The Influencing Machine: A Brief Visual History of the Media
via Brain Pickings:
One of the coolest and most charming book releases of this year, The Influencing Machine is a graphic novel about the media, its history, and its many maladies.
Written by Brooke Gladstone, longtime host of NPR’s excellent On the Media, and illustrated by cartoonist Josh Neufeld, The Influencing Machine takes a refreshingly alternative approach to the age-old issue of why we disparage and distrust the news.
Gladstone (in the video above):
…what victims of the syndrome have lost: identity. They no longer know who they are. They have shattered themselves into fragments and projected the shameful bits onto the influencing machine. That is my metaphor for how we see the media. We feared the telegraph, the radio, the television, the computer. Heck, Socrates even disdained writing. But I believe the media are mirrors, a mess of mirrors. And what we fear is not the machine, but the reflection.
FJP: This just made my day! Wonderful, creative, exciting, intelligent, and so true. —Jihii
If you mean literally how did I sustain myself, it was a weird combination of taking good physical care of myself and drinking more than is perhaps strictly advisable. I don’t want to mythologize or glorify the difficulty of writing this book. Writing is just hard.
But this project was harder than the book about my father because I knew my mother would see it. And I knew there were other people waiting for it with certain expectations. No one was waiting for the book about my father, or expecting anything from it—I was completely free when I was writing Fun Home. But I had to write this second memoir with a huge boulder strapped to my back.
” Alison Bechdel, from this excellent, excellent Q&A conducted by Heather McCormack. (via libraryjournal)Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy to become very graphic novel
Each title will be adapted into two graphic novels, with the Dragon Tattoo adaptation out in 2012 and the second and third novels to be adapted in 2013 and 2014. Dan DiDio, DC Entertainment co-publisher, has called the “intricate characters and stories” created by Larsson the “perfect match for the graphic novel format, where we can bring Lisbeth Salander to life in entirely new, visually compelling ways”.
I started and finished Americus last night, and even though I didn’t like all of it, I’m convinced this is a book librarians should read.
From the description:
Neal Barton just wants to read in peace.Unluckily for him, some local Christian activists are trying to get his favorite fantasy series banned from the Americus public library on grounds of immoral content and heresy. Something has to be done, and it looks like quiet, shy Neal is going to have to do it. With youth services librarian Charlotte Murphy at his back, Neal finds himself leading the charge to defend the mega-bestselling fantasy series that makes his life worth living.
Kate Beaton signing copies of her book Hark A Vagrant at Boston Book Fest, October 15, 2011.
Seth discusses his new work, The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists, at the Boston Book Fest on October 15, 2011.
Waiting their turn to speak alongside him on the stage are Alison Bechdel and Daniel Clowes.
Books a Million follows suit, removes 100 DC titles over Kindle Fire Deal
So two major corporate bookstores have removed 100 classic DC graphic novels from their shelves. While independent comic book stores are still selling these probably, this is still a big move. I’m wondering how it will affect the ebook sales over the physical book sales of these titles. Will DC try to renege on the deal?
Books a Million states that “We will not promote titles in our stores showrooms if publishers choose to pursue these exclusive arrangements that create an uneven playing field in the marketplace”, which is slightly different from the B&N statement (which said that they refuse to offer anything in physical form if they don’t have it in ebook form).
