As Slow and Transparent as Glass

Okay, I'll admit it: I haven't been reading The Pillars of the Earth. I've actually been trying to gear up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) by brainstorming plots and characters. And by "brainstorming plots and characters" I really mean that I've been haunting their message board, watching to see if there would be any write-ins near me. I may have to organize one myself. It all kicks off on Monday, which I just happen to have off from work. I'm still not sure who or what I'm going to write about, so I picked up No Plot, No Problem by NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty today. It's really good; he's got a great sense of humor in his writing that makes me laugh but doesn't diminish the points he's trying to make. We'll see where I go from here but I'm already more excited now than I was last year.

One medium that intrigues me is the comic book or graphic novel. I don't have the drawing chops to pull it off by myself but I'd love to team up with an artist sometime to create a comic. While it seems like the focus is much more on the art than on the words, if the dialogue is lacking then the whole book goes down with it. I say "book," but really there are so many different formats that comics come out in now: strips, books, webcomics, graphic novels. And so many ways to access them!

It's also a really versatile medium that lends itself well to lots of different topics. Art Spiegelman created Maus to tell his parents' experience during the Holocaust. Neil Gaiman, with various artists, wrote the Sandman series about the Dream King and his siblings: Death, Destruction, Destiny, Desire, Despair, and Delirium. And Scott Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim series takes a love story and sets it to a video game soundtrack. These are all stories that could have been told completely in words but the graphic aspect of each strengthens them. Spiegelman uses the "Jews as mice" theme set up by Nazi propaganda but subverts it brilliantly. The artists of Sandman built a world that Gaiman, talented as he is, couldn't have stirred up in my imagination. As for Scott Pilgrim, an ode to video games, rock music, love, Canada, and youth is perfectly expressed to my generation through comics. We grew up on television, computers, and Nintendo (and/or Sega). We're incredibly visual.

It's a magical thing, to be swept through a story frame by frame. When an author can work with an artist (or create his or her own art) to show us instead of tell us, we as readers get a very unique experience. It's almost like a peek inside the writer's head--I know how I see this, but how do you see it?

I'm a day late in posting and approaching brain dead, so I'll wrap up with a question: What's your favorite comic?


-Bridget

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"Each moment that I wait feels like a year, an eternity. Each moment is as slow and transparent as glass. Through each moment I can see infinite moments lined up, waiting."
- The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The Beating of Mighty Wings

Maybe it's because I miss English classes or maybe because I simply don't want reading to be a solitary occupation anymore, but for some reason I'm driven to blog about books. Ones I've read or ones that are begging to be written, either way. I've been reading so much lately, charging through trash novel after trash novel and I think I've been hoarding all of these happy endings to combat my stress. I suppose that's okay for a while but it's time and past I was back to real, substantial books. Ones that make me think more than just "awwww" when I'm done. It's time and past I started writing again, not just stories but about stories. A dialogue, even if it's just between my fingers and my brain, about what I've just read.

I know where I'd like to go with this blog; I have lofty goals for it. I want to organize read-alongs and writers' discussions. I want to ask my favorite authors about their favorite books and why they love them so. First, though, I have to get started. (And get some followers, that might help.)

A friend from work has loaned me Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth and I've been neglecting it in favor of easier fare. It's probably also unfortunate timing due to the five boxes of books I just had shipped to myself from my parents' house. My goal now is to have it finished by the end of the month so I can go into NaNoWriMo suitably inspired. It's intriguing so far (and I'm not very far in yet) so I'm interested in seeing where it will go from here.

Wish me luck in finishing it--I have one week! And since my deadline is Halloween, I'll ask my first followers this question:

What's your favorite scary book or story?

I'll let you know mine on Tuesday!

-Bridget

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"'Good luck,' whispered the Angel Islington. There was a rushing sound, like a wind soughing across a lost forest, or the beating of mighty wings."
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman