Gifts I'd Like To Give Everyone
Saturday, December 22nd, 2012 11:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
retsukoOver on the Onion's A.V. Club, there's an interesting discussion around the question: what is the pop culture gift you'd like to share with everyone? There are some fabulous answers there (the always awesome Tasha Robinson lists "My Neighbor Totoro" as her pick, effectively affirming (and stealing) my original answer), but I thought I'd like to add my $.02:
1) Abel's Island, by William Steig: This lovely book is one of the best things I ever read as a child, because it taught me how to deal with solitude and not fear being by myself. I was a very serious child, and although I had friends, I often found myself with large blocks of time, with little to do. When I read this deceptively simple story, I learned quite a lot about what to do with those chunks of lonely time. Abel is a mouse from a well-to-do family who's never wanted for anything in his life. One day, due to a silly accident, he's swept across a river and stranded on an island, all alone. Days stretch into months, seasons change, and Abel is largely alone the whole time, plotting his escape and trying not to die. This isn't an action-packed book, though there are some very exciting and tense set pieces that punctuate the story. What stuck with me, though, as a young reader, were the passages that are introspective and quiet, where Abel contemplates his place in the universe, for better or for worse. He also takes the time to create art, and this act gives his life purpose and meaning. I always want to hand this book to the child who's a loner at classroom parties, who's not overtly unhappy, but doesn't exactly fit in all the time. "Here," I want to say, "It's OK to be alone sometimes. There's nothing wrong with you; just read this and you'll see."
2) Wings of Desire: I freely admit this is a hit-or-miss type of gift. It doesn't play well with the art-film-, subtitle-hating crowd, and many times, people are bored with its glacial pacing. It's not a fast or showy movie, but it's a beautiful one, and for a long time, it was the one piece of pop culture that made avowed agnostic me believe in any sort of higher power. The cinematography is simply amazing, and the characters in the story, while they appear to be cyphers at first, reveal themselves to be complex, determined people. Angels tend to get a cutesy rep in pop culture, and I'm pleased to say that the angels in this film are not cute. They're... well, they're supernatural, in the best sense of the word. I'm sad to see that this movie gets relegated to "art house" status, because I think it has a lot to teach any viewer about empathy and free will, and those are important themes for just about anyone on the planet, not only foreign film enthusiasts.
3) Bone, by Jeff Smith: This isn't a flawless piece of work, but what an ambitious and engaging story it is, and how much fun it is to read! I wish there were some more explanation of certain plot points, but in the end, it doesn't matter. I love that this is a comic that is, for the most part, truly all ages-friendly (really little ones may find the villain quite scary) but that doesn't sacrifice intelligent, thoughtful storytelling, and combines that with dynamic, gorgeous artwork. I also love that Smith has a strong sense of humor that serves to break up the tension, but also advances the narrative in surprising ways. I cannot want to read this one with my son, and it's a work that I hope more people will look at and appreciate for many years to come.
1) Abel's Island, by William Steig: This lovely book is one of the best things I ever read as a child, because it taught me how to deal with solitude and not fear being by myself. I was a very serious child, and although I had friends, I often found myself with large blocks of time, with little to do. When I read this deceptively simple story, I learned quite a lot about what to do with those chunks of lonely time. Abel is a mouse from a well-to-do family who's never wanted for anything in his life. One day, due to a silly accident, he's swept across a river and stranded on an island, all alone. Days stretch into months, seasons change, and Abel is largely alone the whole time, plotting his escape and trying not to die. This isn't an action-packed book, though there are some very exciting and tense set pieces that punctuate the story. What stuck with me, though, as a young reader, were the passages that are introspective and quiet, where Abel contemplates his place in the universe, for better or for worse. He also takes the time to create art, and this act gives his life purpose and meaning. I always want to hand this book to the child who's a loner at classroom parties, who's not overtly unhappy, but doesn't exactly fit in all the time. "Here," I want to say, "It's OK to be alone sometimes. There's nothing wrong with you; just read this and you'll see."
2) Wings of Desire: I freely admit this is a hit-or-miss type of gift. It doesn't play well with the art-film-, subtitle-hating crowd, and many times, people are bored with its glacial pacing. It's not a fast or showy movie, but it's a beautiful one, and for a long time, it was the one piece of pop culture that made avowed agnostic me believe in any sort of higher power. The cinematography is simply amazing, and the characters in the story, while they appear to be cyphers at first, reveal themselves to be complex, determined people. Angels tend to get a cutesy rep in pop culture, and I'm pleased to say that the angels in this film are not cute. They're... well, they're supernatural, in the best sense of the word. I'm sad to see that this movie gets relegated to "art house" status, because I think it has a lot to teach any viewer about empathy and free will, and those are important themes for just about anyone on the planet, not only foreign film enthusiasts.
3) Bone, by Jeff Smith: This isn't a flawless piece of work, but what an ambitious and engaging story it is, and how much fun it is to read! I wish there were some more explanation of certain plot points, but in the end, it doesn't matter. I love that this is a comic that is, for the most part, truly all ages-friendly (really little ones may find the villain quite scary) but that doesn't sacrifice intelligent, thoughtful storytelling, and combines that with dynamic, gorgeous artwork. I also love that Smith has a strong sense of humor that serves to break up the tension, but also advances the narrative in surprising ways. I cannot want to read this one with my son, and it's a work that I hope more people will look at and appreciate for many years to come.
