A Little Less Dumb Than I Would’ve Been
For me, part of the pleasure of reading can be learning new things. The latest book that made me feel like I'd really learned something is The Photographer by Didier Lefevre, a French photographer, and his close friend, graphic novelist Emmanuel Guilbert. The Photographer is actually a mashup of graphic illustration and black-and-white photography, and it's fabulous to look at.
In July of 1986 Lefevre accompanied a group of volunteers from Doctors Without Borders into rural Afghanistan to document their work. The group's aim was to set up a medical clinic in an area where people had no access to medical treatment. Lefevre returned from that journey with four thousand photographs, only a few of which were ever published. The Photographer follows his whole three month experience, shows us what he went through, what he discovered about Afghanistan and its people, and how he felt about it all. Lots of parts of this book surprised me–for example, I was shocked at the huge task it was for the group to simply travel around. Because Soviet troops were controlling the roads, they had to travel over mountain ranges on foot for several weeks, with donkeys carrying their supplies, to reach the people they were there to treat. By the time they got there, they felt half dead themselves!
I think what this book really gave me was the sense of really being shown, in the finest detail, life in another part of the world. I loved what one of the volunteers said in the afterward: "It's hard to describe all that the Afghans gave us…I reckon that thanks to them we're just a little less dumb than we would've been." Reading this book made me feel that I understand the world a little better, and that's a feeling I like.
Anyone else out there like reading about other people's real lives and adventures? How do you think graphic books are at telling these kinds of stories?
14 thoughts on “A Little Less Dumb Than I Would’ve Been”
I recently finished reading a book about Tehcumseh by Guy-St Denis. You are almost guaranteed to learn a new fact in the first chapter alone although regarding graphic books I believe they help illustrate the author’s opinion more clearly leaving less room for imagination.
I mostly read books about other people’s real lives and adventures. When I read them, I see a picture in my head and I put myself in their postion. But I guess graphic novels rock at telling these kinds of stories too because with the words and pictures.Graphic novels rock 🙂
I recently finished reading the third book in the Morganville Vampires Series. The book was called Midnight Alley. So far the series is going great… A lot of drama and romance betweent eh characters which really makes the series AMAZING =)
I mostly read books that are in series about paranormal romance. For example books along the same storyline as Twilight, Morganville Vampire series, The Immortal Series…and books like that. I just love books that have a lot of romance betweent the characters!! When I read these kind of books it makes me feel all happy inside and I usually like reading the book with feeling as if I am the character.
I am in the middle of A LOT of sereis! and tehy are all going GREAT!! Especially the romance bit between all of the main female and male characters =)
Instead of reading about other people’s real lives and adventures, I like reading fiction. I dunno, maybe I’m just not old enough to appreciate the beauty? But I really like it when people think outside the box. Like when they write stories about what would’ve happened if this person did this thing instead of that, or what would’ve happened if the world was like this instead of that.
I think graphic novels make it a lot easier to read instead of all that text. There’s something about the appeal of it, and it’s faster to read than fiction because you have to cut down more text to prevent it all from being smushed together.
I love reading about other peoples lives but hate when they are told in a boring way. That is why i enjoyed Angelas AShes and ‘Tis by Frank McCourt which was told in a humourous and refreshing way.
Greaphic novels would give the reader a better picture of setting and surrounding because sometimes the reader might not know the setting or situation.
I love reading fiction novels as well as books about other people’s real lives and adventures. However not really a fan of graphic novels.
I think that this a great question, Claire. I remember reading MAUS by Art Spiegelman, it is considered a classic, but that’s not why I think people should pick it up. It is an account of Art’s Dad, a Jew in Nazi Germany, and how he avoided getting put into camps. Art Spiegelman drew this entire graphic memoir using animals. it is such a powerful story about a man’s struggle to understand his dad’s life. I highly recommend it.
I,m a fan of reading books about real people,like bios but I don’t really like graphic novels.I feel they’re just not interesting for me.
I’m generally quite a fan of reading about the real life of a real person. (…Or if not the real lives of real people, at least fictional but realistic ones.) Although I haven’t read many graphic novels, I think they can be pretty fun. Plus, this particular graphic novel seems especially cool because it combines drawings and photography into one book.
Maus was the first thing that I thought about. As a graphic novel, it is definitely a powerful medium for telling the story of Spiegelman’s Dad. By using animals as a physical representation of the characters, the audience can really sympathize with the victims all the more (mice) and understand the author’s personifications. Like Animal Farm ;] Something that struck me while reading Maus was that I found Spiegelman to be slightly insensitive to his father. He seemed to only want to hear the story in order to write his graphic novel (in the story), but his sometimes told his story matter of factly as well (most of the time). I borrowed the second volume from the library yesterday, so I’ll see where it goes. I liked seeing Spiegelman’s visualization of his father’s life and his own interactions with his father-it made for some amusing moments.
To make this essay even longer, I tried reading The Photographer, actually, but I couldn’t get through it, I’m sorry to say. I’m not sure why, perhaps the scrapbook-like quality put me off. So, graphic novels…have different qualities that are sure to attract different people to them–which may make them strong mediums for stories ;]
I absolutely love reading graphic novels and I really enjoy reading novels based on people’s lives. A good combination of this is The Arrival by Shaun Tan. I absolutely respect the author because of his illustrations and how he uses them to tell the story.
The Photographer sounds really interesting. Doctors Without Borders made me confused on what I wanted to have as a career for a while after I did a major assignment on them. (I am absolutely horrible in the science and maths department. I’m more geared towards the arts) I respect that organization greatly. My brother’s also in Afgan. for the military, so even more of a reason for me to check this book out. Thanks for the post.
I love reading fantasy, horror, action and I really enjoy reading novels on what they do when they use their magic for either good or evil. I love the author makes it sooo on your reach of someone seat when they are writing something to cause bad. However, I like to compare different authors to see which book is good ot read
I like reading about other people’s lives, but not usually through graphic novels. I guess I should try them out and see if they appeal to me or not.
Hello again, so I’d just like to follow up. I finished reading the second volume of Maus a few days ago and found that Art Spiegelman really did feel for his father–he wasn’t insensitive, maybe, but he just didn’t know how to act towards a survivor of the Holocaust.
At the beginning of the graphic novel, Art Spiegelman in the graphic novel says, “I feel so inadequate trying to reconstruct a reality that was worse than my darkest dreams. And trying to do it as a comic strip! I guess I bit off more than I can chew. Maybe I ought to forget the whole thing. There’s so much I’ll never be able to understand or visualize. I mean, reality is too complex for comics…so much has to be left out or distorted”.
So why did he choose graphic novels as the medium, instead of say, only words? Maybe it’s an effective way of showing his vision of his father’s experiences–and showing that no matter how much we try, we can’t truly understand or visualize what it was like. And drawing rocks?
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