Spring rains and reading go together like April and May. Throw in some dark roast, or a red blend, and you’ve got a respectable lifestyle, except in MAGAt-land, of course. It struck me how many of this diverse list at least touched on women’s roles, which continue to evolve, despite the fascist backlash. Prose first, then the comics. Off we go:
Genius, Harold Bloom, 2000: Bloom, a Yale professor with a publication list as long as your arm, occupies a centrist position in the academic wars that seethe between the lines of Lit Crit. Defending the traditional literary canon against the ‘death-of-the-author’ theorists of postmodernism who argue that literature becomes famous as a result of the signifiers and prejudices of dominant culture, as opposed to any inherent genius. ( As such, he is a mentor to the controversial and pugnacious Camille Paglia, whose provocative linking of Emily Dickinson to the extreme libertarian Romanticism of the Marquis de Sade, he takes pains here to disavow).
Bloom, as an inveterate defender of canon, is not much different than Virginia Woolf, who famously wanted a room of her own, but why? To read, and to write. The guaranteed income she advocated for would benefit any artist ( actually, her point ).
Bloom was well tenured of course, and was accused of using his position for sexual favors. One can be certain that his insistence on the allied etymology of ‘genius’ as a fathering force in art is intended as pushback to the warriors of the cultural studies departments, so a certain amount of pugnaciousness pertains here, too. A certain familiarity with the landscape is handy for the ‘common reader’ ( a Virginia Woolf term) to defend themselves from the ideological warfare. Post #metoo, it’s rare for the giants of academia to escape accusations of abuse of power. Bloom includes some women and non English speakers here.
Thus armed against the cant, this is enjoyable stuff, as much for the authors I know as for the ones I don’t. I’ve read about 25% of these authors and would like to read more. With Bloom, all literary invention derives from Shakespeare and Cervantes, so often, succeeding authors are compared with those two. This provides entry for many readers. Bloom’s speculations can be a bit oblique, but not so much as Michael Schmidt in The Novel, a Biography, or his own Shakespeare, The Invention of the Human, though the second I have not finished. Like that, I’ll keep this one around for reference and inspiration, while the culture wars rage, when I’m exploring the giants I ignored in high school and college.
fingers crossed, Miki Berenyi, 2022, NEB: Berenyi added a feminist punk edge to Emma Anderson’s wispy and ironic dream pop love songs in Lush, a pioneering “Shoegaze” band who recorded for the legendary 4AD label in the 80s. This rock star memoir leavens the party gossip with biting commentary on Berenyi’s appalling childhood and rock’s misogynist males.
Whether it was the ego-drunk rocker gods, the whirlwind of changing musical fashion, or her increasingly distant relationship with Anderson that drove her out of the business, drummer Chris Acland’s death provided the catalyst. Lush was brilliant but brief, though it must have seemed an eternity to them. I saw them at Rock Island in still-edgy LODO in ’90 or ’91. There was so much of that era that was a thrill, but much that was darkness, too. Like Berenyi, many of us who survived it have moved on.
The Agency, Katie Skelly, 2023, Fantagraphics: Smart, feminist and sexy. Skelly’s slinky, big eyed agents look like Bratz dolls playing at supermodels but are spies in the house of love. They do not cheat themselves in erotic adventures, but have their own agenda in regards to sex, fashion and gender. They are sex positive, and not afraid of their own sexual power, which fits them right in with current pop cultural tropes.
The fun is in the smart colors and loose provocative cartooning. Another Skelly book, My Pretty Vampire, explored the transgressive nature of female promiscuity in a male dominated world, but here the men take a definite back seat.
Below Ambition, Simon Hanselman, 2022, Fantagraphics: More of Hanselmans slacker soap opera gross out humor, Below Ambition, in which the bleakness of the characters’ drug slacker lives competes with the transgressive humor, which still provides a few laughs. But as the series moves forward, a certain desperation creeps in. If we take the series as a successor to Peter Bagge’s louche Buddy Bradley, though, the characters have yet to show that sort of ‘growth’. So he risks a very edgy series becoming stale.
