Commenti a caldo – Crooner

Ieri sera, in una mezzora prima di andare a dormire, ho letto il racconto di Kazuo Ishiguro pubblicato da Einaudi a fine 2018. L’ho preso in prestito in biblioteca, incuriosita dal formato e dalle immagini, convinta che avrei ritrovato la voce che mi aveva tanto colpito con “Il Gigante Sepolto”.

“Crooner” è una narrazione musicale e malinconica, ambientata nella Venezia dei turisti, quella delle orchestre e dei bar di piazza S. Marco e delle gite in gondola lungo i canali. L’accompagnamento delle illustrazioni di Bianca Bagnarelli, unita al narratore in prima persona, rende affascinante l’esperienza di lettura. L’ideale per me sarebbe ascoltare questo racconto, più che leggerlo, con il sottofondo sonoro dei brani citati. Ricorre il tema prediletto di Ishiguro, la memoria e la sua influenza nelle relazioni. Poi c’è la musica, c’è l’ombra di Sinatra, c’è Venezia, ci sono la vanità e l’estetica di Hollywood, l’incontro con il mito che si svela poi essere tristemente diverso dall’artista immaginato. C’è un’ultima serenata d’amore prima di dirsi addio, ed il motivo di questo addio infine, che spiazza e delude.

©Bianca Bagnarelli



Ho passeggiato per Venezia tante volte, così l’ambientazione di Crooner è risultata più che familiare, gradita e intimamente conosciuta. Mi pareva di sentire l’aria umida della sera che circola tra le calli, il gemito dei gabbiani in lontananza, il vociare dei gondolieri e il tramestio dei bar con i tavolini a ridosso dell’acqua verdenera.

Purtroppo, la storia in sé non mi ha particolarmente coinvolto o emozionato, il che mi dispiace. Sono però curiosa di leggere gli altri quattro racconti, contenuti nel libro “Notturni. Cinque storie di musica e crepuscolo“, edito da Faber & Faber nel 2009.

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Halloween ? No, I think it’s already Christmas !

Today I woke up with the interphone ringing … I run down the stairs still in my pajamas and then I opened the door. A smile broke across my face. A big package for me ! I was expecting a package, yes, from Amazon.uk, but not until October, 27th ! So, it was a big surprise. I thanked the carrier with sparkling eyes and then I rushed back into the house, knowing perfectly what I would see but still … I opened the cardboard box with impatience, the heart pounding in my chest. Yes, all the three new books were there, in their magnificent covers. (And I paid less then £10 for each one!)

Well, I am still a bit disappointed because they’re here, in my shelves, but I could not pass my time with them, not so much. The everyday life is a bitch. Also, I have a stack of books that I AM READING already, and I have to finish them first. I am almost finished with The Buried Giant, by Kazuo Ishiguro. A strange, interesting, slow reading, a little frustrating but also very profound in his thoughts. Like a river, with a calm but misty surface. I will talk about The Buried Giant very soon.

I am also listening to the audiobook of The Golem and the Jinny by Helen Wecker. I wish I had also the book or the ebook with me, but the Audible performance is great as usual, and I can’t wait to know how it will end. Too many point of views, and yet the story is so vivid, so detailed the setting, so incredible and realistic the characters, that I find myself in awe.

Other books in my reading list are :

  •  Roverandom by JRR Tolkien
  •  Trigger Warning : short fiction and disturbances by Neil Gaiman
  • S. by J J Abrams and Doug Dorst ( if you are reading it, maybe you could take a look here )

I wish to have the strenght to give precedence to them, but I know that it will nearly impossible to resist to the call … See below, that is what’s expecting me since this morning :

my hardcovers copies of HP illustrated ed. by Jim Kay, Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith and Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

my hardcovers copies of HP illustrated ed. by Jim Kay, Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith and Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

So, yes, finally I hug my copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling, illustrated by Jim Kay. I love this book so much, I love Jim artworks and I can’t wait to reread Harry Potter, this time in english.

Say Hi to Career of Evil, the number 3 in the Cormoran Strike novels ! I have read the first pages from the official website of Robert Galbraith, and I was left horror-struck ! I fear for Robin, really !

Finally, Keep Calm and … Carry On ! Baz and Simon, their fights, possibly their love story. A lot of magic is in the air ….

Andrea De Santis : illustrare il piacere di leggere

Salve cari amici bibliofili !

Oggi voglio condividere con voi le illustrazioni di un artista italiano che reputo molto, molto bravo, Andrea De Santis.

Andrea, tra le altre cose, collabora come illustratore per alcuni dei più importanti magazines statunitensi, come WWD, REDBOOK e OPRAH magazine. Quelle che vedete qui di seguito le ho scovate per caso su Pinterest, Behance e facebook in questi ultimi mesi; erano state pubblicate a giugno sul quotidiano tedesco Die Zeit. Queste illustrazioni compongono una fantastica serie sul piacere di leggere, mostrando in modo originale, efficace ed immediato gli effetti benefici della lettura !

