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juushikaTitle: Harold and the Purple Crayon
Author: Crockett Johnson
Published: HarperCollins Publishers, 2015
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 65
Total Page Count: 323,045
Text Number: 1134
Read Because: personal enjoyment, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: This flawlessly executes its conceit: imagination/creativity is escapism but can be isolating; it's a power and a risk and a solution—and this could be (and sure sounds like!) trite navel-gazing on the artistic process, but it speaks as more make-believe and the vast flexibility of childhood imagination; and the art and tone are entirely without pretension. The art is almost too clean, but the "crayon" makes pleasing smooth shapes, and the animals are delightfully wonky. (I do remember being disappointed to discover that creating art is actually much less forgiving!) I loved this as a kid and I can remember almost every panel, which must be an indicator of a successful kid's book. And it holds up.
Title: Hamlet
Author: William Shakespeare
Published: 1603
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 100
Total Page Count: 323,145
Text Number: 1134
Read Because: Shakespeare reading project
Review: Let's take for granted that there's nothing I can say in a review to add to 400 years of people talking about Hamlet. Instead, I like to play two games: 1) What did I learn this time?* and 2) What themes did I focus on this time, AKA when did I cry?** This isn't my favorite Shakespeare, which is Macbeth—but I fell in love with Macbeth from happenstance and for aesthetic. Hamlet is my second favorite, and easily the play with which I most resonate. 1) and 2) have cumulative effects, and each time I find a new focus within the play I take it with me going forward. My engagement, like the play's themes, reiterate and contradict and think themselves to death. (And I find more scenes to cry at! each time!)
* 2019 reread: It's been a while since I've read the play rather than seeing it performed, so the usually-cut bits felt almost new. ...And I find that I don't mind cutting them; conversations like the theatre gossip in 2.2 are interesting historical insight and tangentially important to the theme of acting (re: seeming vs. being), but they're not pertinent or accessible to justify giving them stage time.
** 2019 reread: I stood at a Y-junction of three themes: the challenge and danger of "know thyself"; Hamlet's interrogation of others's motives and actions as a way of deflecting his self-interrogation; the danger other characters (particularly Ophelia, but also Gertrude) face by "knowing himself," that is, Hamlet. My tried-and-true breaking point is 2.2's "What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, that he should weep for her?"—it has so much of Hamlet's contradictory criticisms and desires re: the themes of acting, seeming, being. But the view that Ophelia and Gertrude have of Hamlet felt fresher this time—and less indulgent (because who doesn't project onto Hamlet?), and more reproving. Ophelia and Gertrude are simultaneously the most doubtful and the most deceived, and they lose everything for having this insight into Hamlet's being—a danger tellingly not faced by Horatio, who also knows Hamlet best. The fallout of Hamlet's "know thyself" is universal, but also targeted and cruel. So while I always love Ophelia's scenes, I found them especially strong on this reread.
Title: The Sound of Silence
Author: Katrina Goldsaito
Illustrator: Julia Kuo
Published: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 40
Total Page Count: 323,185
Text Number: 1135
Read Because: personal enjoyment, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: Richly colored, beautifully detailed illustrations of geometric layouts and a vivid, diverse portrait of Tokyo, but the art also zooms and and simplifies to compliment the themes of silence and mindfulness—the moments which lie between and ground the noise of life. (I only regret the obnoxious digital textures.) The narrative isn't especially complicated, but it's playful, gently contemplative, and effective, and because this can serve as child's introduction to Japanese setting and culture it pulls double duty weight. I didn't love this—I like more weirdness and wonder in my picture books—but it's a pleasure.
Author: Crockett Johnson
Published: HarperCollins Publishers, 2015
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 65
Total Page Count: 323,045
Text Number: 1134
Read Because: personal enjoyment, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: This flawlessly executes its conceit: imagination/creativity is escapism but can be isolating; it's a power and a risk and a solution—and this could be (and sure sounds like!) trite navel-gazing on the artistic process, but it speaks as more make-believe and the vast flexibility of childhood imagination; and the art and tone are entirely without pretension. The art is almost too clean, but the "crayon" makes pleasing smooth shapes, and the animals are delightfully wonky. (I do remember being disappointed to discover that creating art is actually much less forgiving!) I loved this as a kid and I can remember almost every panel, which must be an indicator of a successful kid's book. And it holds up.
Title: Hamlet
Author: William Shakespeare
Published: 1603
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 100
Total Page Count: 323,145
Text Number: 1134
Read Because: Shakespeare reading project
Review: Let's take for granted that there's nothing I can say in a review to add to 400 years of people talking about Hamlet. Instead, I like to play two games: 1) What did I learn this time?* and 2) What themes did I focus on this time, AKA when did I cry?** This isn't my favorite Shakespeare, which is Macbeth—but I fell in love with Macbeth from happenstance and for aesthetic. Hamlet is my second favorite, and easily the play with which I most resonate. 1) and 2) have cumulative effects, and each time I find a new focus within the play I take it with me going forward. My engagement, like the play's themes, reiterate and contradict and think themselves to death. (And I find more scenes to cry at! each time!)
* 2019 reread: It's been a while since I've read the play rather than seeing it performed, so the usually-cut bits felt almost new. ...And I find that I don't mind cutting them; conversations like the theatre gossip in 2.2 are interesting historical insight and tangentially important to the theme of acting (re: seeming vs. being), but they're not pertinent or accessible to justify giving them stage time.
** 2019 reread: I stood at a Y-junction of three themes: the challenge and danger of "know thyself"; Hamlet's interrogation of others's motives and actions as a way of deflecting his self-interrogation; the danger other characters (particularly Ophelia, but also Gertrude) face by "knowing himself," that is, Hamlet. My tried-and-true breaking point is 2.2's "What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, that he should weep for her?"—it has so much of Hamlet's contradictory criticisms and desires re: the themes of acting, seeming, being. But the view that Ophelia and Gertrude have of Hamlet felt fresher this time—and less indulgent (because who doesn't project onto Hamlet?), and more reproving. Ophelia and Gertrude are simultaneously the most doubtful and the most deceived, and they lose everything for having this insight into Hamlet's being—a danger tellingly not faced by Horatio, who also knows Hamlet best. The fallout of Hamlet's "know thyself" is universal, but also targeted and cruel. So while I always love Ophelia's scenes, I found them especially strong on this reread.
Title: The Sound of Silence
Author: Katrina Goldsaito
Illustrator: Julia Kuo
Published: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 40
Total Page Count: 323,185
Text Number: 1135
Read Because: personal enjoyment, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: Richly colored, beautifully detailed illustrations of geometric layouts and a vivid, diverse portrait of Tokyo, but the art also zooms and and simplifies to compliment the themes of silence and mindfulness—the moments which lie between and ground the noise of life. (I only regret the obnoxious digital textures.) The narrative isn't especially complicated, but it's playful, gently contemplative, and effective, and because this can serve as child's introduction to Japanese setting and culture it pulls double duty weight. I didn't love this—I like more weirdness and wonder in my picture books—but it's a pleasure.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-14 03:00 pm (UTC)