‘She had crushed my heart and testicles, but I still loved her’ – that’s how Jonathan A felt when the love of his life left him. And I guess that’s how most men feel after a break-up, but few dare to acknowledge the truth about the emasculated testicle. The Alcoholic may not be an outstanding piece of graphic literature, but still manages to carve a niche because of Jonathan A’s honest confessions of his failures.
David Hume, a Scottish philosopher, once said “the science of man is the only solid foundation for the other sciences.” Here, Hume isn’t referring to the subject that we study in school when he mentions the word- “science”. What he means by it is the empirical method based on “experience and observation”. Art Spiegelman’s Maus is a depiction of the same. The use of Hume’s philosophy is reflected in the book where Art Spiegelman- author and the cartoonist of the book interviews his dad Vladek Spiegelman, a Polish Jew, who is a survivor of the Holocaust.
The father and the son share a troubled relationship. The son finds it hard to cope with a relationship that is grief-stricken, even though he shows a certain amount of interest in his father’s stories of survival during the Nazi occupation. The book has a satirical feel about it since the characters are all presented as various types of anthropomorphic animals, according to nationality or race; for instance, the Jews are represented as mice for their weakness of character and the Nazis are the cats epitomizing their fascist nature, along with Swedes as reindeer, the French as frogs, the British as fish, Americans as dogs, Poles as pigs and Roma (Gypsies) are represented as gypsy moths.
Art Spiegelman’s writing and art work are superb. He magnificently pulls you in as he narrates his father’s story and the trouble they went through during the Nazi era.
There are few comics that I know of that are highly regarded by the general populace. For example V for Vendetta and 300 (largely due to being the basis for popular films). Maus, Pulitzer Prize winner (1992) is one book that definitely needs to be added to the list.
My Brain is Hanging Upside Down
By David Heatley
Pantheon Books; Rs 950/- (+VAT)
My Brain is Hanging Upside Down is the Graphic Memoir of American Artist David Heatley.
Let's take a look at this, shall we?
My – Implying Possession, Ownership, Personal property, and this book is as personal as they get; David Heatley's Life and Dreams in Paper and Ink. The artist shares private moments of his life and experiences so personal the most apathetic reader would blush. From the many events and occurrences that shape the artist, he paints us a picture that is truly Him, and the story told in the pages he painted is uniquely His.
Brain – Cerebral, Consciousness, Thought, which the Artist is not afraid to share with the world. Each page, drawn in his distinctive child-like style, is an outpouring of his memories and thoughts, his critiques and comments, on himself, the world at large, and how he relates to it as an individual. Divided in five sections the book covers his life from five perspectives and five parts of his mind (four actually, since the last one is the whole mind) book-ended by deeply insightful and doubly incomprehensible Dream comics, putting a map of his brain, quite simply as a quartered oval.
Is – A harmless verb, a variant of To Be. The simplest way to
state the existence of something, to confirm a thing as real and not
just ideas. To state that something is a certain way, regardless of any
other way it might be perceived.
Hanging – Could mean anything from Dangling (between things,)
to Lynching (punishment for irredeemable sins,) to just spending time
with people. I'm sure their is some deeper, synchroniciti-cal meaning
here but it evades me right now. But I'm sure its thought provoking and
awesome.
Upside –By itself, of course, this means the Positive side, a
Good thing about an otherwise bad thing ... which might be the deeper
meaning in the previous word that I had been looking for. It might be.
Or maybe its about finding the Upside to things, despite negativity,
rage, unresolved anger and issues that may still be inhabiting your
mind, and Breaking on through to the Upside. Maybe. On a related note,
the title comes from a Ramones' lyric.
Down – Down, Depressed, Low, Beneath, Below, Under, Underneath, Underground, Alternative.
Here ends the analysis of the Title of the Book. You are
welcome to stay for the analysis of the rest of the sentence, but
there's no free snacks so might want to leave.
Is – Another harmless verb, simply Being, doing exactly what it is meant to do ... which is Be. No pretension and no deceit, just the unbearable sweetness of Being.
The – An article used when referring to a specific of a group, or one of a kind, not only further solidifying the Artist's individuality but singling him out from the crowd.
Graphic – Very Graphic, the Artist follows the examples set by Comix artists before him in depicting sex graphically, while still coyly censoring body parts with cute pink bars. He also shows other raw, emotional events in similar ways, censoring little.
Memoir – Drawing from his own memories of growing up, much of the stories are from his younger days. The parts he cannot remember correctly he puts down whatever he can; which of course leads you to think how much of the Memoirs does he really remember and how much are reconstructed fragments?
Of –Again, the symbol, the code, the reaffirmation of possession, of authorship. We get it already! Move the fuck on!
American – I may not be the best judge of this, but the Artist, to me, seems quintessentially American. The preoccupation with and trivialization of sex, the complexities of inter-racial relations, the pitfalls of living in a post-modern world, and of course, being born and raised in America.
Artist – The fearlessness in his story-telling, the emotional depth shown by his insights, and the way he enriches the medium more than the medium enriches him, is what makes this man an Artist. Check out his myspace for his old skool hip-hop tracks.
