Unsure about The Arrival

The Library of Congress summary of The Arrival is in tiny type at the front of the book.  It reads “In this wordless graphic novel, a man leaves his homeland and sets off for a new country, where he must build a new life for himself and his family.”  That simple description is accurate, and it would be one way I could summarize this book if I had to.  If pressed for further description, I might give up and simply hand a copy of the book over.

My experience with this text has left me a little unsettled and has me asking questions one after the next. Usually, I’m better about organizing my thoughts, but I’ll bullet point them here.  Some thoughts and questions on The Arrival:

• I posed this question on Twitter, but I’ll repeat it here — if a book has no words do we call the experience of interacting with the book reading?  Is a better term “viewing?”
• Shaun Tan’s artwork is detailed, fanciful, interesting, and amazing.  I enjoyed his novel in that way.  Should this book be part of a Language Arts class or would it fit better in a Visual Arts class?  It might be interesting to see if faculty members  from both areas could team teach The Arrival.
• Is this book science fiction?  Fantasy?  An allegory about the immigrant experience where people feel as though they have entered another world?  Something else?
• I’ve enjoyed graphic novels like Maus, The Dark Knight Returns, and Watchmen.  Of course, those three all had words.  I had no doubts in my mind about story, plot, characters, etc. with them. The Arrival left me wanting to name everything — the characters, the old country, the new city.  Even simply calling something “new” and “old” is assigning a designation.  I’m not sure Shaun Tan would or would not want me giving a nickname to the pet-like lizard-dog-with gills creatures.
• How does a teacher approach a wordless “text” as far as teaching the book and creating assignments for students?
• At what age (reading level?) is appropriate for The Arrival?  It’s a book for high school students here in Omaha.  My wife borrowed a copy for me from her English Department.

And here’s a short video of Shaun Tan talking about how he works —

Roundup post of this and that

So I’m reading through things online and discover that the book The Fault In Our Stars is going to be a movie that comes out later this year.  Now that’s timely.  Here’s a link to a just out story on it from MTV.

On an entirely different front, my 10-year-old daughter starts an archery unit at her school today.  Trying to be witty, I posted this as a Facebook status — “Viv starts a unit on archery at her school today. I reminded her to find water early, consider climbing trees to hide, and to remember that there can only be one winner.”  Eighteen people on Facebook immediately liked it.  A few comments follow —

 

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  Sarah Casey First laugh of the day.

   
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  Joel Thomas May the odds be ever in her favor.

   
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  Della Henriksen Nice!! Thanks for the laugh!!

   
• 

  Tim Kaldahl Viv has killed before. She’ll kill again.

  2 hours ago via mobile · Like · 1
• 

  Bridget Weide Brooks Can we send sponsor gifts?

  about an hour ago · Like

  I knew The Hunger Games was popular, but I didn’t expect people to very, very quickly pick up on that.

  And my daughter is kind of a sweetheart —
  

  This is a photo of Viv from last summer in the garden.

Maybe the bow and arrows will keep the boys away.

Why The Hunger Games works (at least for me)

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is a story that has many elements that I like.  Dystopian future stories (Planet of the Apes, Logan’s Run, even Mad Max) all are guilty pleasures.  Add in the gladiatorial aspect (a featured motif in a bunch of movies like, well, Gladiator) and a quest story (Lord of the Rings) and you have a lot to pull from.

This is a story that is always moving forward.  The heroine and storyteller, Katniss, goes from a grim, but functional life in District 12 of Panem to being the center of a death-dealing media circus in the space of a few days.  That sort of jump-started narrative propels the story.  It makes for good reading.

On top of the movement from District 12 poverty, to beautiful Capitol City hypocrisy, to arena danger is a wealth of information.  Suzanne Collins builds a whole world, both physical and political, that is interesting to learn about.  Yes, there are occasions where there’s a kind of quick download of facts, but most of it comes across in a timely, careful way.  The author has skills and she uses them effectively.  

I may write more about the book in a bit, but I thought I’d get at least these few thoughts down.  I also watched the movie version of the book last night.  And, no surprise, the book was better.  The visuals of the film were fine, but the details and backstory of the written word are just so much richer.

“Science fictio…

“Science fiction is not prescriptive; it is descriptive.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin

Nice quote that I think if applicable to The Hunger Games.

More than half way through The Hunger Games

Okay, so I wasn’t sure about The Hunger Games. Of course, I’d heard about the books and movies.  There’s even been an uptick in girls learning archery that is attributed to the the franchise.

My quick view of the book (and I’ll write up something longer when I get it all read) is that this is an entertaining read.  I could also see how this book could be turned into a movie.  The text reads like a script and is loaded with visuals and actions.

The Hunger Games also does something I look for with any creative work.  It’s thoughtful, smart, and believes the reader is smart.  More on that in a later post.