TEZUKA The Marvel of Manga

Ed. Philip Brophy

This little book is published in association with Tezuka Productions and probably in conjunction with a similar titled exhibition held at the National Gallery of Victoria 3 Nov'06-28Jan'07. Odd that I was still a member then but hardly remembered this exhibition. Must have been the time I felt so cheated by the NGV for its overhyped and under-represented exhibits generally. I shall not go into a spiel about the post-impressionist exhibition of the same era.

Anyway, Philip Brophy is a wind-bag. His introductions make the book hard to read. But Brophy is not representative of the essayists represented in the book. Some are pretty thought provoking, the others offer just glimpses. Generally these are good essays which explains why Brophy's introductions sound empty like the wind.

I am taking notes here for future consideration.

One particularly interesting insight is the question of "framing" in Manga and in which the sense of action, and time is redefined by Tezuka's framing of illustrations. The essay :Where has Tezuka Gone? by Fusanosuke Natsume. (p 31 -)

"In manga time can be flexibly manipulated by events broken up into frames; although the practice had not been consciously employed from manga's inception; rather, it took decades to develop. ... The lineal space between each frame of modern manga is not just a margin. "

Over decades, the reader had to be taught how to read the symbols, the signs, the juxtapositions, and as they internalised more and more of the meaning, manga artists could then create new 'dimensions" of illustrations using frames, speech bubbles, and multilayered events. (p33)

"There are three separate temporal elements in reading manga. The first is defined by how the narrative is organised; the second by how long it takes to read the story; and the third by how events are graphically framed. These three distinct yet simultaneous elements interact with and affect each other, creating narrative constructs of synchronisation and syncopation. Consequently, frames that are conscious of time define the speed by which they are read; a densely drawn frame takes more time to read; a sparsely rendered frame less. The resulting multilayered events of time-manipulating frames are not strictly Tezuka's invention, but he was the dominant driving force of this mode of manga expression."

This idea of time is also explored by Ichiro Takeuchi in Tezuka and the Origin of Story Manga.

"Modern manga actively engages the reader emotionally with the narrative rhythm created by a sequence of illustrations. in contrast, American and French comics generate less rhythm. American comics contain more text and require a longer time to read, while French comics with their fine-art approach distract our attention and also slow the reading process. Crucially, both strains of comics lack pacing. " (p88)

Anyway, food for thought, good book, worth a more paced, detailed reading.

A Cook's Tour

Anthony Bourdain

I did look forward to this but it kinda fell flat after the first couple of chapters. Somehow reading a printed travel adventure knowing that there is a video version available kind of stunts my interest in further reading.

His chapter on the pig in portugal is graphic and the chapter on France is sad. He went back to France with his brother, supposedly to find the magic of his childhood visit, the magic of the oysters and the cafe and the bakery, but what he was really looking for was his father. He never found him. Sad. The man has issues.

Don't think I will read on.

Dream Angus

Alexander McCall Smith

Angus is an Irish, also scottish god of love and dreams. Smith makes it very clear that this small novel (or a long short story) is a 21st century interpretation of the myth. In no way is it supposed to replace the real myth; I like this line whereby he wrote: Myth is a cloud based upon a shadow based upon the movement of the breeze.

Compared to No.1 Ladies Detective agency and the Philosophy Club series, this one is really a meh! Nice to know there is a mythic dude who inspires dreams and love and himself falls in love and flies off with a swan.

The intersections between myth and modern story is kinda predictable.

Since it's such a simple, short story, I can't complain. A good way to spend one hour if you have nothing else better to do.

Kitchen Confidential

Anthony Bourdain

I now know where my neighbour got her source about not eating fish on Monday. This book is filled with tidbits, and hints at the characters that inspired Bobby Gold stories. The pizza twirling, saute bitch is one of the people he met when he was an apprentice in the kitchen. The gangsters came from the time when he worked in the kitchen belonging to the mob.

He certainly has a chequered career, and it seems to be filled with aimless drifting until he comes to the part about the really good chef, Scott Bryan. It's a bit hard not to imagine Bourdain having no envy of the guy's talents: obviously the good cook had pursued the craft whereas Bourdain as he said so himself pursued money.

So now moderately successful as a cook at Les Halles, he takes on his journeys, starting with the Les Halles sanctioned Tokyo trip. I can see how that trip opened his eyes and made him want to learn about the food in the world.

As for him returning to become a finer chef or cook, I doubt it.

This book is good for the first 10 or so chapters and then it kinda drifts off aimlessly with the same plot, the same dialogue as he surely must have had in his moderately successful "pirate kitchens" during all his cooking career.

Worth reading, but not again, unless you want to pick up the kitchen slang.

