POLYGLOT DIARY – 10/6/2014

I’d been flirting with the idea of doing a polyglot diary entry in English – it is another language after all – and today sealed it: I was writing, studying and thinking in Bulgarian so much today that I think I deserve a break! Anyway, I haven’t transcribed yesterday’s entry which also was in Bulgarian, which counts as a day of creative writing by the way, even if you as readers can’t know that yet.

I’m writing this on Noisli‘s text editor. This thing is awesome or what? Daphne has been my dealer of meditation-y stuff the past few weeks and it’s all been incredible almost to a point of fault. Daphne, who’s your dealer? I need to come in contact with the source. Unless it will be like flying too close to the sun. And when I wrote sun, the screen turned the colour of deep canary. Worthy of a toothy grin. I don’t know if it happened by mistake or if these people at Noisli are really clever.

While writing on top of these super-saturated colours that make me scream with pleasure inside, I’m also listening to the OST of Scott Pilgrim. We watched it with Vicente and Zanda (who predictably didn’t get most of it) a few days ago and, once again, several of its songs have been chewing on my mind through my ears – in a good way. It now ranks up with the movies I’ve watched the most times in my life, and it’s in small company, believe me. Especially being in an altered state of consciousness while watching it unlocks it in a way that makes it come close to being a different watching experience altogether. While I reckon the same could be said about many movies old and new, happy or sad, impressive or deep, funny or suspenseful, Scott Pilgrim this time made a particular impression on me, even it it wasn’t the first one I watched it while chewing on crunchy bubblegum. For one, I could catch a greater number of the small details, including the trademark visual gags and creative, playful direction that make Edgar Wright one of my favourite people working with film.

For example, when Sex Bob-omb play Garbage Truck and Young Neil is singing along, at some point he mixes up the lyrics: he says “oh no!” instead of “oh my!” This just hit, I can utterly and completely relate… The film is infested with such morsels of genious. Another thing was that I realised that it actually portrays human relationships at the deep, subconscious level quite accurately. Scott’s idiotic behaviour and responses to certain situations not only made sense, they suddenly made me realise that in fact I’ve had the same non-sensical assholey thoughts myself (or better put, thought patters and emotions) I just wasn’t conscious of them when I had them. Scott could be little more than our shadow self dressed in geek, which reminds me of Scott’s encounter with his own Nega Scott… *giggle*

OF COURSE the visualisations of the music and the fights and the special effects AAAH THEY WERE SO GOOD! The battle with the brothers and with Todd the vegan were small audiovisual orgasms!

The first time I watched Scott Pilgrim I wasn’t impressed that much, in fact I was slightly disappointed, but now every time I watch it it’s like a new film I enjoy more and more. Of course the crunchy bubblegum has something to do with it, but what if this can be explained by the simple fact that I’ve actually watched the movie more than just once –  that I’ve given it the time it deserves? It could very well be like with me and classical music or Steven Wilson albums: the first time around, the first time they come in contact with my world, I’m mostly indifferent to them; they don’t make me feel anything special. It’s only after the second or third listen that I slowly become familiarised with them and finally come to love them.

Is, then, the key to the things we love simple familiarity – a dose of the right thing at the right time, with the key difference that sets it apart from other nice things that we don’t end familiarised with that it’s not limited to a single dose? Obviously there’s something more, a hidden ingredient, a pluck at an invisible or intangible string, that helps determine whether you’ll like or dislike something – that much is clear.

I have to ask myself, however: have I forgotten what it means to listen for a second or a third time? I’m afraid that I might have, at least to a certain degree. If love, proximity and the act – or ritual – of setting apart basically derive from familiarity plus something special (but mainly familiarity) then in my eternal and fleeting pursuit of the new, the elusive, the mysterious and the unexplored, in my futile attempts to quench the thirst of infinite novelty that often even ridicule the very concept of familiarity, I might have unknowingly and unwillingly sacrificed proximity, I might have sacrificed love. In analytical psychology terms, maybe it’s time I conquered my Ne to move on to my Si. In INFPs this transition comes later in life, of course, and I’m still not done with my Ne, but maybe the calmness of Si domincance is really what I need.