Leggere per me è un misto di tutte e quattro le cose, è come volare, è essere intrepidi e curiosi, è galleggiare in un mare di parole, finalmente liberi, è rilassarsi, è attraversare una porta misteriosa … Chissà dove ci porterà !

 

FLYING DI ANDREA DE SANTIS

FLYING DI ANDREA DE SANTIS

 

RELAXING DI ANDREA DE SANTIS

RELAXING DI ANDREA DE SANTIS

 

FLOATING BY ANDREA DE SANTIS

FLOATING BY ANDREA DE SANTIS

 

CROSSING BY ANDREA DE SANTIS

CROSSING BY ANDREA DE SANTIS

 

 

E a tal proposito, voi cosa state leggendo ? 

Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell

Neil and Chris
29th May 2015, 11.30 a.m. – Tata Tent, Hay Festival

I smell of rain. I have found a seat near the stage, and I can see quite well. Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell have to arrive, yet. I have to tell, I am freezing. But I am also so excited ! Tata Tent is full of people. I suppose this is the measure of success. Angie and Catherine couldn’t make the Starlight Stage full together, and that was a smaller hall. (Now. This statement is not to say they aren’t great. Or that they are less good. I like them a lot, as you can perceive from my last post. But Neil Gaiman is like Mum Jo and Uncle Stephen. Or Killer George. The Kings & Queens of writers. Like, for the actors, Cillian Murphy versus Robert Downey Jr. They are both great, but you just can’t win over RDJ. And, for the love of Merlin in a pink bermuda, I love Cillian Murphy ! I need to watch Peaky Blinders as soon as possible!. End of the rant.)

29 May 2015, 16.00 p.m. – Riverside Camping, Hay-on-Wye

I am finally restored, under my tent. The sun is shining, and my heart is a warm, wild, beating creature. The “interview”, or for better saying, the conversation between Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell – with the (small) support of Daniel Hahn – was spectacular.

Those two really had their way in entertaining the public. £9 well spent, I should say. They have talked a lot about The Sleeper and the Spindle, a short story written by Neil and brilliantly illustrated by Chris, that has its beginning with the wedding of Queen Snow White. It’s impressive, the twist that Gaiman has produced in this story. At the very start of the discussion, he felt the need to explain himself, (it seemed to me like an apologetic introduction, so usual in the past, but I could be wrong). He told us about how old are stories and faerie tales like these two, and how many times and in how many ways they have been retold and rewritten. For example The Sleeping Beauty in Perrault‘s variant has a second part that we usually don’t remember in these retellings, because it simply has not encountered people’s favor, nor in the past, nor today. So it’s like that : some stories are to be retold and reshaped in many forms, some others are just forgotten. What about Cinderella and its Chinese origins, Ye Xian, or Yeh-Shen  with the golden slippers ? The small feet of Cinderella are a telling detail. Chinese admired small feet in girls, in the way an European probably would have looked to legs, or breast. Like other loved stories, that of Cinderella has travelled centuries and continents. So the golden slippers became glass shoes in Perrault’s tale. Neil reported the mistranslation* of the french term vair, in verre : the fur slippers of the medieval age have changed, apparently for an error, in glass ones. “And aren’t glass shoes ridiculous!?” said Gaiman, among the general laughter of the Tata Tent.

A lot of other things have changed between one version and another, through mouths and pens. It is something that need, to be well explained, of an 800-pages-long book* from my History of Popular Traditions exam, if you wish to go deep in the ancient phenomenon of retelling. Something that nowadays touches another phenomenon, in my point of view, that of fan-fictions.  There are fans that write new stories taking from stories and characters they love,  reshaping them and inventing new characters, sequels and prequels, and then they publish their works online, for their fandom to read, to love, to hate, to judge, to critic, to transform, to reinvent. Then there are well-known authors, like P.D. James, that write actual books taking from unforgettable classics, and that’s the case of Death Comes to Pemberley, a thrilling sequel of  Pride&Prejudice ! Many are the faces and the means of retelling a loved, popular story. It’s something that happens a lot.

So yes, Sleeper and the Spindle is a magic, dark retelling of Snow White and The Sleeping Beauty, with a different ending, or better, with the fanciful imagination of what could be happened after the Happily Ever After. “It is not to affirm that my story is the best version” said Gaiman. Just, this short story, like many other variants*, has its right to be written, and the people have the choice : what to remember and what to forget.    

The Sleeper and the Spindle

Chris Riddell, seated at his right, was not a silent spectator. While Gaiman was talking, he showed to us the book, with its beautiful illustrations. Then he told his opinion about his work as an artist and illustrator, and about the Sleeper and the Spindle. He is, in my opinion, very funny, a nice man and a great artist. He has been perfectly good at taking every possible space in the conversation and sometimes he has directed the attention on new topics.

