I just read a really fascinating book. It's a graphic novel called Blankets by a guy named Craig Thompson, and it's kind of two stories in one. It tells both of his first love in high school and his growing up in a very fundamentalist Christian family and eventually leaving the faith.
Both stories are told beautifully and both stories are heartbreaking.
I've only read a few graphic novels, and while the more comics-y ones didn't do much more than entertain (Watchmen, Y: The Last Man) the more "real life" ones have had profound impacts on me.
I'm thinking specifically of Maus by Art Spiegelman, which also tells two stories - of his parents surviving Auschwitz and him trying to get the story out of his father so he can write the book. I wrote the Normals song "The Survivor" after reading that book. Unbelievably powerful.
I was not shocked, after finished Blankets and searching out more info on it, to find that Spiegelman had written Thompson a long letter praising his work. Because it is really, really good.
It's amazing how much Thompson is able to communicate with the marriage of his drawing and his words. It seems to me that he would make quite a competent author even without drawing. While reading I would often read a line or a passage to Alison out loud, I just had to share how good it was. But then you add in the depth of a look or a motion or even a blank page, and BAM, it just connects. Deeply.
You really feel the initial rush of falling in love versus the giant weight of guilt and shame from the his upbringing. It's this balancing act that's hard to watch and, for me at least, easy to identify with.
Psychologically, the book is masterful. Part of his story is also childhood abuse, both physical and sexual, and again, it's shared so honestly. I was amazed at Thompson's insight into how that abuse kept showing back up and shaping his experiences later in life.
There's definitely a sexual element to the book, which kind of makes it awkward, mainly because it's about himself and often not flattering. Sometimes humiliating. It's shockingly honest and really serves to communicate how deeply our sexuality drives and defines who we are and how we interact with others.
There's a panel where the naked woman he got caught drawing when he was a small boy morphs into his clothed girlfriend, drawing the connections of both his attraction and his shame. My jaw dropped and my heart sank.
As a believer, it's tough to hear a story of someone choosing to not believe. Blankets tells that story. I understand it, though, as the Church picture he paints is one familiar to me, and not so familiar to the actual freedom and beauty of Christ. It makes you hope that he's rejecting the legalistic baggage and that he may one day find the real Jesus who was chasing him through the muck of it.
Due to the sexual and abusive themes in this, I wouldn't recommend it to everybody. But I was deeply moved and given a new perspective on my own story, which I'm grateful for. I plan on reading more of his work and seeking out other highlights in the graphic novel genre. If there's anything else out there at the level of Blankets and Maus. I need to read it.
Man, I wish I could draw.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010 at 12:04AM 
- PSP audioware plugins. All you audio nerds should check them out. Particularly the OldTimer and the VintageWarmer.
- I'm playing some more Jars of Clay shows in October and I just found out they're doing the entire self-titled record from start to finish. 15-year old Andy could not be happier.
- The book I'm currently reading, for the second time. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell is a giant novel about magic in the early 1800s in London and is written in the tone of a Jane Austen novel. It's brilliant and the second read is even more enjoyable.
