Some thoughts about Not the End of the World

- Stories about Trudi and Charlene bookend the collection. What do you think about Trudi and Charlene's attitude about what is "not the end of the world"? Why do these two stories open and close the collection?

- Buffy the Vampire Slayer? What about Joss Whedon in general? 

- Are TV shows and video games the mythology of today?

- These next ones are borrowed from discussion questions which appeared in the paperback edition of the book:

How do you think Eddie's relationship with his mother affects his attitude? Do you think June is a good role model for him?

 Fielding's doppelganger has a lot more fun than Fielding ever does. What do you think that says about Fielding's choices? If your doppelganger were free to do whatever he or she wanted, what would he or she be doing?

Discuss the ways in which people at the edges of your life - the people you sometimes see at parties, who date your distant relatives, who pass you on the way to work - are living their own stories as well as influencing yours. Where, how often, and in what ways does your life overlap with theirs?

The entire list of discussion questions can be found here.

Come discuss Not the End of the World Saturday March 19th at the Main Library in the 3rd Floor Program Room at 11am. Feel free to bring food and drink. 

Our next book is Not the End of the World by Kate Atkinson

Equal parts comedy, tragedy, and myth, Atkinson's stories inevitably lead to utterly surprising conclusions. Meredith Zane, one of the legendary Zane sisters, known for their perfect teeth and far-flung travels, may have just discovered the secret of eternal life. Fielding, a burned-out media critic, suspects he has a doppelganger who is sullying his reputation - and having a much better time than Fielding ever has. Marianne is a young mother whose untimely end on a rainy highway doesn't necessarily keep her out of her family's life. Arthur, a neglected and precocious eight-year-old boy taken under the wing of an enigmatic nanny, discovers a world he never knew existed.

Come discuss Not the End of the World Saturday March 19th at the Main Library in the 3rd Floor Program Room at 11am. Feel free to bring food and drink. 

Some thoughts about Acme Novelty Library

- By satirizing comics collectors like "Rusty Brown" and "Chalky White" is Ware biting the hand that feeds?

- Does this book have a protagonist? Did you relate to any of the characters?

- Why design a book that is intentionally, physically, difficult to read?

- If you are familiar with the work of R.Crumb, how is Ware's work similar? How is it different?

- A lot of the story lines and fake ads are very dark satire. What is the point Ware is trying to make? Who or what is he satirizing?

In May of 2010, Ware was commissioned by Fortune Magazine to do a cover for their "Fortune 500" issue. Fortune rejected his cover but you can see it here.

Come discuss The Acme Novelty Library Saturday January 15th at the Main Library in the 3rd Floor Program Room at 11am. Feel free to bring food and drink.

CHANGE OF SCHEDULE! Our next book is The Acme Novelty Library by Chris Ware

By violent means student activists forced a change in our reading schedule. Since we just read Understanding Comics, we are bumping Chris Ware's graphic novel The Acme Novelty Library forward in the schedule. So our next meeting on January 15th we will discuss The Acme Novelty Library.

There have been many volumes of Acme Novelty Library published over the years, we'll be reading this one, ISBN 978-0375422959.

Come discuss The Acme Novelty Library Saturday January 15th at the Main Library in the 3rd Floor Program Room at 11am. Feel free to bring food and drink.

Some thoughts about Understanding Comics

- Was McCloud's choice to present his ideas in graphic form successful? Did the subject matter lend itself to this purpose? Could he have pulled off a book about microeconomics in graphic form?

- What do think of McCloud's theory about the six steps of creation? Is his process universally true in all cases?

- Do you read comics now differently compared to when you where a child? Has there been a change?

- What is the relationship between popular art and "high" art? How does art go from the "people" to the museum or the academy?

Come discuss Understanding Comics Saturday November 20th at the Main Library in the 3rd Floor Program Room at 11am. Feel free to bring food and drink

Our next book is Understanding Comics...

Now for something completely different:

A comic book about comic books = Understanding Comics. In an incredibly accessible style, Scott McCloud explains the details of how comics work: how they're composed, read and understood. More than just a book about comics, this gets to the heart of how we deal with visual languages in general. Exhaustive in scope, this detail-packed book includes a history of comics that reaches back to pre-Columbian picture manuscripts and Egyptian monuments, an explanation of how sequential art is constructed and why, and a running analysis of comics as art, literature, and communication.

Come discuss Understanding Comics Saturday November 20th at the Main Library in the 3rd Floor Program Room at 11am. Feel free to bring food and drink.

Some thoughts about The Atrocity Exhibition

- Is Traven (etc.) insane? 

- What do you think of Dr. Nathan? Is he complicit in T.'s "crimes"?

- Dr. Nathan says (pg. 13): "Yet these designs were more than enormous replicas. They were equations that embodied the relationship between the identity of the film actress and the audiences who were distant reflections of her. The planes of their lives interlocked at oblique commerical angles, fragments of personal myths fusing with the commercial cosmologies. The presiding deity of their lives the film actress provided a  set of operating formulae for their passage through consciousness." Really?

- Is Karen Novotny a  victim or a willing participant in T.'s "crimes"?

- Does mass psychosexual pathology play a role in historical events?

Come discuss The Atrocity Exhibition Saturday September 18th at the Main Library in the 3rd Floor Program Room at 11am. Feel free to bring food and drink.