Design and Literature

Topics: Graphic Novels, Illustrations, Literature 

It is fascinating to discover how different disciplines intersect, how they can inform each other, and how that can spawn new disciplines. Architecture (where art + function/engineering meet) is a good example; graphic novels (art + literature) is another one.

A picture book by Oliver Jeffers

I loved graphic novels before it became 'cool' - I guess I've always loved picture books. It's beautiful to see how text + illustration can work together to immerse the reader into the story.

You can think of it as a kind of movie, where you can watch the film at your own pace, frame by frame. I once took an undergraduate course on Graphic Novels and got the opportunity to read Spiegelman's Maus, Craig Thompson's Blankets, and many other classics.

Anyway, this very interesting post by brainpickings made me think about design + literature. Lovely illustrations of Joyce's Finnegans Wake, by Stephen Crowe. That novel is notoriously difficult to read, let alone to illustrate! 

 page 75 of Finnegans Wake, designed by Stephen Crowe

When commissioning an illustrator/designer to create something to go along with the text, I think it's preferable when the image doesn't just illustrate the text in a literal manner. It is way better to have a complementary relationship between the words and the images, so that a reader can't understand the whole story by just reading the words, or just flipping through and looking at the pictures. 

If you're interested in hearing a bit more about illustration and storytelling, and whether 'cartoons' can convey the magnitude and seriousness of real tragedies such as Auschwitz, I would recommend listening to this recent BBC radio podcast of Art Spiegelman talking about his Nobel prize-winning graphic novel Maus. 

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Title: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Author: Douglas Adams 

I finally read Douglas Adams' seminal work, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Not entirely sure why it took me so long to pick up the book (or ebook, as that was how I digested it). Possibly it's because I have always thought it was a cult book for sci-fi lovers, and so I didn't bother to learn anything more about it. 

After much nudging from a friend though, I got the ebook, and boy, was it good! I am sure that everyone has read it before me, but just to reiterate: I dabbled a bit in philosophy studies in schoo, and in the past few months, have been working on the same subject matter, so I can say with authority that the satirical takes on ultimate questions and arguments on the existence of god are absolutely spot on.

Other lovely surprises (with some spoilers):

• The term Babel Fish originates from this book!
• I finally have the answer to Life, Universe, and Everything!
• Douglas Adams totally predicted the advent of ebooks. How beautifully meta was it that I read the ebook version of this novel as it describes the Hitchhiker's Guide written by the character Ford as such:

It's a sort of electronic book...I'll show you how it works ... you press this button here, you see, and the screen lights up giving you the index. A screen, about 3 inches by 4, lit up and characters began to flicker across the surface.

• Lots of hilarious yet subtle references to all sorts of subject areas, like: mathematical ('The highest prime number coalesced quietly in a corner and hid itself away forever'), biblical (Deep Thought preceding something 'greater' than itself, aka John the Baptist).    

I'm glad I finished just in time to celebrate what would be Douglas Adams' 60th birthday this weekend. There have been lots of publicity on him these days. See here, here, and here. 

Happy Birthday!

Finsborough Wine Cafe

Where to Drink: Finsborough Wine Cafe
Location: London, SW10 9ED 

This entry was published on 05 Mar 12, but I'm sad to say that since Sep 12, Finsborough Wine Cafe closed down. 
 

A wine bar can be a classy and elegant way of enjoying an evening, but it can get quite pricey, so we generally go only when there's a big event on, or we're invited to a party. This weekend we were able to attend a 30th birthday do held in the wine cellar at Finsborough Wine Cafe, and I cannot recommend it more highly. 

You can hire the cellar or the whole place out for an evening, and our host did the former. The downstairs area alone is quite a big space with a rustic feel to it: sturdy wooden tables and benches line the cellar along with rows and rows of wine bottles, and the room is softly lit to create a nice ambiance.

We were served lovely canapes of cheese and ham and bread, olives and nuts, accompanied at first by a delicious and sweet sparkling rosé - Ackerman Laurance Sparkling Rosé NV. Normally some of us don't like sparkly/champagne drinks, but this one was perfect and went down well with everyone. There was also just enough food to fill us up so that the liquids could go down easily.

