DAILY PHOTO: Shyok Valley
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Author Archives: B Gourley
BOOK REVIEW: Power Born of Dreams by Mohammad Sabaaneh
Power Born of Dreams: My Story is Palestine by Mohammad SabaanehMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Amazon.in Page
Out: October 7, 2021
This graphic novel reflects upon the Israel-Palestine conflict through the lens of the author’s (artist’s) time in prison. At first, I found the story to be an evocative personal account of life in prison, but as the story continued it felt progressively less personal and more propagandistic. The central theme is that Palestinians feel imprisoned by circumstance, regardless of whether they are actually in a jail or not.
Still, it’s not the kind of work that will constructively advance a dialogue. It will rub those who sympathize with Israel the wrong way because it’s far from an unbiased account of events, vilifying the Israelis while glorifying (or failing to acknowledge) the Palestinians who engage in violence. This bias is particularly notable in the back matter, which presents accounts that seem journalistic, but which selectively present information to make it appear that all fault lies exclusively on one side.
To be fair, the author spent time in jail for (as best I could learn from the internet) what sounded like consorting with unsavory characters. [Which reeks of Soviet-style “justice,” but the book doesn’t really delve into the reason for his imprisonment, and – even if it did – I’m not sure that I’d trust that it’s the complete truth – given the way the general narrative is presented. So, I couldn’t tell you whether the author is an artist wrongly imprisoned for expressing himself, or whether he did something that was truly and legitimately seditious.]
The art is linocut to create a chiaroscuro effect (i.e. white lines, black background) and is stylistically interesting.
I enjoyed the art and found this to be an interesting read, but I wouldn’t recommend readers take it at face value as a fair account of the conflict, but rather as one man’s personal message about the conflict.
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BOOK REVIEW: Punderworld, Vol. 1 by Linda Sejic
Punderworld, Volume 1 by Linda ŠejićMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Amazon.in Page
Out: August 25, 2021
Punderworld is a disneyfied telling of the love story of Persephone and Hades from Greek Mythology. I mean that in two ways. First, the art seemed stylistically reminiscent [to my neophyte eye] of a movie like “Frozen” (all the people are preternaturally good-looking / charisma-laden and even the Underworld has the sort of charm that makes it seem like it would be a nice place to visit.) The other sense in which it reminded me of a Disney story is that, while it comes from Greek Mythology, it is written and drawn to maximize resonance with a present-day American reader, and would probably be fundamentally unrecognizable to an ancient Greek even if translated into ancient Greek. (As the “Aladdin” animated movie would not resonate with an Arab viewership as much as it would Americans.) Punderworld could also be thought of as a Rom-Com of the star couple of the Underworld. [I assume the title is a “Branjelina”-like meet cute confection of a word.]
The story dragged a bit in the first half, but made good in the second, and I ended up enjoying the book more than I expected to. If you’re up for a disney-esque telling of this ancient Greek love story, give it a look.
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BOOK REVIEW: Nightmare in Savannah by Lela Gwenn
Nightmare in Savannah by Lela GwennMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Amazon.in Page
Out: November 9, 2021
Like New Orleans, Savannah is one of the few American cities that can pull off Old World occult-centered stories in a way that is on par with Prague or Budapest. While this is a fine story, I was underwhelmed at the degree to which it harnessed the promise of that setting. Mostly, the story plays out as teenage drama that could take place anywhere in America, with the novel addition of fairies [as opposed to the overplayed vampires or zombies.] I will say the book does a better job of getting mileage out of Fairy folklore than it does out of Savannah’s spook factor. These are not Peter Pan’s Fairies.
If you are looking for something akin to “Mean Girls” with less comedy, more angst, and a supernatural element, this book is definitely worth checking out. However, if the title “Nightmare in Savannah” has you expecting a deeply disturbing work of gothic horror, this is probably not the one for you.
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The Valley [Haibun]
Down the valley, the green oasis fades into wind-swept sand dunes, dunes like those seen in Arabia, but smaller and bounded by the mountains. The shrubs and tufts of grass obey no sharp boundary with the dunes, but rather meander into and out of the neighboring ecosystem. Sand and camels at 12,000 feet, ranges away from the sea, but once upon a time... high altitude valley -- strange worlds squeezed between two mountains
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DAILY PHOTO: Thiksay Gompa
Double Rainbow [Haibun]
Subsequent ridges fade into shapes, darker and less distinct. The farther down the lake one looks, the lower the clouds hang, until they obscure all trace of the apparent infinity of ridges. In front of the one sun-warmed wall of mountain, two rainbows arch skyward, disappearing into the clouds. One is a weak echo of the other. My Irish mind imagines the arc-segments are full semi-circles -- pot-o-gold, and all that. But the weak one seems to quit before it even reaches the cloud, and thus makes me wonder if rainbows are real, and - if they are - is the weak one as real as the bright one. double rainbow arches up from the lake, stoking pondering
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Raging Elephant [Haiku]
the elephant
they said was on a rampage
just had a bad toothache
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DAILY PHOTO: Cubbon Statue & Bandstand
