as we were aware, in our turn, of being swallowed by the serpent that digests us all, assimilated ceaselessly in the process of ingestion and digestion, in the universal cannibalism that leaves its imprint on every amorous relationship and erases the lines between our bodies and sopa de frijoles, huachinago a la vera cruzana, and enchiladas."
I even love the end bit, where Calvino drifts off into what seems like a Mexican menu. Somehow it just fits. Mouth, teeth, chewing, swallowing, consumption. The need is basic and everyday. We need food - to survive. The need is based on emotion and yearning - we need sex and comfort and intimacy. The need is greed - we desire beyond our means. Our desire leads us on an endless bid for consumption. One that can never satiate our hunger.
If it's any consolation (to myself), I'm almost certain I started out like a million other bloggers did. With a post about my good intentions and my love of words and my 'meaty wisdom' to all wannabe writer's to get on and just bloody write...and then...of course...by being mute for 8 months. If I had created a baby fair do's, but I haven't.
So, password reset (nothing to do with pancakes, it was making me hungry anyway), I am up for giving this another go.
Have just finished reading 'Under the Jaguar Sun' by Italo Calvino. A fantastic little book made up of three short stories. He died whilst writing the book, which was intended to be a book based on the five senses. The three stories are all consuming. They do not describe or focus on senses. They are the senses. Calvino writes through the organs of the mouth, the ears and the nose in his three pieces. The writing is unusual and fragmentary, but oh so flowing at the same time - if it can be these two contradictory things at once, which it seems to achieve. Fragmentary perhaps, because it disclocates us from the whole body. It hones in on that one sense like it was the only sense. The only perception. And then the writing, the story, the ideas, the feelings flow beautifully and intrinsically through this single organ. There were many sentences that struck me. I love books where a sentence, or a few lines here or there just stick out. A piece of art in their own right. A little truth in amongst the lovely jumble sale. Here are a few lines, precisely like that from the first story in the book 'Under the Jaguar Sun':
"Olivia had waited for me, our teeth began to move slowly, with equal rhythm, and our eyes stared into each other's with the intensity of serpents' - serpents concentrated in the ecstasy of swallowing each other in turn, as we were aware, in our turn, of being swallowed by the serpent that digests us all, assimilated ceaselessly in the process of ingestion and digestion, in the universal cannibalism that leaves its imprint on every amorous relationship and erases the lines between our bodies and sopa de frijoles, huachinago a la vera cruzana, and enchiladas."
I even love the end bit, where Calvino drifts off into what seems like a Mexican menu. Somehow it just fits. Mouth, teeth, chewing, swallowing, consumption. The need is basic and everyday. We need food - to survive. The need is based on emotion and yearning - we need sex and comfort and intimacy. The need is greed - we desire beyond our means. Our desire leads us on an endless bid for consumption. One that can never satiate our hunger.
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