The atmosphere's excellent, but perhaps that's due to the quality of the people attending the party. The music was turned on much later and dancing started quite late. Near the end, we tried a bottle of white - Invivo Pinot Gris 2011 - and it was amazing. I absolutely loved it, and it had a beautiful aftertaste!

For a wine bar, their prices are extremely reasonable. They have a wine tasting event where you can explore 10 wines for just 9 quid. They also have happy hour prices daily until 7pm, and are willing to match prices or go lower than any other London location (supermarkets or otherwise).

I'd definitely return to this place, the only problem is that it's in West Brompton, a bit far from my usual haunts. However, this was well worth a trek!

PS: my favourite wine bar in the UK so far is John Gordons in Cheltenham. Charming atmosphere, with live jazz performances in the open space outside. Prices are a bit steep, but I can't wait for the weather to get better ... I'll write a proper review of this once I go again.

Wildlife Photography of the Year 2011

Event: Wildlife Photography of the Year 2011
Location: Oxford Science (and other locations across the UK)

Every year, we go to the Wildlife Photography of the Year exhibition. I'm not sure how the tradition started. It must have been that we accidentally stumbled upon it once at the Natural History Museum, and then ever since, we would make an effort to catch it annually.

Interestingly, this show goes on tour after a few months, and we caught it in Bristol last year, and Oxford this year.

My friend already gave it a good review, but to add to that, it is absolutely fascinating how good photography can really make people interested in the most common of things.

I love the unique perspectives and close-ups: for example, this beautiful image of a bee and flower is simple yet stunning. This exhibition also makes a point to award young photographers, good story-telling, and those who draw people's attention to endangered species and environmental disasters.

Undoubtedly, we purchase the wildlife postcards every year just because the photos are too beautiful to forget. This time, however, something funny happened - my friend started juggling some random balls in the gift shop, and when we were about to pay for the postcards, the cashier (manager?) gave him some real juggling balls to perform for a bit. Obligingly, my friend did a few tricks, and then the cashier let us have the postcards for free! Haha!

A herd of musk oxen in Victoria Island, Canada. Photograph: Eric Pierre

The tour is still going on now, you can catch it at various locations across the UK, including Yorkshire, Wales and Cumbria.

Bookclub with Alan Hollinghurst

Coming soon: Alan Hollinghurst talks about Line of Beauty
Location: BBC Radio 4

So I generally write here after an event occurs, but this one time, I finally remember to share with you something I'm quite looking forward to: Booker-winning Alan Hollinghurst will talk to readers about his book Line of Beauty this Sunday 4 March, on BBC Radio 4 at 4pm.

You can find a synopsis of the book here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01cvgbr

Although I liked his Swimming-Pool Library and his latest novel Stranger's Child more, Hollinghurst definitely deserved his award for Line of Beauty.

Anyway, if you haven't read it yet, it's time to pick up the book and speed through it in time for the radio show!

PS: if you run out of time, you can download the podcast and enjoy his talk later

Best of 2011

I haven't attended or done as many cultural events this year as the previous years, but I tried my best. The following are some of the highlights (*some of the items below are quite dated, like Cloud Atlas, but I read it this year):

• Films: Jane Eyre, Where the Wild Things Are, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Midnight in Paris, MI4 (Hehe)
  
• Books: Teach Us to Sit Still, Cloud Atlas, The Wilderness, The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, It's a Book, Stranger's Child
  
• Poetry: Family Values
  
• TV: Mad Men Season 4
• Events: Bath Lit Fest, Chelt Lit Fest, Decemberists Concert, Feist Concert, Secret Cinema, Stoke Newingham Lit Fest, Eels Concert, Magritte Exhibit at Liverpool, Thanksgiving in Dorset, Sylvia Plath's drawings at Mayor Gallery, Cirque du Soleil - Zaia, Some like it Hip Hop at Sadler's Wells
  
• Places: Google HQ, Casa Batllo, Saltaire, Big Buddha
  
• Food/Beverage: Schwartz's in Montreal, Manpuku in Toronto, Magdalen Arms in Oxford, Hotel Bellevue at Sorrento, Printer's House, Lang Fong Yuen in HK, Isis Farmhouse in Oxford, Mercato Caterina in Barcelona
  

Low points:

• Books: Time Traveller's Wife, Hunger Games Trilogy (don't ask), Great House
• Events: RADA's Reigen (ugh!)
  

