YouTube wouldn't let me post this video, but it is such a crazy use of the body that you really need to check it out. Seriously, what is happening here?
Link to NME: http://www.nme.com/nme-video/white-lies---bigger-than-us-music-video-exclusive/678806886001
Candy anyone?
Sunday 23 October 2011
And now...
... here's a comic that makes fun of writers. (I couldn't make it any bigger, so if you can't read it, here is a link: http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=197)
I love Kate Beaton.
The Comics Question
A couple of years ago I was visiting my brother in Toronto and I ended up sort of randomly at the Doug Wright Awards ceremony, which is part of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, which my bro is a part of every year. Actually, when I think about it like that, I guess it wasn't really all that random. At any rate, I was at the Doug Wright Awards, and it was sort of an odd night. Stuart McLean was there, and Don McKellar, and the person in front of me turned around and it was my History professor, who as it turns out is married to a man who knows my brother, so that my brother in Toronto ended up knowing my History prof from Regina (small world), and one of the awards was being presented by Bob Rae (I still can't figure that out - Bob Rae?). Bob Rae was not actually present at the ceremony, though, because he was wherever they were presenting the Governor General's Awards. As a result, he presented the award via some sort of video. Now, this was controversial for a couple of reasons, and it brings me to the actual purpose of this post. First of all, comics have been fighting to be taken seriously as a literary form for practically forever, and Bob Rae was asked to present an award at TCAF and couldn't, because he was at the GGs. Sure, the GGs are important, of course they are. But possibly the real kicker here is that the award he was asked to present at TCAF was for a book called Skim, by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki. This book was also nominated for a GG, but guess what? Only Mariko, the writer, was nominated for the GG. Jillian, the illustrator, was not. And Bob Rae was at the GGs, not TCAF.
Okay. Let's talk about last year's CBC Canada Reads competition. Here's how it works: books are recommended by the public and these recommendations are voted on by the public until there is a final 10. Then, five judges each choose a book from that top ten that they will defend in the competition, which leaves us with a final 5. The final 5 are voted off - by the judges - one by one, until there is a winner. Jeff Lemire's three-part graphic novel, Essex County, made it to the final 10 books according to public response, and was subsequently chosen by Sara Quin (of the band Tegan and Sara) as the book she felt was most important among those on the list. Essex County was then immediately eliminated by the other judges, who did not agree with the public's opinion that the book held literary merit. Now, certainly, there are those members of the public who didn't think Lemire's story was all that awesome - nothing is universally loved (not even the tomato). I think the important thing here is the main reason given for Essex County's elimination: Ami McKay, author of The Birth House, had a very distinct problem with the number of words in the book, and described the book as "a shortcut." This was a criticism that was shared by the other judges.
A shortcut? Really?
I'm about to admit to my own bias. I know that in persuasive writing, this is a thing that you should never do, but I'm going to do it, because I feel really passionately about this subject.
As a person with a family member who writes and illustrates graphic novels, I can tell you that a lack of words in no way constitutes a shortcut. A lack of words is not even a lack of anything at all, it is merely an absence, an absence that is filled with illustration, illustration that contributes significantly to narrative. This is why people who make comics were outraged by the snub in the GGs. And after the hours and hours that I have spent over the course of my life watching my brother toil at his drawing table, at our coffee table, on his bedroom floor, hours spent with a fountain pen tip and a bottle of ink, dipping and inking, dipping and inking, making permanent after the hours already spent pencilling the same images, I can tell you that to call a graphic novel a shortcut is nothing short of ignorant and insulting. It is merely preposterous.
It's important for us to realise, as storytellers, that there are different ways to tell a story. We should already know this; many of us probably make a choice, on a regular basis, about how we want to express the ideas floating around in our heads: "Do I want to write this as a poem? Is it a short story? Is it something longer? Does it feel like the story would be aided by visuals, and should I think about writing this as a screenplay, or a standard play?" I think about those things all the time. The idea that the GGs are a writing award and not an art award has been presented to me, and my stance remains firmly on the side of the artist; in a graphic novel, the two really can't be separated, and to acknowledge Skim as literary but only partly is an oversight that underestimates the importance of the illustration in that work and suggests that the artist played no part in the telling of that story - this is simply untrue. Comics have their own awards, and I realise that. But if a book is going to be nominated for a literary award, it's the entire book that should be nominated, and not just part of it. Essex County was eliminated from the Canada Reads competition based on form, not content.
Interested? Here's an article where a panel discusses the problem with graphic novels in literary competitions: http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/02/17/culture-club-essex-county’s-exile/ , and here's a link to a letter that was written by Seth and Chester Brown, two of the foremost graphic novelists in the world, to the GG awards: http://comics212.net/2008/11/12/skim-graphic-novels-and-the-governor-generals-literary-awards/.
