mucking about in ... books.
At the beginning of June, I moved into a new apartment within the city limits of the mid-sized town around which I've been orbiting for a considerable chunk of my life. With a new address came something I can't believe I never got in New York (though as an excuse I offer to those who know me my job in those years): a library card. My own! My precious!
As a result, I've been reading like a motherfucker.
No, for serious.
This month's booklist is twice the size of the last few months'. And on top of that, it's frosted with graphic novels, the likes of which I can never justify purchasing but always want to read. Imagine my glee when I discovered all the Books of Magic on the YA graphic novel shelves. Now if I can just go in with the list I made that tells me in which order they're meant to be read.
I read the third volume of Carla Speed McNeil's spectacular Finder. I read the Serenity GN, which I'm glad I didn't purchase as it seemed to exist simply to explain that the two by two hands of blue were taken care of, and that's why the Operative got sent in. Joss, I love ya, but my imagination could have taken care of that part.
But yesterday I read Warren Ellis' Orbiter.
Ellis consistently reminds me why GNs are such a vital storytelling form. It's not something I can easily put into words, but his stories are such that simple prose wouldn't be enough to properly present them. The image of a long-lost space shuttle putting down in a Kennedy Space Center that's become a tent city, the horrible chaos that presents, the very idea of a ship covered in a skin-like substance with incredibly properties ... these things can be written, certainly. But the visual does something different. It's the same with his Transmetropolitan, which all told probably adds up to several novels worth of text. Transmet, though, is hugely visual: the mad glare of Spider Jerusalem, the two-headed cat, the busy, teeming streets. This kind of visual creation is iconic. It gives us text the illustration of which we can all agree on; it gives us a sort of cinema that would never happen in the studio system.
I don't know if that makes sense, but there's something here. Toby, you want to be more eloquent than I?
As a result, I've been reading like a motherfucker.
No, for serious.
This month's booklist is twice the size of the last few months'. And on top of that, it's frosted with graphic novels, the likes of which I can never justify purchasing but always want to read. Imagine my glee when I discovered all the Books of Magic on the YA graphic novel shelves. Now if I can just go in with the list I made that tells me in which order they're meant to be read.
I read the third volume of Carla Speed McNeil's spectacular Finder. I read the Serenity GN, which I'm glad I didn't purchase as it seemed to exist simply to explain that the two by two hands of blue were taken care of, and that's why the Operative got sent in. Joss, I love ya, but my imagination could have taken care of that part.
But yesterday I read Warren Ellis' Orbiter.
Ellis consistently reminds me why GNs are such a vital storytelling form. It's not something I can easily put into words, but his stories are such that simple prose wouldn't be enough to properly present them. The image of a long-lost space shuttle putting down in a Kennedy Space Center that's become a tent city, the horrible chaos that presents, the very idea of a ship covered in a skin-like substance with incredibly properties ... these things can be written, certainly. But the visual does something different. It's the same with his Transmetropolitan, which all told probably adds up to several novels worth of text. Transmet, though, is hugely visual: the mad glare of Spider Jerusalem, the two-headed cat, the busy, teeming streets. This kind of visual creation is iconic. It gives us text the illustration of which we can all agree on; it gives us a sort of cinema that would never happen in the studio system.
I don't know if that makes sense, but there's something here. Toby, you want to be more eloquent than I?
posted by M. at 4:26 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home