World Book Night giveaway

Event: World Book Night (Saturday 5 March)
Locations: All over the UK

I'm really excited to be participating in the World Book Night giveaway. Yes, there have been concerns that the book industry will be inundated with a million free books, and that authors and independent bookshop owners would suffer because of this event, but I think there's a lot going for it, and I for one am very happy to be involved!

The book I'm giving away is Love in the Time of Cholera, by G G Marquez.

Have you heard of this book only because of the film? (I wouldn't really recommend seeing the film first though. Not as good as the original!) The synopsis is as follows:

Fifty-one years, nine months and four days have passed since Fermina Daza rebuffed hopeless romantic Florentino Arizo’s impassioned advances and married Dr. Juvenal Urbino instead. During that half century, Florentino has fallen into the arms of many delighted women, but has loved none but Fermina. Having sworn his eternal love to her, he lives for the day when he can court her again.

When Fermina’s husband is killed trying to retrieve his pet parrot from a mango tree, Florentino seizes his chance to declare his enduring love. But can young love find new life in the twilight of their lives?

My grand plan is to try and leave the majority of the 48 books that I'm given in random locations around different cities (I travel frequently) and hope that people, book lovers or not, would pick them up and take care of them. Also, what I'd love to see is people discussing the book after they read it, so I'll be leaving a note inside each book. I will also name a few suggestions for further reading for those who enjoyed the book. I will also donate the books to local charities and friends who have not read the book before.

If *you* are interested in reading this book, please let me know! I'm open to mailing out a few copies! Please leave a message with your email if so.

Who would like this book?

In my opinion, readers who enjoy a bit of Latin American history, a bit of magic, a bit of romance, would like it.

More about the event:

One million books will be given away by an army of passionate readers to members of the public across the UK and Ireland. The book give-away will comprise 40,000 copies of each of the 25 carefully selected titles, to be given away by 20,000 ‘givers’, who will each distribute 48 copies of their chosen title to whomever they choose on World Book Night. The remaining books will be distributed by World Book Night itself in places that might otherwise be difficult to reach, such as prisons and hospitals.

There are also lots of interesting programmes on BBC relating to World Book Night. You can find out more here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2011/01_january/25/events.shtml

Evolving English and Mick Imlah

Events: British Library's Evolving English and Memorial Reading: Mick Imlah
Locations: British Library and Senate House

British Library's Evolving English* is a small but fascinating exhibition on the history of the English language. It covers from its very beginning -- Anglo Saxons, Beowulf, Old English, etc -- to its very latest forms, such as text-speak, post-colonial english, slangs and dialects ... There is enough material there to interest the historian, the paleographer, the teenager and the farmer.

What I found most interesting were the booths where you can listen to recordings of regional dialects and accents in the UK. Annoyingly though, there are only two booths, so if you go at prime time (weekends) then you might have to line up an age to listen. You can also participate in the national sound archive by getting a recording of your voice taped. One of the exercises involved you reading an edited version of Mr Tickle.

David Crystal does a good explanation of Beowulf and its historic significance: only about 500 Old English texts survive us, and we can identify about 3000 distinct Old English words - this is meaningless unless you compare it to our current English language. Dickens` novels alone contain more than 3000 distinct words, so imagine *all* the words that are available to us now, and compare that to the limited vocabulary of Old English (OE)! So Beowulf is a very important piece of artefact because it`s the longest text written in OE by far (OE = 600-1150 AD. Middle English = 1300 - 15th cen). There is a copy of it exhibited.

Other things of interest: you can hear Joyce read his Finnegan`s Wake, you can hear Gandhi and Churchill and other famous speakers recite, in their distinctive voice. You can also learn that the Victorian novelist Bulwer-Lytton (who?!) coined the phrase 'it was a dark and stormy night', as well as 'the pen is mightier than the sword'. Or that the 'knock-knock' joke is very old (you can find it in Macbeth as well! 'Knock-knock - who's there?')

