March 26, 2005
travel blog in pen & ink
I'm excited about this book: Carnet de Voyage, by Craig Thompson. Thompson penned (or brushed, rather . . . he draws & writes with a brush) the quite-popular graphic novel Blankets. This book begins, as so many exciting works do, with a disclaimer. He says: "This is not "the Next Book," but rather a self-indulgent side-project --- a simple travel diary drawn while I was traveling through Europe and Morocco from march 5th to May 14th, 2004." |
What I love about this book is that by being a "simple travel diary" Thompson slips out from under the obligation to have a consistent narrative voice and narrative style. Some pages are narrative, others are just drawings. He pictures himself realistically sometimes, & cartoonlike sometimes when he wants a bit of emotional distance, or for other complex emotional reasons. Style-wise he can turn on a dime, he can go anywhere from anywhere. Hey, it's just a travel diary. That stylistic flexibility is great --- just what language arts needs right now. We do it in speaking all the time. Some postmodern writers do it in a ponderous, pompous, laborious way. Thompson does it in a way that is soooo light, so appropriate to the moment. Plus, it's a very powerful effect to see portraits drawn from life while conversing with the subject. Knowing that about an image changes it, right? |