Connecting with “The Story of the Giants”

This Photo of the Hotel Ukraine (Ukraina) in Moscow (2006) was posted by Flickr User “Argenberg,” and may be found at http://flickr.com/photos/argenberg/264993696/

My audioclip from last night’s homework quoted an interview in which Shaun Tan spoke with Zack Smith, entitled “After The Arrival: Talking to Shaun Tan” (the transcript is available online at http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=134270):

[Question from Z. Smith]: While the book does do a great job of depicting the challenges of day-to-day life for someone in a new country, many of The Arrival’s most powerful sequences are the ones where the immigrant talks to fellow immigrants and sees their stories in flashback. What are some of the challenges that come with translating a historical experience into a fantastical image?

[Answer from S. Tan]: I think being careful not to get too carried away with the imaginary aspects, and making sure that every detail has some connection with familiar history, that it still feels real even though it might look very unreal.

The one I call “The Story of the Giants” is a good example, where a European-looking city (based on Florence) is being destroyed by huge figures, vacuuming everything into burning furnaces – people, buildings, birds. This was actually inspired by two things – Nazi book-burnings and industrialized genocide, and one immigrant’s description of Communism in Romania where all the life and culture seemed to have been “sucked out” of architecture, music, people’s lives and even the birdsong taken from the trees.

The reconstructed landscape ruled over by the one-eyed giants is inspired by Soviet-style architecture: concrete prisms that grow like crystals, not quite straight, culturally vacuous. Ultimately, my intention is to reflect historical events emotionally through surrealist imagery, and avoid reference to any specific time or place. Ideally, a person who knows something of persecution on any level, in any country, will be able to relate to imaginary scenes in stories such as this.

In pairs, for about 20 minutes we explored some links that have to do with references Shaun Tan makes in his answer to Zack Smith’s question (you were invited to explore them in no particular order):

• Florence, Italy Photographic Tour (Virtual Tourist.com)
• “Book Burning” from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Website
• “Imagine Art Gallery – Student Expressions,” from Remember.org (A Cybrary of the Holocaust)
• Wikipedia Article: Communist Romania
• Wikipedia Article: Soviet Style Architecture (aka Stalinist Architecture)
• Definitions of “persecutions” on the web
• Definitions of “vacuous” on the web

After working on building more connections, we discussed last night’s homework assignment, including the process of using Meebo to dialogue about Tan’s “The Story of the Giants” illustration and new insights gained by doing a bit of in-class research today.

Homework:

1. Tonight, you will read Section IV and Section V of The Arrival.
2. In the comments section below, come up with your final ideas on the name of the man’s creature friend. Give a brief explanation on why you have chosen that name. We will choose the 5 favorites tomorrow, and vote on a final “class-agreed name” as part of your homework tomorrow night.

–Silver Lisa