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (a Middle English classic) is also shown. Next to it is the oldest (?) score of Summer is icumen round - the blurb next to it explains that in Middle English, the word Spring did not exist, so the word cuckoo had to be used to illustrate the idea of Spring. Why would you have Summer but not Spring? Isn't Spring an important time for farmers, labourers, etc? Huh. Oh and in that song is the first record of the root word of fart (hehe!) - 'to farteth'.

Lastly, an exhibition about accents and dialects could not be complete without a showing of My Fair Lady! I knew that they must use that film in some way. Oh you can also listen to Lily Allen sing LDN, read about Nancy Mitford on the U and Non-U issue, find out about censorship and profanity in relation to DH Lawrence and his generous use of c*nt, get a sense of the history of children's books (started only in the 18th century) .... and I could go on!

Exhibit runs until next April. Check. It. Out.

*The exhibit has an accompanying book with the most hideous cover design ever! (See above image)

As for Mick Imlah, I actually don't have too much to say about him as I've never heard of him until about two weeks ago. And the only reason I went to see a memorial reading of his poetry is the list of distinguished readers. Alan Hollinghurst: swoon! Andrew Motion: cool! Martin Amis: ugh, but still ...

Ok it seems like his poetry cannot be found on the internet. Faber & Faber just launched a selected poetry collection of his, so go buy it and read it.

Anyway, I was glad to have attended the reading, not only because one of my favourite writers was there ... but that the poems were witty, humourous, and had perfect structures (as all the readers were inclined to say). I particularly liked the lightheartedness of 'In Memoriam Alfred Lord Tennyson' -- and the fact that Hollinghurst shared a funny anecdote about Imlah handing the poem in very very late for the TLS issue celebrating the centenial anniversary of Tennyson ... He was incredibly worried that Imlah could only make it to celebrate the next centenary. Ha.

Also, 'Stephen Boyd' was very good. Again, I can't find a decent excerpt of the poem, so here is a review for you to read, from poetrymagazines.org.

I will try to read more of his poetry next year ... for the record, this year I only managed to finish the measly number of 23 books, 2 less than my goal. I used to read 100 books per annum. Those were the days. Last year, I read less than 10. What a disgrace. Hmm ... something new year's resolution something ...

To conclude:

Happy holidays to all who read this blog! (All four or five of you, I dare say!) I will be back in the new year ...

Matthew Bourne's Cinderella

Event: Matthew Bourne's Cinderella
Location: Sadler's Wells

Like most people, I discovered the contemporary choreographer Matthew Bourne through this film (I still get shivers watching that scene). So earlier this year, I went off to Cardiff to gain my first Matthew Bourne experience. I was not prepared for the ballet: shocked not at the content per se, but that I wasn't expecting Swan Lake to be reinterpreted in that particular way. Of course it was going to be unconventional, with a male protagonist instead of a female, but I didn't know it would be a homoerotic psychological thriller, which is worlds apart from the original Swan Lake narrative.

Instead of a pumpkin-turned-carriage,
Cinder to the ball in a motorcycle sidecar!

In any case, I loved his Swan Lake and decided to see his CInderella. I tried to not find out too much about the ballet so as to keep the surprise up, but I did read the synopsis - celebrating the 70th anniversary of the London Blitz, Bourne made 1940 the setting of his Cinderella. The skeleton framework of the Cinderella fairytale is still there - the evil stepmother, evil stepsisters, handsome romantic love interest, the stroke of midnight, the faerie god-figure, the happily-ever-after. Those were about it though. Cinderella (Cin) has a very large family: not just the three evil steps, but her father's still alive (an invalid here) and she has a bunch of crazy, perverted stepbrothers (Bourne seems to enjoy creating sexually uninhibitive characters).

The three acts all start off with clear reminders of the setting: Act 1 and 3 both begin with the sound of air raid sirens, then by hilarious newsreels of 'what to do in an air raid' (typically shown before main film features in mid-20th century). Act 2 scarily opens with the unexpected sound of the bomb: you really are quite immersed in the time period because of all those features, and also, a lot of 'period sounds' are present in the score. Bourne definitely tempers with Prokofiev's music, but it is done extremely tastefully (well, as tasteful as adding siren sounds to classical music can ever be). Prokofiev's music is quite haunting and poetic, and Bourne keeps that aspect up in most of his choreography. The dance moves are quite unusual at times though, and I couldn't tell what the references are. Perhaps West Side Story, perhaps some strange form of 40s swing dancing.

