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trocheeOther activities today: I read my solstice present from the GF (Blankets, Craig Thompson's opus). It's an amazing book by the author of Goodbye, Chunky Rice (thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lx for the recommendation). I was initially afraid of how much he (Thompson) made me care about his characters -- I somehow feared he was going to screw them over, and I generally don't like the variety of fiction that makes you love someone only to fuck up their lives in front of you. I understand that reading these things are supposed to be good for you, but there's plenty of grief in the world already. I read Amnesty International for my share of that sort of life-ruining story, and that's enough, thanks. Oh, and back to my earlier thought: Blankets doesn't do this, but nor does it have a sappy fairy-tale happy ending. I won't give away what he does here.
It's very, very good, and may actually be the best-qualifying true "graphic novel" I know of. A next best might be Spiegelman's Maus, or Jason Lutes' Jar of Fools, but I would wonder whether Maus is really a novel, and Blankets is probably a better and more versatile use of the comic-book form than is Jar of Fools. All the other comics I read (including some I dearly love, like Finder, Love and Rockets, Stuck Rubber Baby or the early Elfquest) are much more tightly-bound to to the serial form, and while they're great books, still are shaped by that serial nature.
As far as the feel of the story, I would say that the autobiographical feel of Stuck Rubber Baby is perhaps the best match to describe Blankets, but with the addition of a flexibility of the art form to express the first-person sensations of the autobiographical protagonist in his/our perception of the world around himself.
Reading Thompson's biography in the back: he's my age. What am I doing with my life? This is his second amazing work. Will a PhD be comparable?
lx for the recommendation). I was initially afraid of how much he (Thompson) made me care about his characters -- I somehow feared he was going to screw them over, and I generally don't like the variety of fiction that makes you love someone only to fuck up their lives in front of you. I understand that reading these things are supposed to be good for you, but there's plenty of grief in the world already. I read Amnesty International for my share of that sort of life-ruining story, and that's enough, thanks. Oh, and back to my earlier thought: Blankets doesn't do this, but nor does it have a sappy fairy-tale happy ending. I won't give away what he does here.It's very, very good, and may actually be the best-qualifying true "graphic novel" I know of. A next best might be Spiegelman's Maus, or Jason Lutes' Jar of Fools, but I would wonder whether Maus is really a novel, and Blankets is probably a better and more versatile use of the comic-book form than is Jar of Fools. All the other comics I read (including some I dearly love, like Finder, Love and Rockets, Stuck Rubber Baby or the early Elfquest) are much more tightly-bound to to the serial form, and while they're great books, still are shaped by that serial nature.
As far as the feel of the story, I would say that the autobiographical feel of Stuck Rubber Baby is perhaps the best match to describe Blankets, but with the addition of a flexibility of the art form to express the first-person sensations of the autobiographical protagonist in his/our perception of the world around himself.
Reading Thompson's biography in the back: he's my age. What am I doing with my life? This is his second amazing work. Will a PhD be comparable?
