#1 The Arrival

[eccentricweft.livejournal.com]

The Arrival was published in 2006 and I just stumbled on it recently. It's a wordless graphic novel. The medium is (I think) charcoal pencil drawings.

The artist is Shaun Tan, from Australia. His father was Chinese and came to Australia as an adult. The project was inspired by the father's experiences: it's about leaving home, coming to a completely unfamiliar place, and gradually figuring out the strangeness of the new culture.

The story uses fantastical elements to convey the bizarreness of everything to the new arrival (the cover illustration is an example, so I don't think this spoils anything). It's not meant as science fiction but rather as a way of making the 'reader' feel as baffled by the new surroundings as the main character.

The fact that this complex story is told completely without words is amazing to me. It's incredibly absorbing and the absence of words makes you have to pay attention as intently as the main character.

I'd love to talk about this with folks if anyone else has read it.

Comments

[alias_sqbr]

I don't know that I have much to say except "Isn't it awesome?" but..isn't it awesome? He's a local author which makes it extra special for me.

I got it for my mum for christmas, she seemed pretty happy with it. (She's an immigrant herself, though just from New Zealand :))

If you haven't read his other stuff I strongly recommend it, have a look through his tag on this community for more reviews (all glowing afaict).

[avuxeni.livejournal.com]

Yes, this. I just LOVE this book, and recently gave away my copy to a friend and had to buy myself a new one.

I work with English language learners in a public school system in the U.S., and this book is particularly appealing because a) it's wordless, and thereby totally accessible b) the story is really compelling, c) the emotional arc of the main character is often really familiar to my students.

This book is also really useful in teacher education. For many teachers in the U.S., they've never had the experience of going somewhere and being completely unfamiliar with the language, alphabet, customs, food, etc. Vicariously experiencing this, through the fabulous illustrations of Tan, is a step towards helping them understand how to best support their newly arrived students.

And also, because the illustrations are so rich and detailed, I've found I can get lost on a single page, just studying the faces and expressions. The inside of the cover is just fantastic. Tan is really a gifted illustrator!

[eccentricweft.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh, I hadn't thought of that. I have a friend who's an (elementary level) ESL teacher, I'll ask her if she's heard of this!

At first I had a hard time slowing down enough to study the pictures because I'm (we're) so conditioned to glance over images and go for the text. I kept having to go back and examine pictures again for details that were necessary to understand later images. About 10 pages in, I remember realizing that this was going to need a couple of hours to absorb properly, so I made myself some tea and calmed down and settled in to enjoy it. And it was a fabulous two hours. :)

[alias_sqbr]

Oh I can see it being great for that.

I'm hard pressed to think of anyone else who is such a talented artist and writer.

[eccentricweft.livejournal.com]

Yeah, "This is so awesome!" was pretty much all I could say too. :)

Tales from Outer Suburbia seemed really intriguing when I browsed the author's website last week, and from looking at the reviews here I now really want to read The Red Door too.

[alias_sqbr]

Yes, "Tales from Outer Suburbia" is great (though more specifically australian) I haven't read "The Red Door" yet but I really must get around to it.

[katura.livejournal.com]

I haven't read this one yet, but I love Shaun Tan.

[eccentricweft.livejournal.com]

I think he's going to be a new favorite for me. I'm going to look for The Red Door and Tales from Outer Suburbia next.

[sanguinity]

It's fabulous. I think there are two other reviews of that book on this comm? Both of which gush over it.

The wordlessness is a big part of what makes it for me -- when I'm in a different culture I really notice not having language. It's like moving in a bubble, and the only communication I've got with others is body language and emotions. Tan expressed that very well.

[eccentricweft.livejournal.com]

The wordlessness also made me think about how much I'm prone to believe that words are necessary for meaningful understanding. At the beginning when the family walks through the streets and you can see just the shadow of a huge spiked dragon-like tail, at first I was all "But what IS that??" I kept thinking there'd be a picture of the monster itself until I realized it symbolized something that was menacing the safety of the family and maybe didn't literally mean there was a dragon in the city. It was quite a revelation to experience all those emotions without words.

[were-duck.livejournal.com]

I loved this book, too! He just put out another book called Tales From Outer Suburbia which I also really love--it's a different sort of book, but it's equally impressive in its own right.

[eccentricweft.livejournal.com]

I spent an hour or so reading the author's website and came away really intrigued at how very different each work seemed to be!

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I read this and was amazed, too. I only had a library copy, but I keep wanting to go back to it so will have to buy a copy. Giving Tan some money seems like a good plan, too!

The other of his I've read was The Rabbits, with John Marsden, which I decided was the biggest case of jacket-copy false advertising I'd ever seen! It was good (and in a totally different cool illustration style), but the cover flap said the message was all environmentalist, which was FAR from true -- there was a strong condemnation of colonialism as well. I certainly didn't object, but the dishonesty was really striking.

[eccentricweft.livejournal.com]

Like they didn't want to mention colonialism was a theme of the book because that might scare off potential buyers by reminding them of a topic they feel guilty about? Waah...

My Pollyanna-ish side wants to think that might have been an attempt to get people to read the book that might not have otherwise, but yeah. I'm inclined to think it was a marketing decision.

Pondering that makes me wonder why the environmental angle was perceived as more saleable. Maybe because it has arisen more recently and people think of it as not totally irresolvable, whereas colonialism is thought of as a situation where the worst damage has already been done so now all we can do is hide our heads in shame.