In another gender-breaking move, he makes the faerie godmother a godfather, and his choreography is very much like a swan's (like Bourne's Swan Lake). The faerie dancer looks a bit like this guy ... maybe he's modelled after him?

What I like about Bourne's ballets is that the line between reality and fantasy is often blurred. In Cinderella, it is quite hard to tell whether what you're watching is a dream sequence or a real one. The scenes often unfold, sometimes achronologically, in a way that does not allow you to pin down the context. For example, Act 2 starts with the thundering sound of the bomb, and the curtains open up to a ballroom scene totally devastated by the bomb, presumably. But within minutes, the faerie comes and reverses time, so that the ballroom is in pristine order. Then the conventional storyline unveils (girl meets boy, girl dances with boy, midnight strikes ... she loses her beautiful ballgown), but then once midnight passes, the scene switches back to a warzone with Cinder injured, and you wonder whether the romantic scene happened at all. Was it all a dream? Did they really have sex after midnight? Does it matter though?

Everything is so seamless, so magical, that it is no longer important to figure out whether we are seeing the real or the artificial. I was mesmerised by the humour, by the sexual openness, by the differences between the original and this version, and finally, by the references to real life London (Act 3 has an Underground scene, then a Thames riverbank scene, and ends in Paddington Station).

Last but not least, my favourite scene: it has to be the part when Cinder re-imagines meeting her 'prince' - an amnesiac RAF (ha!). She starts dancing with a seamstress' mannequin, happily and energetically twirls behind the curtains, and then re-emerges with the real life RAF man! I love it. What a wonderful moment of magic-realism. And then they dance together, but after a while, we are made aware of the dream element because their dance starts to become stilted. The man would stop picking her up, move mechanically like a mannequin, etc etc. So funny! And then of course, it ends with the man turning back into the dummy.

Beautiful! You can see a short clip here for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMOFjZSovR0

PS: read my review of Bourne's latest ballet: Sleeping Beauty

RCA Secret 2010

Event: RCA Secret 2010
Location: Royal College of Art

The RCA Secret Postcard event is an annual art exhibition that shows and sells postcards made by famous artists and personalities, as well as students from the Royal College of Art. It is billed as a 'secret' event because 'the postcards are displayed anonymously and are signed on the reverse, so that the artist remains a secret until after the cards are purchased and their signature is revealed on the back.'

I read that Yoko Ono contributed artwork to this event, so I decided to check it out just now ... it was fun at first, going through walls and walls of tiny artworks, but after a while, it got a bit overwhelming. Not having any labels on the postcards actually made it a lot more of a difficult task to analyse and judge what was 'good' and what was not. Museums usually help you along because you trust that someone with the right expertise curated the show and put together artworks that mean something together or would provoke and guide your thoughts towards a theme or an idea. But with this random collection of 2800 postcards, who knew which postcard was a 'great' piece of art or not?

It was kind of fun to guess which one was created by a famous person. I couldn't find a single one that screamed Yoko Ono, which made me wonder if the artists played along by not creating any of their usual signature styles. Other famous celebrities who made contributions were: Stella McCartney, Will Alsop (architect), Manolo Blahnik, Quentin Blake, Mike Leigh ... there was also an Emma Watson, but is she the famous Harry Potter-franchise figure or not?

Anyway, after a bit of guessing, it became dull since the answers won't be revealed until the following week. I then focussed on ones that I found pretty or interesting. I tended to like black/white drawings and informal doodles ...

This was familiar - was it done by a Wallace & Gromit artist? And I liked the postcard at the top - very idiosyncratic and cute. Reminded me of the Moomin cartoons.

I liked this postcard the most. Not sure why. The details. The use of space in the small confined rectangle. Reminded me of times when I would climb to the top of a cathedral tower and look down at the square below.

It is worth a visit, though I wouldn't recommend staying there for long. And if you have 45 pounds or more to spare, you can try to buy a postcard next weekend.