David – His Christian name, after the second king of Israel. David (Heatley) can be said to have defeated a Goliath of his own, lost and found God, be a lamb of God and written some bitchin' psalms.
Heatley – An Old English surname, meaning 'from Hoeth', or 'from Heatley'. David Heatley is from Teaneck, New Jersey.
. - The Full Stop, denoting the end of a sentence, bringing it to a stop and resolving all hanging questions. One such question might be whether this was an actual, brilliantly post-modern review, or just a colossal waste of your time.
Hm.
I have been wanting to write my own review on this book for a while now as i went through the reading process. I finally got done with it today and so here i go. A bit of a background, Thomas Friedman is a Pulitzer Prize winning writer and foreign policy expert, he was the Chief Foreign Affairs correspondent for the New York Times and currently writes weekly op-editorials for the Times. He wrote the book The Lexus and the Olive Tree which became a international best-seller and a textbook for International Political Science on campuses around the world. The Olive Tree gave an introduction to the changing world during this era of globalization. This book moves onto a totally different level.
Friedman writes in a very casual way making it a easy to read . He writes as if he is speaking to you, which make his columns as well as his books fun to read. His years as the foreign affairs correspondent make him an expert in world politics. His columns have been a must read for me for the past three years (in India you can read him in the Indian Express) and i would recommend them to everyone. They provide a great insight into American and World politics. Now, moving on to the book.
The cover says it all, the world is flat, of course not in the physical sense but with development of technology and the era of Internet. There are no walls keeping people apart and the world is changing rapidly. By walls he means political and trade barriers which are falling each day as this world becomes a tinier place. Friedman calls this era Globalization 3.0', therefore, G 1.0 was the era when Columbus(1492) set sail till 1800, where it was more about countries and muscles. Countries and governments shrank the size of the world from large to medium. G 2.0 lasted from 1800 till 2000, the dynamic agent here were the multinational companies which again shrunk the world to a size small. Thus, 3.0 shrinks the world from small to tiny, where the individual is the driving force behind the collapsing walls. This era makes it possible for more people to plug and play.
He explains the '10 flatteners' which led to this flat world, starting with launch of Windows 3.0 months after the Berlin Wall collapsed to the day when Netscape went public and its open sourcing, China's entry in to WTO to the last one which is wireless technology. I am just naming these flatteners, as you read you understand how they all add up. But, one of the most interesting facts he points out to is that one of the results of the Dot-com bubble was the over-investment of a Trillion dollars in fibre-optimizing the world, which lets Bangalore be right next to Boston, lets Dalian (China) be next door neighbors with Detroit. It made the cost of communicating next to nothing. His essential point, which he loves to make in his interviews is that 35 years ago if you had a choice between being a B-student in Boston or being a genius in China, you would have picked Boston. But, today you wouldn't necessarily do that since the genius in China has a better chance at being successful. He essentially addresses America by pointing out the falling education standards in United States, and how students from China and India are overtaking American students. The need for Americans to pull up their socks and get back in the knowledge race, if America wants to remain the leaders in innovation. Since, China and India are both racing U.S to the top. He also addresses the part of the world which is not moving ahead, the unflat word- Africa and the Middle East.
Friedman is often criticized as being too optimistic, i would not concur with that assessment. There is no denying that the man presents a optimistic outlook of the world, however he balances it out with the negative realities of this flat world. He is not presenting the future, he is telling you whats going on in the world right now. A flat world faced with collapsing walls which create opportunities as well as nightmares such as terrorism. He warns not just Americans but everyone that if you don't keep up with this world, you will end up losing out as it becomes more and more competitive as more and more people plug and play. He argues that even if only 5% of populations freed by the collapsing walls make use of this flat world, it is still 150 million which is nearly the size of the American work-force. A good chunk of this book is essentially meant for Americans not that its not interesting but it deals with problems facing the American work-force regarding outsourcing, off-shoring etc. and the possible solutions to some of the problems facing the American work-force.
I bought this book for two reasons because i loved the Olive Tree and because this book deals with India in a big way. The essential tools for his argument are India and China, which he uses very effectively to get his point across. The reader comes across so many Indian innovators and business leaders who are not only changing India, but its position in the world. Since, Friedman's essential argument is that this world is based around an individual therefore the book empowers through its message, which is that you don't need to immigrate to innovate. Even if you don't agree with his arguement, read this book for the information it provides about whats going on in the world. For example, Rajesh Rao, who runs a gaming company in India owns the rights to Charlie Chaplin's image on all cell phones or that HP does back-office work for the State Bank of India (yes the company that makes your printer is doing back office work for an Indian bank) or the supply chain network of Wall Mart (the most amazing thing you could see and learn, sure they are big evil monsters but heck of a company still) or the real business that UPS does (those guys in the brown shorts do a lot more than deliver packages) and the list goes on and on. This book is an amazing source of facts and information, some of which will blow the average mind, thereby making it a good read. So, pick up a copy and get to know our flat world.
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