Well, after this heartfelt little exposition, I guess it’s time to say what I actually did during the day. I am a little bit tired of the pretty colours and the too-deep-for-you words, though, so I’ll leave you with three brief sentences:

  • Memrise is simply put incredible.
  • To Kill a Mockingbird (tequila mocking beer, like Vicente pronounces it) is not a bad movie, but classic’s just not my style.
  • Meeting new people sober (especially if they’re not) feels depressingly pointless.

Review: Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

Understanding Comics: The Invisible ArtUnderstanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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First of all, I’d like to share my story about Amazon.co.uk and this book that goes to show how awesome some companies’ customer service can be. I first ordered it together with Waking From Sleep in Novemeber. Waking From Sleep arrived just fine but Understanding Comics never did. I sent them an e-mail asking them about my book’s whereabouts and they admitted that they did not know what had happened to it. As they’ve done before, they sent me a replacement copy.

What I had not predicted was that I wouldn’t be home to receive my replacement copy, because by then I was in Athens for the holidays. Once I was back, I did find an Amazon.co.uk package waiting outside my door. It was soaked from the winter rains and someone who must have been wondering what this strange parcel contained had opened it. Clearly, the contents or the condition thereof must have disappointed them, since the book remained there for me to discover.

I took it inside and began the drying process. It took a few days of devising various methods of using my air-conditioners on heat, my only way to stay warm inside the house, and keep the book spread out so that the pages could properly dry and avoid it catching fungi or worse, plainly disintegrate; the cover of the book was soft, and so was the glue that kept it stuck to the rest of the book.

Thankfully, the book survived with only cosmetic damage. After a few days I began reading it. Meanwhile, I had contacted Amazon.co.uk detailing the situation. One would expect that they would take the blame off themselves, declaring that it was the Greek Post’s fault or my own. But no. The gentlemen at Amazon claimed full responsibility for not being able to guarantee the book’s complete safe journey from their warehouses to my eager hands. So they went ahead and issued a complete refund for me, adding that they would choose their carriers with greater care in the future. Amazon, you have my respect. This is customer service. And this is why I’ll continue shopping from you, you made it.

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Anyway! To Understanding Comics itself. It’s a very interesting read indeed. Mr. McCloud clearly knows his Cultural Theory and has great communicative skills. This book is not so much understanding comics, it’s more about decrypting comics, since we’ve all grown up being able to understand the hows, but scarcely if ever have we put our minds to the whys (apart from Abraham Kawa. 😉 )

This book is perfect if you want to see why comics as a narrative medium is important and get to know its strengths and weaknesses compared to film, animation and literature, which are its closest relatives. There are many “aha!” moments hidden within the frames and outside them. Time, space, colour, icons, language and its relationship with imaging… The possibilities are endless and this books shows you why. Understanding Comics goes into depth in all of those, but it does so in a way that transcends its own medium. I was left there imagining the wider implications of all that I had just read about and couldn’t wait to read some more. I like how Scott McCloud used the art he’s theorising about to get the point across all the more effectively.

What’s a bit disappointing but de facto unavoidable is that by now a lot of what the author had been hoping to happen has happened, like comics making it to the mainstream, “serious” markets as mature and effective ways to present a narrative. Consequently, just a little of the information presented, though of course not all, is outdated. The revolution has taken place. Big things have happened to the comics scene since 1993 when Understanding Comics was published, and I wonder what Mr. McCloud would have to say about these developments today. Sandman, Y: The Last Man, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, Persepolis, Scott Pilgrim, The Invisibles, Logicomix and many more I don’t have the knowledge to list. I believe he’s proud and happy.

Here’s hoping such a creation as Understanding Comics eventually comes out for video games too. Isn’t it time they, too, grew out of their baby shoes?

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