They talked about what it means to work together, as writer and illustrator. They recounted some funny anecdotes about their past, and the work relationship they have built , so that many times Neil send Chris some new story, or description, and Chris send some new designed character to Neil (as for Fortunately, The Milk).

fortunately, the milk 

Chris said : “my work is to take the space that has been left blank by Neil, that space between lines without words, and elaborate from there. Mostly, it is about taking that little detail that makes the bigger picture. It’s a joy to find these details when I read a new story to illustrate, and the curious thing about illustrators is that we don’t find the same details, and that we can work in very different ways on the same project, but still, I always find the beauty and the inspiration I need watching others works“.  He made the example of Dave McKean, another great artist that often works with Gaiman; author, among other things, of the illustrations for the US version of The Graveyard Book,  The Wolves in the Walls, Coraline, all by Neil Gaiman. I could feel the sincere admiration for him and his colleagues.

He noted the incredible amounts of illustrations that in the years have been published for Alice in Wonderland. 150 years of illustrations for this classic story. All of them very beautiful, stunning retakes on the same concept, (minus the Johnny Deep – Mad Hatter , he said – laughter -).

Then, Neil Gaiman came back to The Sleeper and the Spindle. He answered a question about the absence of princes, men that save the day. It is like this, he said, because he wanted to tell a story with a strong and independent woman. So, at some point, when the dwarves are embarrassed, and I will not say when, the Queen takes the lead, again. And she kissed a Sleeping Beauty… No spoiler. I will laugh to anyone who will shout out at the scandal for that kiss. Oh joy…

kiss

Nothing to say, the illustrations are beautiful, amazing. I was a little sad, I could not buy the book there, (I had just bought The Graveyard Book, which I love, and Trigger Warning*, the new book of short stories by Neil Gaiman, I was alone in Wales, and my wallet was screaming in pain, literally starving),  or else it would be now in one of my bookshelves, signed.

Questions were many and interesting.

The audience took Gaiman & Riddell to recalled their worst work. Neil said it was the Duran Duran biopic, first and last commitment he has done for money only. ‘‘I spent three months writing a book that I would not like to read, then the company failed. I lost money, and time. I learned to never ever do something for the only sake of money“. Chris recalled a set of illustrations for a Japanese class of English. He needed the money, too. And as he talked, he began to drawing the frog-girl in manga style, protagonist of this English workbook. The pencil in his hand was moving without hesitation, fluid and precise black lines emerged on white paper. “Last week I received an e-mail from Japan, they ask me permission to reprint the book.” he said, and he was laughing, still slightly embarrassed.

One child asked why Coraline’s hair were blue in the movie, and black in the book. Neil answered sweetly that he was happy of this change, and that it was a last-minute decision of the director Henry Selick, in the making of the movie.

A girl asked one last question, about the women, independent and strong, that have inspired Neil Gaiman. The answer was well-known, because he told many time that his editor and his wife are the women in question. I was expecting it, really, nonetheless it was not so good for me the feeling that he has been leaded to talk about his wife. (I love infinitely Amanda Palmer as a person and as an artist, but that question was so obviously unidirectional …).

All in all, it was a funny, interesting and inspiring conversation. As a want-to-be writer with a want-to-be illustrator for sister, it was a pleasure listening to two professional discussing about their works. I put myself in a hour long queue, with frozen feet in still wet shoes, just to thank them in person. Again, thanks for the dreams and the inspiration, Mr. Gaiman. Thanks for the kindness and thanks because when I confided you my ambition, my own dream, you haven’t laughed, nor with you mouth, nor with your eyes, but you gave me some serious advice.

Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell have said goodbye with a juicy news : they are working on a new story of Odd*, with Chris illustrations ! (*happydance*)

Infact, today, in Mr Riddell’s Tumblr – Sketckbook, I found these revealing sketches !!!

for more, see : Sketchbook, tumblr blog of Chris Riddell, with daily lives, funny and entertaining sketches ! Click on the pic, go go go !!!  

— — —

notes :
*The mistranslation of the french term ‘vair‘, fur, that became ‘verre‘, glass, as it was reported for decades, is apparently false. For more, see : World Wide Words : Glass Slippers
*variants : is a technical term for the many retellings of a classic folk story, or fairy tale. So you can read the Grimm variant of Cinderella, Aschenputtel, with the elder stepsister that cut off her toes in order to fit the slipper, but you have to know that there are many other variants that diverge from it. Or Little Red Riding Hood variants.  For more, see : Folklore and mythology Electronic Texts .    
*Storia del Folklore in Europa by Giuseppe Cocchiara 
*Trigger Warning contains, among others stories, Sleeper and the Spindle, obviously without illustrations.
*You can find an Odd and the Frost Giant version illustrated by Chris Riddell that will be published on 8 September 2016. I think that at Hay Festival Neil and Chris were talking of a different, original story of Odd, that has yet to be written.