Pulitzer 2014- Page 3

[undercoveractor]

Posted: 3/25/14 at 12:52am

Oh AfterEight, you truly are a treasure. I actually am still fascinated by you, and not at al in the patronizing way that you have assumed. You've inspired me to do some writing ....maybe that will be a horror inflicted in the near future! Like a hybrid of THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER, WHATEVER HAPPENEDTO BABY JANE, and that animated sitcom, THE CRITIC. I smell a Pulitzer!

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 3/25/14 at 1:10am

Sorry, yes, I am aware it is a memoir. I gave a few copies out as gifts, since there were some signed ones at a local bookstore in SF that I picked up for that purpose.

But, yes, I am one of the people who doesn't have any interest in graphic novels. It just has zero appeal to me. I think it removes the most magical part of reading, which is that some author creates something tangible out of words, that I reassemble in head into an entire world.

And every individual reader interprets those words differently than me, every detail of my vision may not match theirs, but enough commonality exists where we all have a shared experience having that individual experience.

With a graphic novel, we all had the identical experience, and that just sort of ruins it for me.

Updated On: 3/25/14 at 01:10 AM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/25/14 at 3:00am

It's obviously a personal thing, and I won't force the subject (too much) especially in this thread, but strongly disagree. The best comic books (for lack of making sure to use the right term--I'll just lump them together) know how to create the story through what the pictures can tell or convey with, or without the text--and aren't just illustrations of the story (the same way I'd never say that someone should read the script of a film or play instead of seeing a production because if they see a production they are all going to have the same identical experience.) Of course people are going to, mostly, think of characters looking as how they're drawn and not how they imagine, so I suppose you're right there, but the way the mix of the two mediums can be used to affect so much else of the reading experience, when skillfully done, truly is a unique and personal experience.

At least that's how I feel. And I genuinely think the film/play comparison is completely apt. Of course there are many, IMHO, bad comics out there (just like there's bad movies or books) where they simply illustrate the text--thankfully Bechdel certainly doesn't do that. In fact much of the power of her work in both memoirs is the interplay between the two, and how that creates an instant reaction that simply really good prose writing couldn't do in the same way.

I hope I gave enough IMHO and "I thinks" in this post in case After8 is reading

[After Eight]

Posted: 3/25/14 at 8:10am

"I know at least one person I tried to get to read it who assumed that meant it contained graphic or explicit content.."

Well, at least that person reveals a concern for decency. Bravo to him/her.

I can't speak for the book, not having read it, but as far as the musical is concerned, there's a godawful song about changing one's major with lyrics, to put it mildly, that are unspeakable. Unfortunately for us, someone speaks, or rather, sings them, which is even worse. I hope the person you mentioned above is spared ever having to hear them. I certainly wish I had been.

I also saw in the various threads on ths show a similar confusion regarding the term "graphic novel." I myself had never heard of it until I read about it here. Not the most felicitous expression, to be sure. I can't help but wonder what genius came up with it. Didn't he or she know that "graphic" has more than one meanng? Probably not.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/25/14 at 8:22am

After Eight, just because you hadn't heard a term before doesn't make it stupid. It simply makes you uninformed. Perhaps you aren't the all-knowing being you presume yourself to be.

I've read some wonderful graphic novels/series and they have moved me to tears as well as caused uncontrollable laughter. When done well it can be a genre that rends the highest art. I can give you some suggestions of ones to try out if you're interested! :)

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 3/25/14 at 8:30am

Whizzer and I are changing our majors to After Eight

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/25/14 at 8:39am

Ha! I wasn't prepared for such a big laugh this early in the morning.

Honestly though I have had "Changing My Major To Joan" on repeat since I got the Fun Home recording and think it is just a lovely song. It captures feeling of first sexual experience and subsequent yearnings so perfectly. I could have sung this song about a guy I was sleeping with in college. I basically did change my major to him and this song recalls all the giddiness and euphoria I felt for a few months. Tesori's melody is idiosyncratic and bounces along like a giggle Alison is attempting to stifle. Kron's words ripple along the line like someone spreading buttercream frosting on a cake until the song is a perfectly marvelous confection.

Updated On: 3/25/14 at 08:39 AM

[tazber]

Posted: 3/25/14 at 8:50am

Graphic novels have gone on to win Pulitzers and Hugo Awards among many others.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 3/25/14 at 9:00am

I was wondering if any graphic novels had won the Pulitzer Prize, and now I see that only Art Spiegelman's Maus has. (Non-Fiction, 1992)

I've only read a handful of graphic novels (Fun Home and four of Marjane Satrapi's books), but I find them so beautiful and engaging that I think people who dismiss them are really missing out.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/25/14 at 9:08am

I admit that I once dismissed them until someone convinced me to give the format a chance. Boy am I glad I did because I can't get enough now!

