MadInkBeard

This is a week late, but I’m still without internet at home and adjusting to my new housing:

1. Life: A User’s Manual by Georges Perec (1978, Translated by David Bellos, 1987): This large novel alone took up a week of reading time. After all my reading of Oulipian works, I decided it was time I actually read this paragon of the constrained novel. In 100 chapters, Perec describes one moment in time in a Parisian apartment building, one room at a time. While the present of the novel exists at one moment in one building, the chapters themselves, in their unfolding stories, span decades and continents. The central story that crosses a number of chapters tells of a man who plans a self-negating project involving landscape paintings and puzzles which takes up decades of his life. The puzzle and the project emerge as thematic metaphors for the novel itself. Perec set himself an extraordinary number of constraints in constructing the novel (there’s a whole book showing his diagrams and plans). He divided the building into a ten by ten grid and organizes the chapters (one room per chapter) by jumping from room to room in a path called the “knight’s tour” which involves moving like a chess knight in such a way as to hit every square without hitting any one twice. He also quotes (unattributed) other authors in each chapter (the only one I picked up on was a few passages from Raymond Roussel). The book is filled with entertaining stories that seem to hold a few mysteries, a novel that demands rereading. Plus, it’s got an index, and lists, lots of lists.

2. Egon Schiele Landscapes by Rudolf Leopold (Prestel, 2004): While Schiele is best known for his figurative works, this book of his landscapes is amazing. He compresses, abstracts, and subtracts from reality. I particular like the pencil sketches, occasionally accented by some watercolor. If you only know his figures, this is a book to look up. More on this when I get around to scanning a few images.

3. Mr. Big by Carol and Matt Dembicki (Little Foot, 2007): A short graphic novel about the animal life in and around a pond. Interesting for the way the animals are anthropomorphized only as far as speaking, but without the human hands, tools, or upright stance of most comic animals. The layouts are often confused and unnecessarily unusual (tons of overlapping panels and curved borders). The story falls a few times into sermony type speeches which push points that should be made obvious through the story without the need for excessive speechifying (in this case it’s about balance in nature).

4. The End by Anders Nilsen (Fantagraphics, 2007): One of Nilsen’s stronger works, it retains his isolated characters and abstracted narratives but has more cohesion and emotional impact. Sometimes I found Nilsen’s minimalism lacking, but in this book it works extremely well. In a Fantagraphics add they call it a collection of stories. I read it is a single unit of disparate parts, which may explain why I felt certain parts were out of place. Still, the packaging does not do much to indicate any divisions (beginnings, endings, parts).

5. Krazy Kat: A Brick Stuffed with Moombims (1939-1940) by George Herriman (Fantagraphics, 2007): The latest Krazy Kat reprint featuring two years of color Sundays. I’ve been finding the strip less interesting in the color versions. Maybe it’s just because it was getting old?

6. Eddie Campbell on “In Thrall to the Cinematic Principle”: Campbell argues against the use of cinematic terms in comics. I’m of two minds on this matter. On the one hand, I think it is important that comics have their own terminology for elements that are unique to the form. On the other hand, some cinematic terms are appropriate for use with comics. We use literary terms when discussing comics (even as far as the “graphic novel”), so why not film.

7. The Pound Era by Hugh Kenner (1971): Still working my way through this long book, that is kind of a biography of the poetry of Ezra Pound and company (that is different people in his circles). Some of it is riveting and thought provoking, some of it is boring and worth skipping.