MESSAGE
| DATE | 2005-08-27 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Comic Book Poison from Denver
|
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Journal:
Friday, August 12, 2005
"any stick to beat a dog with..."
posted by Neil 8/12/2005 03:28:00 PM
Neil,I don't know if you've heard about the flap at the Denver
Public Library, which started over Spanish-language fotonovelas
(comic books) and has now seemingly extended to English-language
graphic novels and more. One of your works is
mentioned....http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_2934810 Is there
a convenient way to let the CBLDF know (except that now you
know, I assume the CBLDF will, too)? I looked on their site, but
I must've overlooked it.
Good lord. So let's get this straight...
An anti-immigration, anti-Spanish language group discovered that
there were some possibly racy Spanish language photonovels in
the Denver Library. By complaining, they got the books taken off
the shelves, although they are quite upfront about the fact they
aren't complaining about the content, they just don't want any
icky Spanish things in their nice English-speaking library, and
the fotonovels are a useful stick to beat that particular dog
with. They also discovered inadvertently, or perhaps the
newspaper reporters did, that there were graphic novels
containing breasts and/or references to matters sexual in the
same library. And that it was perfectly possible for children to
see these things if they went to the shelves they were on and
took them down (much as, I suppose, in my childhood, it was
possible for me to wander into the adult library sections and
read Portnoy's Complaint or thumb through the library National
Geographic and discover a photo spread on a tribe that had not
yet discovered the bikini top).
And the newspaper has decided to play along and expose this
non-story. (I particularly like the photo showing the five year
old and the baby in front of the now-empty shelves in the
Spanish section, implying that the five year old has somehow
been rescued from being forced to read adult photonovels, and
that the Spanish section is where children are found. I liked it
almost as much as I like the photo of a rather tame page of
Transmet (and beneath that a Sin City) captioned A page from an
English-language comic book, "Transmetropolitan," which includes
explicit sexual content, which merely serves to demonstrate that
this Denver newspaper has a remarkably low "explicit sexual
content" threshhold. )
Most libraries are smart enough to keep the graphic novels for
kids in the children's sections, while putting the ones that
aren't for kids, like Sandman or Transmet, in with Graphic
Novels, which is Not In the Children's shelves. This is because
most librarians are sane. You have to get a long way down the
article before you notice there actually people (oddly enough,
librarians) saying sane things...
"We are not circulating them as children's material; we're
circulating them as adult materials," said Beckie Brazell, head
librarian at the Ford Warren branch in the Whittier
neighborhood. "It's the place of the parent to decide what their
children read and check out."
I've forwarded the article to Charles at the CBLDF, who wrote
back to say he'll get in touch with the ALA and see if they need
help or information. (The CBLDF website is http://www.cbldf.org/
and the contact information is at the bottom of the page.)
It's been twenty years, and newspaper headlines still oscillate
between "Wham! Bam ! Pow! Comics Have Grown Up!" and "OH MY
GAAAD THIS COMIC NOT INTENDED FOR CHILDREN HAS CONTENT NOT
INTENDED FOR CHILDREN IN IT!" articles. Bizarre.
...
Jenny Davidson cunningly managed to worm a copy of the ANANSI
BOYS proof out of my agent's assistant, and has now written
about it (and Blackadder) on her blog.
http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2005/08/in-general.html
And another early ANANSI review at
http://www.livejournal.com/users/threemonkeys/32519.html (it
contains some spoilers).
I've been listening to Lenny Henry's reading of ANANSI BOYS over
the last few days, and loving it. His choices are mostly really
good and sharp -- I was particularly impressed with his Mr Nancy
and his Spider and the unctuous awfulness of his Grahame Coats,
and also the minor characters like taxi drivers and police who
really come alive. Occasionally I found myself wishing I'd been
there when Lenny was taping it, thinking No, he should just be
tetchy there, not actually angry, but no more than half a dozen
times in the whole book. Mostly I just revelled in the voices
and the pace of the thing. It's magic. He's really good.