I think there needs to be more scholarship generated around the graphic novel so that people will start to take it seriously. I think I might need to be the one to do it. I'm not saying that this is a sentiment that will be universally accepted, ever, but seriously, Spiegelman's Maus? Shigeru Mizuki's Onward Towards our Noble Deaths? Everything ever written by Seth? Not literary? Come on.
Interested? Here's an article where a panel discusses the problem with graphic novels in literary competitions: http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/02/17/culture-club-essex-county’s-exile/ , and here's a link to a letter that was written by Seth and Chester Brown, two of the foremost graphic novelists in the world, to the GG awards: http://comics212.net/2008/11/12/skim-graphic-novels-and-the-governor-generals-literary-awards/.
I think there needs to be more scholarship generated around the graphic novel so that people will start to take it seriously. I think I might need to be the one to do it. I'm not saying that this is a sentiment that will be universally accepted, ever, but seriously, Spiegelman's Maus? Shigeru Mizuki's Onward Towards our Noble Deaths? Everything ever written by Seth? Not literary? Come on.
Sunday 16 October 2011
Easy Like Sunday Morning?
Lately I've been thinking a lot about a lot of things. Comics is one of them. One of these days I intend to do a blog post about comics and narrative via illustration, and all that stuff. Not today though. Today I was thinking about choices, and the directions they end up taking us. I mean, even basic choices, like where to get a job. I've been thinking about this because my last job, at Chapters bookshop, was completely uninspiring. There I was, surrounded by amazing stories all day long, and never did I have a chance to even browse the shelves, let alone read the books or come up with my own story ideas. Welcome to the corporate book chain, where the employees are so distracted by the massive queue at the check-out and the rude customers that they don't even look at the titles coming through. Don't even ask me what people were buying - I honestly have no idea. Walking Dead maybe? The latest Heather's Pick? Someone asked me once if I could recommend a happy book for her to read; I had to tell her I hadn't read a happy book since about 1989, when I was still reading books from the young readers section. (All right, fine - I didn't actually say that.) Does anyone even write 'happy' books anymore? What does that even mean?
Anyway, the job. The point is that I chose to work there, and it wasn't at all what I expected it to be. Then I chose to leave there, and I got this random job at the RCMP Depot Division, working at a store that sells soap and toothpaste and gun cleaning supplies and handcuffs. Also, swimming goggles. It's so weird. And it's such a different environment from the Chapters. I'm not actually sure that it could be more different. There are no books, and lots of cadets, and no one who writes (at Chapters, everyone was a writer, but no one had time to write anything), and I can do my homework while sitting down as I am working and getting paid, because sometimes an entire hour will go by and there will be no customers. And this employment change was an impulsive choice. I work with a film student now, and a visual artist, and they are interested in the things that I do, and vice versa, and we have time to talk about our projects and fine tune and seek advice from each other. This morning, Sunday morning, I made a pot of coffee, sat down with a notebook, and asked my co-worker how his latest sculpture was going and what he might know about instances in which time might possibly stop. (Because a story where time stops? Why is it that the only thing I can think of right now are slow-motion montages from Michael Bay movies?) And seriously, who would have thought that I would be finding insight in the middle of cadet training drills and scenario enactments?
The point of this is that as I'm writing I have to make choices all the time. And it's important to remember, I think, that if I make a choice while I'm writing that takes me to a place I don't expect, I have options: either stick with it and make it work for me, or go somewhere else. Even if I don't know where that somewhere else is going to take me. In life, I have a tendency to make impulsive choices - and I think that's why I don't know what I'm going to write about until the very last minute.
I'm getting there. Maybe. Soon I will understand all of my madness. Oh, and also my method.
Anyway, the job. The point is that I chose to work there, and it wasn't at all what I expected it to be. Then I chose to leave there, and I got this random job at the RCMP Depot Division, working at a store that sells soap and toothpaste and gun cleaning supplies and handcuffs. Also, swimming goggles. It's so weird. And it's such a different environment from the Chapters. I'm not actually sure that it could be more different. There are no books, and lots of cadets, and no one who writes (at Chapters, everyone was a writer, but no one had time to write anything), and I can do my homework while sitting down as I am working and getting paid, because sometimes an entire hour will go by and there will be no customers. And this employment change was an impulsive choice. I work with a film student now, and a visual artist, and they are interested in the things that I do, and vice versa, and we have time to talk about our projects and fine tune and seek advice from each other. This morning, Sunday morning, I made a pot of coffee, sat down with a notebook, and asked my co-worker how his latest sculpture was going and what he might know about instances in which time might possibly stop. (Because a story where time stops? Why is it that the only thing I can think of right now are slow-motion montages from Michael Bay movies?) And seriously, who would have thought that I would be finding insight in the middle of cadet training drills and scenario enactments?
