Laila Lalami

Comic fans everywhere, rejoice! Tomer and Assaf Hanuka’s Bipolar is unlike most other comics currently being read. There aren’t any spandex-clad superheroes fighting crime, or sullen anti-heroes saving the world from destruction. Instead, Bipolar brings us into the brothers’ sometimes diametrically opposed worlds.

The first section, written and illustrated by Tomer Hanuka, is essentially a series of vignettes characterized by philosophical musings. Many of the panels show the action without any dialogue, relying on visual language only to convey Tomer Hanuka’s disjointed vision of a life where neglect and cruelty are ever-present, and where instances of kindness and humanity are almost accidental.

The best part about the series, though, is the second section, titled Pizza Kamikaze. Adapted from a story by Etgar Keret and illustrated by Assaf Hanuka, Kamikaze centers around Mordi, a man who commits suicide after a breakup with his girlfriend and finds himself in an afterworld populated solely by other people who have ended their lives. The people still bear the marks of their death: slit wrists, gun shot wounds, wrinkles from drowning. Everyone is mostly alone here, but sometimes entire families are unexpectedly re-united. Mordi soon learns that his lost love has recently arrived to this world. He embarks on a journey to find her. The dark artwork beautifully helps establish the subtle presence of death, but the story isn’t without humor. Kurt Cobain makes a brief appearance, for instance, and people complain that he won’t stop bitching because everything in this after-world reminds him of a song he wrote.

Keret and Hanuka join the likes of Takehiko Inoue ,Neil Gaiman, and Michael Chabon in creating work that showcases how the comic media can be read as literary fiction. If a publisher decides to release Pizzeria Kamikaze in graphic novel form, I’ll be first in line.

Bipolar isn’t available at Powells.com or Amazon.com, but you can purchase it at Mars Import.

Matt Thompson reports that the NY Times has written 17,000 words on Paris Hilton matters and only 10,000 on the catastrophe currently unfolding in Darfur, Sudan. Link via Gawker.

The curriculum still being used for Arabic literature in Arab-area high schools in Israel features poets like the Syrian Adonis (Ali Ahmad Said) and the Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish. But these poets were removed from the anthologies used in the classroom on instruction of the curriculum committee’s sole Jewish member, who felt that some of those works could “create an ill spirit.” However, anthologies used by students in Jewish high schools do contain poetry from Darwish, for instance, along with the work of novelists like Naguib Mahfouz and Tawfiq Al-Hakim. So why the discrepancy?

Dr. Mahmud Abu Fanni, the Education Ministry’s veteran supervisor of Arabic studies in the Arab sector, admits that some of the works easily taught to Jewish students would be very difficult to include in the Arab schools’ curriculum. However, he claims that “this time we will not be able to run from Mahmoud Darwish and Samih al-Kassem. It simply isn’t possible.” Abu Fanni is referring to the work of a committee (of which he is the coordinator) that has spent the last two years formulating a new Arab literature curriculum. The committee intends to demand that Arab literature, currently included within Arabic language studies, be recognized as a separate, two-credit subject of study for Arab high schools.

There is more to this story of who teaches what to whom in this Ha’aretz article by Omer Barak, though the why isn’t fully addressed.

There’s been a lot of talk on the net about people’s reactions to Fahrenheit 9/11, about how much money it made, and about how factual it was. There was even discussion about how the movie may have affected sales of anti-Bush books. But I was wondering how much the movie will really affect the average, undecided American.

Well, the average American doesn’t read books, doesn’t watch documentaries at theatres, and doesn’t vote. So when Joe Schmo sees this movie, will he side with Moore and want to vote the current administration out of office? Or will he agree with people like Hitch that the movie is so much “liberal propaganda” and vote for Bush?

So I went with an average american who subscribes to the above three “doesn’ts”. While in line, I asked whether or not he was going to vote in the next election. “I really don’t know, I wasn’t planning on it.” And let’s just say that his opinion didn’t change after watching the movie. Maybe his answer would have been different if Arnold was running for President.

A depressing experiment. I know my own Joe Schmo is only one data point, so for now I’ll hold my judgment until after the election, and try to keep the faith.

The cult of the author’s image continues, with a fashion article about a new author and the makeover she undergoes, complete with a description of what clothes she picks for ‘taking meetings.’ Yes, there is a Zadie Smith reference. Ugh.

Preparations for the Frankfurt Book Fair, where the Arab World will be a guest of honor, are in full swing, though the organizers seem to be running into the usual difficulties.

The choice to feature the Arab world at the book fair was interesting but inherently difficult, organizers say — if only because so many different countries are involved. Despite common roots, the region is plagued by unresolved, divisive political issues, such as the Near East conflict and the Iraq war.

And Sonallah Ibrahim, never one to shun controversy, had this to say:

“Would a German author bother worrying about a book fair when Dresden is being bombed?” wondered Egyptian novelist Sonallah Ibrahim.

Unfortunately, Morocco will be absent from the fair, which is a bloody shame because I think its literature is one of the finest in the region and it should be made more available in the West (I don’t know of any Western markets, besides France, where Moroccan authors can sell.) Here in the U.S., I believe the best-selling book by a Moroccan author is the Oprah-selected memoir by Malika Oufkir, so we’re still at the stage of the sensational.
Link from the Complete Review.

Of the fifteen most borrowed books in libraries in America, six are non-fiction volumes devoted to the Shrub and how he’s misled or mismanaged the nation, three are diet books, and the rest are memoirs or self-help. There is not a single novel on the list.
Link found at the Christian Science Monitor.

As a tribute to the late Edward Said, the London Review of Books has invited the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra to perform in London. The orchestra was founded by Said and Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim. For details on the concert, go here.

Kamila Shamsie reviews Nadeem Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers, which is set in the English town of Dasht-e-Tanhaii.

The English town of Dasht-e-Tanhaii? It sounds more like something out of a fairytale than a place off the M4. But no, it is a town with a large community of Pakistani migrants who have renamed their new home Dasht-e-Tanhaii: The Wilderness of Loneliness or The Desert of Solitude.

Shamsie gives the book a very enthusiastic review, so it may well be worth checking out.

The July/August issue of Poets & Writers features a cover story about Samina Ali. Ali had already written a draft of Madras on Rainy Days when, twenty minutes after delivering her first baby, she suffered a grand mal seizure, went into a coma for seven days, had two brain hemorrhages, kidney and liver failures, pulmonary edema, and cerebral edema. She recovered from all this to finish her book. Ok, so now may be a good time to scratch off any excuses you may have.