(AndChef!is coming out on DVD. About time. Lovely stuff -- well,
at least, the first two seasons are.)
And I loved receiving it on two MP3 CDs, which I copied onto the
computer and shoved onto the iPod. But then, I would, wouldn't
I?
(Incidentally -- I was fascinated to learn, when I ordered my
new Mini last week, that I had to choose between all the
cleverMini-running-your-integrated-iPod bit, and having
bluetooth for the phone in the car. I chose bluetooth in the
end.) (The new Mini arrives in December, when Holly gets back
from studying abroad, and she gets my old one. This will be the
worst time of the year to take delivery of a Mini convertible
but what the hell.)
...
I'm now two and a half weeks into trying to get into shape for
the signing tour. (I don't want to look buff; I simply want to
survive it.) So three times a week a nice man who looks like a
golden age superhero shows up at ten a.m., bringing with him an
assortment of oddly-shaped things, and then I work out with
weights and with giant coloured rubber bands and an enormous red
beach ball, stretching and lifting and grumbling. And I spend
the days that I don't work out vaguely aching in my muscles from
the day before's workout. It seems so far to be working though
-- I've got a flatter tummy and my posture seems better.
We're planning some kind of exercise routine that I keep doing
on the road, using the multicoloured giant rubber bands. (Yes, I
know hotels have gyms. But I normally only get to be in the
hotel between the end of the signing -- say 1.00 am -- and the
point I crawl out of bed to get on the plane to the next city --
around 7.00 am if I'm lucky and the airport is nearby.) I am, as
a rule, crap at exercising on the road. I hope that the
multicoloured rubber bands in the luggage will make me feel
guilty enough to do something about it.
...
Hey Neil! Thought you might want to know, as of this morning,
the "August 17th" CB's 313 event has been "cancelled" and
TicketWeb is refunding tickets that have been purchased for it.
As of right now, there hasn't yet been an update with the
correct date, but I'd imagine they'll be getting one up
soon.Thanks!Nick
Oh good. As soon as there are details (and I think it'll be the
18th of Sept. now) I'll put them up here.
Can you further explain what you meant on "Meanwhile Jaime,
Erwin and I are plotting a cool thing for the Philippines, and
trying to figure out exactly what sort of shape it'll take."
Thanks.Ryan Ambrosio
No. Be patient.
Barnes & Noble #267533 E. 17th Street..? NYC (near union square)
wasn't that the place where most of your fans were turned away
last time?i remember, it was horrible and you told me that you
were pretty pissed. why is the signing
happening there again? -dena
Didn't I answer this one already? Anyway, yes, that was the
store in question, and I was really upset. B&N have since
apologised, and asked for a chance to get it right, and I agreed
to give them the chance. Let's keep our fingers crossed. It
should start a little earlier and go much, much later than the
last one.
Meanwhile, it looks like around the country some stores are
working on ways to subsidise the fact that in order for the
event to work, given the numbers, they're having to hold it
offsite in rented premises. Some of them may be charging for
tickets; others are putting in rules on needing to buy books to
get tickets. In these cases, there's nothing I can do -- my
preference is for signings that let everyone in for nothing and
where you don't have to buy anything (and in my experience, the
bookshops are never out of pocket on those), but I can see the
bookshops' point of view, and it's their call. Anyway, I'll do
my best to give value for money (perhaps by doing a reading that
will be 20% funnier than the free readings, and by answering 17%
more questions.) (Or by talking a bit longer anyway.)
Anyway, here's the news on the Cody's signing. You can't pick up
your tickets until the 20th of September, but you can pre-order
them now:
http://www.codysbooks.com/calendar/calendar2.jsp#gaiman
...
I seem to have accumulated a foot-high stack of CDs people have
given me or sent me, and I'm listening to them as I get a
chance, mostly while working. My favourite from the last few
days is definitely Ist's (http://www.istianity.co.uk/home.htm)
King Martha, which you can hear bits of at www.myspace.com/ist.
Smart lyrics, catchy tunes, and a nice, friendly website into
the bargain.
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