The point of this is that as I'm writing I have to make choices all the time. And it's important to remember, I think, that if I make a choice while I'm writing that takes me to a place I don't expect, I have options: either stick with it and make it work for me, or go somewhere else. Even if I don't know where that somewhere else is going to take me. In life, I have a tendency to make impulsive choices - and I think that's why I don't know what I'm going to write about until the very last minute.
I'm getting there. Maybe. Soon I will understand all of my madness. Oh, and also my method.
Saturday 8 October 2011
Oh, Oscar...
"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all."
- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Thursday 6 October 2011
Infinite Beauty
Just watch this, and listen. And afterwards, think about all the different ways there are to tell a story.
How is the body used here?
How is the body used here?
Writing the Body
Here's what I can say for sure: this class has pushed me way outside of my comfort zone.
I was thinking about this as I was trying to write assignment 1, and again as I was trying to write assignment 2. Neither of these tasks seemed conducive to the kind of writing I usually do, and I think that I was immediately thrown by that. I think I was immediately thrown by the theme of the course as a whole, to be honest. What could I possibly have to say about the body? And as I tried to think of something to write about, I felt a bit lost at sea, a bit awash in an ocean of doubt and uncertainty, a bit overwhelmed by projects that seemed to be far too far above my skill level. Worst of all, perhaps, I felt... well, not very creative.
This is actually very interesting to me, now that I think about it, because some of my favourite texts use the body symbolically to suggest all kinds of cool psychological anxieties. Books like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein. And there's all kinds of other ways the body is used in fiction too, like to remind us of our frailty, our imperfection, our mortality. The limits we push our bodies to can remind us of the limits our bodies keep us to. The brilliance of fiction is that we can challenge all of those things - really, the story possibilities are endless.
I really want to take this opportunity to say thank you to my classmates at this point. Every single person who sits in that circle with me every week is so, so brilliant. And you've all been instrumental in helping me see that there are so many possible ways to approach these assignments, and that my way can't really be wrong. That has eased my mind a great deal.
My Honour's project supervisor believes that writing is at its best when it comes from a place of uncertainty, of disconnection. He also believes that it's okay to go back to something, re-imagine it, see what kind of echoes remain and look at it from a new perspective, end up in a new place. He was referring to a literary technique called anaphora, the idea that you come back to the same point and begin again. But I think the idea of it applies to the way I've had to imagine my writing in this class, and then the way I've had to re-imagine it. And I think he might be right about a few things. I've felt uncomfortable with the tasks that I've been faced with, and even when I've started I haven't had any idea where I was going to end up. Several times I've had to go back to the beginning. And part of me feels like things might be turning out okay.
But this does lead me to wonder... Before, when I was sure, when I felt comfortable... Did I ever write anything that was good?
I was thinking about this as I was trying to write assignment 1, and again as I was trying to write assignment 2. Neither of these tasks seemed conducive to the kind of writing I usually do, and I think that I was immediately thrown by that. I think I was immediately thrown by the theme of the course as a whole, to be honest. What could I possibly have to say about the body? And as I tried to think of something to write about, I felt a bit lost at sea, a bit awash in an ocean of doubt and uncertainty, a bit overwhelmed by projects that seemed to be far too far above my skill level. Worst of all, perhaps, I felt... well, not very creative.
This is actually very interesting to me, now that I think about it, because some of my favourite texts use the body symbolically to suggest all kinds of cool psychological anxieties. Books like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein. And there's all kinds of other ways the body is used in fiction too, like to remind us of our frailty, our imperfection, our mortality. The limits we push our bodies to can remind us of the limits our bodies keep us to. The brilliance of fiction is that we can challenge all of those things - really, the story possibilities are endless.
I really want to take this opportunity to say thank you to my classmates at this point. Every single person who sits in that circle with me every week is so, so brilliant. And you've all been instrumental in helping me see that there are so many possible ways to approach these assignments, and that my way can't really be wrong. That has eased my mind a great deal.
My Honour's project supervisor believes that writing is at its best when it comes from a place of uncertainty, of disconnection. He also believes that it's okay to go back to something, re-imagine it, see what kind of echoes remain and look at it from a new perspective, end up in a new place. He was referring to a literary technique called anaphora, the idea that you come back to the same point and begin again. But I think the idea of it applies to the way I've had to imagine my writing in this class, and then the way I've had to re-imagine it. And I think he might be right about a few things. I've felt uncomfortable with the tasks that I've been faced with, and even when I've started I haven't had any idea where I was going to end up. Several times I've had to go back to the beginning. And part of me feels like things might be turning out okay.
But this does lead me to wonder... Before, when I was sure, when I felt comfortable... Did I ever write anything that was good?
Tuesday 4 October 2011
To be continued...
Lately every time I try to start a blog post I am interrupted or taken away from it, and then I end up losing what I was talking about and everything is terrible. Why am I busy?
I promise that when I have time - finally - to pause and be metacognitive, I will blog again.
I will blog again!
I promise that when I have time - finally - to pause and be metacognitive, I will blog again.
I will blog again!
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