Comments on: Taller Tales, Bill Willingham

By: Bill Willingham – The Sandman Presents: Taller Tales « Fyrefly's Book Blog

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:54:17 +0000

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By: jennysbooks

jennysbooks — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:39:34 +0000

Nymeth, that does make sense. I guess to me, it’s just a question of whether what’s inside their head resonates with me. My mother and I were talking about this after she read Eleanor Rigby, and she said that she thought it spoke more to my situation than hers. I think that’s something to consider with books – the character’s actions and ideas don’t have to be similar to mine, for me to engage with them, but it helps if I can see a glimmer of myself in them.

That all sounds terribly self-centered! But I think it’s (at least partly) true. If I can’t empathize with a character’s choices or ideas, I can often recognize something in them that’s true of me – struggle against change, feelings of powerlessness, whatever – that makes me interested in what happens to them.

By: Nymeth

Nymeth — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:50:37 +0000

I can see what you mean about the fragmentation. I felt the same when I read At Death’s Door by Jill Thompson. It didn’t feel like a Sandman book, and the characters didn’t feel like the characters I knew, but I still managed to enjoy it for what it was.

And in the case of Thesally, the art! I just loved the art.

As for your question about characters, I don’t necessarily need to sympathize with them, but to engage with the story I need to understand them at least somewhat, to be able to make sense of their actions, thoughts, etc. Actually, one of my favourite things that fiction does is make me “see inside” the heads of people I wouldn’t normally identify or sympathize with. I hope this makes sense.

PS: Understanding Comics is awesome!

By: jennysbooks

jennysbooks — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:55:52 +0000

I think there’s a book called Understanding Comics by a Scott McCloud. Someone told me about it a while ago and I have been wanting to read it.

It’s interesting that you don’t like them – I would have thought that being an artist yourself would make graphic novels more interesting to you, not less. Have you tried other memoirs, since you liked Persepolis so much? I read Craig Thompson’s Blankets a while ago, and really enjoyed it – he writes about his childhood as a fundamentalist Christian, and his first love, and struggling with his faith.

Also, there’s a gorgeous kids’ book called The Invention of Hugo Cabret. It’s a big fat illustrated novel, so the text is set up like an ordinary book, but there are also these really lovely illustrations. Sort of a hybrid between a regular book and a graphic novel – maybe that would help to ease you in. 🙂

By: boxofbooks

boxofbooks — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:42:24 +0000

I have a really, really hard time with graphic novels in general. The only one I’ve read that I liked (and, to be fair, I loved it) was Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis”, which is a great story but also made me think about storytelling – especially that whole engagement phenomenon, like you said. It’s such a mysterious thing, how books connect to our imaginations.

So a friend suggested a nonfiction book which theorizes that the graphic form is the quickest and most effective way to capture a person’s imagination, but I can’t remember the title. I think the author was Scott McLoud or McCall?, and it’s a graphic novel (I feel funny calling a nonfiction book a graphic novel), but so far I haven’t come across it and I haven’t see my friend in ages to ask. But I think that’s the one to read. I don’t know if it will make me want to run out and embrace The Sandman series, but I think it’ll be interesting reading. Must….remember….title….