Lori L. Tharps, Kinky Gazpacho

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

13. Lori L. Tharps, Kinky Gazpacho

This is a memoir about Lori, a young black girl growing up in Milwaukee. Attending mostly private schools, she is often the only black kid in her classes, and in this atmosphere she becomes obsessed with Spain, learning about it through her Spanish classes and picturing it as "another world when this one got to be too much. She finally gets to go there when she spends a year studying abroad in college and, as you can probably guess, it does not match her expectations.

This book was very light, but I enjoyed it. It has some very funny parts, and I found it very interesting to see race discussed in the context of a society outside the US. This is more of a beach read than something deep, but it's quite fun for what it is.

Kyle Baker: How to Draw Stupid; Nat Turner

[sanguinity]

49. Kyle Baker, How to Draw Stupid.

I've got strong and mixed feelings about this book. However, even regarding the stuff I disagree with Baker about, I've gotta give props to a book that makes it possible for me to put my finger on what bothers me about cartooning-in-general, and my wtf moments when reading Baker's other work.

(For reference, I'm using "cartooning" to refer to the popular gag-based style, regardless as to whether any particular cartoon is single-panel or not. Don't come quoting Scott McCloud at me.)

First, this a "how to be a professional cartoonist" book, and there's a lot of good advice in here: you have to actually make cartoons to be a cartoonist; you should spend some time learning to draw, then spend some time unlearning to draw; never underestimate the value of exaggeration, streamlining, etc. I'm particularly taken with his notion of leading with the artwork -- design the art before you write the words. I shall have to experiment with that. There's also good stuff in here about storytelling structure and making sure your characters have body language. (Although I vehemently disagree with Baker as to what a "dynamic" fight looks like, and his comments make me understand why I have always flipped through D.C./Marvel fight scenes, utterly bored out of my mind: Sifu would have had my head if I had ever tried to throw a punch like that, and that's assuming that my opponent didn't beat him to it.) Plus there's what Baker quite rightly calls "the hand of death."

However, there are significant places where we split ways: the thing about stereotypes, f'rex, and his ideas about what is funny. Both of those could be better categorized as "my problem with cartooning" rather than "my problem with Baker-in-particular," but these items do explain my occasional wtf moment when reading a Baker graphic novel, and why I've been so wary of picking up The Bakers.

( Stereotypes are true; hitting stupid people is funny. )

As a book, I found How to Draw Stupid useful. For me, its usefulness flip-flopped between "how to draw cartoons/comics" and "concise explanation of what it is about cartooning and some of Baker's work that bothers me." Other readers are quite likely to have different reactions to it.


50. Kyle Baker, Nat Turner.

I read How to Draw Stupid when I was midway through Nat Turner -- Nat Turner is intense, and I could only read it in short doses -- and I really wish I hadn't. Because the stuff that made me grind my teeth in Draw Stupid is in no way present in Nat Turner, and it was distracting to have my Draw Stupid feelings about Baker fresh in my head while I was making my way through Nat Turner.

This graphic novel is... brutal. And terrible. And powerful. I find myself at a loss as to verbalize much of anything about it. If you can find the stomach to look this one in the eye -- it is not a pretty story, and Baker did not in any way nice'n it up for easy consumption -- I do recommend it.

Warchild by Karin Lowachee

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13) Warchild is the second Karin Lowachee novel I've read, after Burndive, which I have already reviewed here. Warchild is earlier both publication date-wise and chronologically, but having read both, I think the order I accidentally ended up with is the superior order. Burndive is more interesting if you don't know where Jos Musey's loyalties lie. I suggest you read Burndive first.

I would love Warchild alone for having an alien race with multiple nations and multiple cultures, and yet having that not be the focus of the story. If the novel also has a fascinating set of characters, exciting space adventures, and a complicated and morally murky neo-space opera plot, those are just bonuses.

Jos Musey is your prototypical 'survivor'. Abducted off the merchant ship he lived on with his parents by a cruel and rapacious pirate captain, he manages to escape... into the hands of the feared striviirc-na. And he passes from their alien stronghold to serve as a soljet aboard merciless Hub captain Cairo Azarcon's flagship, Macedon. Throughout, his loyalties blur as he quests for someone or something that deserves those loyalties. Nobody is consistently good. Eventually, Jos must learn that the point of putting your trust in someone is to let them know that even if they let you down, you'll still trust them. It is a difficult lesson. Trust is hard.

Lowachee has a lot of well-executed language play. The book opens in 2nd person narration, a gimmick that works surprisingly well at inserting the reader into the shoes of the young Jos, and a gimmick that Lowachee knows to turn off before it becomes annoying.

Linguistics nerds will love the section where Jos is taught a language of the striviirc-na (one of several! glee!). Lowachee takes care to create an interesting and self-consistent language and uses it effectively throughout the whole novel.

And word play, too, helps create the sense of immersion in the universe, as when we find that Macedon's crest features Alexander the Great. Those sorts of little consistencies make Warchild a great place to get lost in another world.

Somtow Sucharitkul, Tananarive Due, Laura Chau

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Reviews #6-#9, cut to save your fl.

Light on the Sound, Somtow Sucharitkul ( Read more... )

Darker Angels, Somtow Sucharitkul (writing as S.P. Somtow) ( Read more... )

My Soul to Keep, Tananarive Due ( Read more... )

Teach Yourself Visually: Sock Knitting, Laura Chau ( Read more... )