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 3/25/14 at 9:19am

I wouldn't count out Fun Home due to the adaptation nature. Clybourne Park won the Pulitzer.

[After Eight]

Posted: 3/25/14 at 9:39am

"Kron's words ripple along the line like someone spreading buttercream frosting on a cake until the song is perfectly marvelous confection. "

Ha ha ha! Boy, did I need a good laugh this morning. Thanks so much for providing it to me, to all us. We'll be guffawing about this one for a long, long time to come.

I would be hard put to think of a more ridiculous, inapt or inept comparison. "A perfectly marvelous confection," you say? Oh, yes, perfectly marvelous, like "a seminar on Joan's ass." A real bonbon, that one! This "confection" calls to mind Captain Hook's description of a cake with icing mixed with poison. Except here, there's neither cake, nor icing. But if that's the kind of "confection" you like, eat heartily!

P.S.

"When done well it can be a genre that rends the highest art. "

Rend= tear to pieces Updated On: 3/25/14 at 09:39 AM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/25/14 at 5:44pm

I sometimes get annoyed about the use of the term graphic novel (or memoir) simply because, at least initially it was used to imply that this was not a comic book, it was something of substance and art. Which simply meant, especially after the huge success of Maus, that certain works would get slapped with that term by certain publishers so that they would be taken seriously as literature--whether they deserved to be or not. I've certainly read bad "graphic novels," great "comics," and a whole spectrum in quality of "manga." But it has helped to point out that the comic book format is not really a genre but rather a medium to tell stories, the way theatre or film is.

After8, I appreciate your concern for my friend, but I don't think she would.

And, agreed completely with everyone (but A about "Changing my major to Joan" (which is a song that does come from lines in the book.)

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/25/14 at 5:49pm

"I admit that I once dismissed them until someone convinced me to give the format a chance. Boy am I glad I did because I can't get enough now!"

In my experience, that honestly usually is someone's reaction. You just have to persuade them to sit down and give them a chance (hopefully with a title that on some level connects to them.)

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 3/25/14 at 11:38pm

I might be mistaken, but I believe that the great Will Eisner coined the term "graphic novel" for his book "A Contract With God," the first of many Eisner books about Jewish tenement life. He committed most of his later career to documenting the types of real characters and stories that surrounded him as a child. Eisner was an extremely well-known cartoonist (creator of the often-brilliant The Spirit) and this new work required a new label for the sake of distance and serious consideration. I also find the term a bit precious as it is used now; it's an awfully poker-faced defense against pearl-clutching idiots who might write off an entire art form such as comics simply because they can't be bothered to understand it. Cough.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 3/26/14 at 7:27am

Just one of a hundred sad old men
Living out their final days in New York

[Kad]

Posted: 3/26/14 at 8:00am

There must be many people who have a really warped idea of what a graphic designer is, then.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 3/26/14 at 8:08am

I call then "jizz artists."

[Kad]

Posted: 3/26/14 at 8:15am

Also: who is the "we"/"us" After Eight always refers to? Is After Eight a hive mind?

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 3/26/14 at 8:42am

They are After Eight of Borg, and they are here to assimilate us.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 3/26/14 at 9:29am

I'll just keep repeating it until it happens. The mods are on top of EVERYTHING even remotely inappropriate on here and it's time to either block or suspend After Eight from these boards. He is no different than any other troll that comes through here. It's absurd.

And back on topic (sorta) does anyone know what the status of that rumored transfer of last years winner, DISGRACED, is? I liked it quite a bit and was hoping it would have a future after winning the big prize.

[GilmoreGirlO2]

Posted: 3/26/14 at 1:13pm

I have no recent info – that last I heard was from this Chicago Trib article (link at bottom of the post) about the director from last September:

"Disgraced," first produced to great acclaim by the American Theater Company, now appears set for the 2013-14 Broadway season, although various little things, like money and a theater, still are pending. Assuming it all comes together, as is likely, this would be Senior's Broadway debut.

Didn’t get to see the show, but recently read the script and really, really liked it. Hope to see it pop up at some point.

Senior is scheduled, however, to direct Akhtar’s new play, “The Who and the What” (which she just recently directed in LA), in Chicago next season, which I am looking forward to.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-09-05/entertainment/ct-ae-0908-fall-theater-preview-profile-3-20130905_1_amy-herzog-ayad-akhtar-chicago-director

[Up In One]

Posted: 4/14/14 at 12:48pm

What time of day do the usually announce? Any minute?

[tazber]

Posted: 4/14/14 at 12:52pm

3:00 pm EST

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 4/14/14 at 12:57pm

"Which will win? Well, that's a toughie. I have a feeling it will be the most wretched of the three. I mean, what could top a little girl miauling her passion for a delivery woman in jeans?"

You are a truly hateful person.