Bobby Gold

Anthony Bourdain

So for a while I've had this idea to do a series with Bourdain as a kind of new age Nero Wolfe - every restaurant he goes through a death occurs. Putting his gastronomic skills to best use, the Wolfe/Bourdain character identifies the cause and the culprit. It's a kind of food.mystery genre. Bourdain is so hard-boiled he can pull this off. So i started reading him and found this book. It's interesting in the way he skips the annoying little details and gets straight to the character and the plot. He landmarks the era and the passing of time with details on clothes.

Bobby Gold at twenty-one, in a red-and-white Dead Boys T-shirt, blue jeans, high-top Nikes and handcuffs... etc

Bobby Gold in work clothes; black sport jacket, black button-down dress shirt, skinny black tie, black chinois and comfortable black shoes...

Bobby Gold in black Armani suit, skinny black tie, black silk shirt and black Oxfords sat at the banquette...

You get my drift.


A few pertinent lines from the book that might be useful for the series idea:

p32:
For Eddie Fish, menus were like the Dead Sea scrolls, the Rosetta stone, the Kabbalah and Finnegan's Wake all rolled into one impenetrable document. There were hidden messages, secrets that had to be rooted out before it was safe to order. There was, there had to be, Eddie was convinced, some way of getting something better, something extra - the good stuff they weren't telling everybody about. Somebody somewhere was getting something better than what appeared here. Someone richer, taller, with better connections was getting a little extra and Eddie was not going to be denied,.

p37
Bobby recalled overhearing one of the NiteKlub cooks, talking about what one could do to a particularly hated customer's food. 'Copper oxide, dude', the cook had said. 'You can get it in, like, hobby shops, for chemistry sets. You sprinkle that shit in somebody's food, bro'? They gonna slam shut like a book - then it's lift-off time! We're talking projectile vomiting! We're talking explosive diarrhea - that motherfucker's going off like a fucking bottle rocket!'

The World is Flat

Tom L Friedman

I'm reaching the end of the book. This is the part where the reader is supposed to be terrified. A flat world filled with Chinese and Indians demanding energy to drive their once-retarded economies into a state of IT nirvana. This is the part where I take issue but let me read the book to the end ....

Update 8 June 2008
Overall a worthwhile book to re-read and assess relevance - this version I read is an update in 2006/7. It's still relevant today. The chinese and indians are still holding the world by its guts. Kevin Rudd has just talked about Australia leading a kind of Australiasian union. Wishful thinking though - a decade of Howard neglect has confirmed that australia has no place in Asia.

Back to the book; yes still get calls from centres in Bangalore - more and more migrants into Australia doing jobs most Aussies won't do - eg: stacking the shelves at Coles on a Sunday or running 7/11 round the clock - these seem to be the stranglehold of the Sikh community out in the southeastern suburbs.

Yes, I agree with Friedman that science and mathematics are important base for education. In fact, he writes that education is the key to competing well in the flat world.

I wonder how flat the world will be as oil prices reach US$170 a barrel. Will we come to a standstill and start looking inwards? Will countries start challenging the encroachment of migrants when it no longer can afford to sail the seas of the flat world? Because to be a part of the flat world requires a lot of commitment on the part of governments - will they commit funds for that or, if they are "self sufficient" close the doors? Or are we in the world where governments no longer have the option to close their doors and lock in their citizens?

Friedman does bring up interesting points but he dawdles a bit more than necessary.

MISQUOTING JESUS

Ehrman, Bart. D

Call no: 225.486 EHR

When I borrowed this book, I thought it'd be another religious mumbo jumbo extolling the virtues of God no matter what others say.

I was delightfully pleased (and consequently educated) about this whole thing called the Bible and particularly The New Testament. Jesus has been misquoted through this sure bad habit of his of not putting things down. If only he had a blog then all this interpretation would not have been put into existence

Basically, so Bart says, Christians were an uneducated lot. The falungong of yesteryear. But Jesus came from the Judaic tradition where text is so very important. So his apostles were asked to spread the message. Most of the apostles were basically uneducated and dictated to scribes, who except for the Alexandrians (Alexander being a centre of learning at the time) could hardly write. (!!!). Bart cites instances of how some Egyptian scribes were practising to write their own names. So lotsa mistakes. And then there were the interpretations. So Mark and Luke borrowed mainly from the records of Matthew. Luke particularly liked his Jesus soft and changed scenarios and added things to make the guy a softee... then there were others who were against other schools of thought about Jesus as the son of God, either in spiritual form, or as a part of God manifested as a human. And so on.

Won't go into the details. Read it for yourself. It's enlightening and makes you wonder about the Bible, and people who swear by it. For what are they swearing? Surely, not the word of God, but by the words of people with their varied religious interpretations.

Bart himself used to be a conservative christian,but after writing this book, he himself begins to wonder. A great point for textual analysts. What a wonderful branch of study.

" the scribes... changed scripture the way we all change scripture, every time we read it. For they, like we, were trying to understand what the authors wrote while also trying to see how the words of the authors' texts might have significance for them, and how they might help them make sense of their own situations and their own lives".

Highly recommended. I can see why it's a New York Times Bestseller.