The Golem
When I first read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, my first thought upon finishing it was that I wanted, more than anything, to read The Golem, the two-thousand plus pages silent comic book that Joe Kavalier worked on during his self imposed exile to the seventy-second floor of the Empire State Building. The book was about jewishness, creation and superheroes, or so i supposed in the few scant hints that Michael Chabon gives to the reader. To put it another way, I wanted more. I wanted an actual Golem: The Comic Book. Nearing my second completion of the book, though, I realize that the point is that we've (and by we I mean those of us who immerse ourselves into the flotsam and jetsam of ink, imagined yearnings and superpowers) been reading the golem comic book for years, as long as there have been superhero comics. Chabon talks about the Golem as being something that is talked into existence, a creation that is borne out of a longing for something more; a guardian, a means to an end, an escape. I (dropping the we, as I am not so sure that my next point is necessarily applicable to everyone who has ever read comic books other) have used comic books, all books really, as an escape from my life. No, that isn't putting it right at all. I have a generally mundane mind, and it has been through perusing fascinating works of fiction that I have found my mind ignited, ready to create, explore, expand myself from the narrow confines my mind wants to trap itself in.
I think that we all have an escape of our own; mine is the escape from the commonplace function of my mind that it seems as though society is pushing me to conform to at every instance, to the realm of possibility, of creation. My imagination is fired by books. Through this I can escape to a world where I am not just a busser, but i am a busser who carries about the vast inner world of potentiality, of a story/book/movie/painting that is lurking just under the surface, waiting to burst out, like Athena bursting out of Zeus' head fully formed.
Unfortunately, the idea does not burst out fully formed and I am constantly reminded that the process of extracting and refining an idea that occurs to me takes work, that I need to write down every idea i have because my memory is woefully unable to recall or even evaluate them after the initial inspiration.
I guess the point of this is, read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, whether you like comci books or not. It is well worth reading twice.
I think that we all have an escape of our own; mine is the escape from the commonplace function of my mind that it seems as though society is pushing me to conform to at every instance, to the realm of possibility, of creation. My imagination is fired by books. Through this I can escape to a world where I am not just a busser, but i am a busser who carries about the vast inner world of potentiality, of a story/book/movie/painting that is lurking just under the surface, waiting to burst out, like Athena bursting out of Zeus' head fully formed.
Unfortunately, the idea does not burst out fully formed and I am constantly reminded that the process of extracting and refining an idea that occurs to me takes work, that I need to write down every idea i have because my memory is woefully unable to recall or even evaluate them after the initial inspiration.
I guess the point of this is, read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, whether you like comci books or not. It is well worth reading twice.