Afternoon at McBurger’s, Ana Galvan, 2021, Fantagraphics: A surreal , young girl rite of passage story by Anna Galvan. It doesn’t differ too much in style and feel from her first, Press Enter To Continue, but like Agency, the emphasis is on young women and their special circumstances. Here, the ways of entry into the world of adult feminine power remain a mystery, though. The spare chromatic art lends a feeling of distance and emotional remove that Skelly’s self assured party girls do not share.
Spanish cartoonists have not, over the years, gotten nearly enough recognition for their innovations both in design and style, and in their very intriguing use of the surreal, a legacy of Dali and Miro.
Mudbite, Dave Cooper, 2018, Fantagraphics: Sexual horror, anxieties and degradations enter into a family vacation story, with his ever present plump, juicy ingenues to tempt him, and some sperm/bacteria-like parasites to prevent his enjoyment of them. His retro baroque style is a feast for the eyes, if not the libido.
I have a tendency to mistrust Cooper’s popularity: is it for the chilling portrayal of male sexual fetish, or for the decadent form the ( female) fetish figures assume in his luscious cartoons? Like Skelly, he walks the edge of transgressive sexuality. Unlike Skelly, he’s middle aged, presumably not cute or fashion forward.
Comics have often lived in this no man’s land of the war of the sexes. It hasn’t gone well for the men who occupied the lion’s share of jobs in the poorly-paid, minimally respected medium. Like movies, they are tailor-made for the visual/sensual/cultural form of the Femme Fatale, which comics seem to understand even more poorly than cinema. As images of female sexual power are increasingly scrutinized, most don’t see the dark corners of male sexuality as worthy of examination. Cooper is not afraid to go there, at least, but like Crumb, probably risks backlash for his psychological honesty.
Swimming in Darkness, Lucas Harari, 2019, Arsenal Pulp Press: Clear Line cartoon mystery has been a go-to for euro comics since Tintin. It can seem somewhat formulaic, though stylistically attractive. This one is fresh enough, with a slight architectural sub plot.
The Cursed Hermit, Bertin and Forbes, Conundrum 2023: Genre is a formative component of comic books ( not so much, newspaper comics, which have a real claim to being a wholly original form ). The ‘Golden Age’ superhero comic boom grew out of pulp detective/ sci fi fiction, and Euro and Japanese comics explored it to drag all comics out of the kiddie lit ghetto in the late 50s. Genre still dominates the medium- sci fi is still king, but horror is challenging.
The Hobtown Mystery series, which also includes the Case of the Missing Men, has been described often as ‘Hardy Boys meets Twin Peaks’ ( and what’s not to love about that combo? ), so a detective/horror mash up. The Clear Line art betrays its Tintin roots as well.
The protagonist are not the squeaky clean teens of ‘Franklin W. Dixon’s’ day. They have their own typical teen issues, and people close to them are often implicated in the creepy, trust-no-one doings of Hobtown, a small Nova Scotia hamlet where every horror in the universe seems to gather. Though at times exceedingly bizarre, these are compelling reads.
Roaming, Jillian and Mariko Tamaki, 2023: It’s easy to forget how good these cousins are at the Young Adult coming of age graphic novel, which they helped popularize with Skim, which I think is still their best, both in artwork and emotional exploration. This one features a sexual tension-filled visit by three college mates to NYC, and is very readable for adults, too, as it limns the issues surrounding teen anxieties about sex and friendship.
I can remember a time when female voices were rarely seen in comics. Aline Kosinski-Crumb, derided for being ‘Robert Crumb’s girlfriend’, and Trina Robbins, both of whom recently left us, were pioneering cartoonists as the alternative comics scene began to grow. They are analogous to Miki Berenyi and Kim Gordon in rock, as they had to deal with misogyny both within and without their respective sub cultures.
To Be Read for next time: A Hardy novel, Rick Altergott’s recent Blessed Be comic, and possibly a return to the History of Jazz. That’s time permitting- Summer is considered a reading season in the media, but I’m usually a bit too busy for larger books, and tend to retreat to short stories. I wonder how many others don’t fit the conventional assumptions on Summer reading?
#Readinglist #Besties2025 #Readingisresistance
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