Required reading

When I first found out that one of the required textbooks for my English class was a children's book, I didn't know what to expect. I wondered how stories intended for little kids could possibly have enough rhetorical importance to be used in a college-level course. Slightly doubtful, I decided to give Tales from Outer Suburbia a shot, so I went to the student bookstore and bought it. In new condition. In hardback. For the sake of cost, if there isn't a used copy available, I usually won't buy it and just spend the semester mooching off of the library or a fellow classmate. However, given that this was in fact a picture book, I decided I could swing it.



Even though Shaun Tan's Tales From Outer Suburbia can be found in the juvenile fiction section of the library, it is a book that can be enjoyed by adults and children alike. First and foremost, the illustrations are almost surreal and fantastic as the stories themselves. Often, they add to the rhetoric, as seen in "Distant Rain", where the story itself is written on scraps of paper. Or "The Amnesia Machine" which is framed by fictional newspaper clippings, adding to the editorial and almost informative nature of the story.



The whimsical stories are narrated as though they are being retold by a child to a group of friends, and although they are seemingly simple and straightforward, they are a lot more profound and mature under the surface.I found that if I really dug deep enough, I could extract relevant and life lessons that led to moments of introspection beyond what I would expect from a child's book.

Illustration from "Distant Rain"

While this book was an eccentric choice as a school textbook, it has definitely been effective. It makes our class assignments more interesting, because the stories really do make you think, and they can be interpreted in so many different ways that when I hear what a classmate has to say about a particular story, it really gives me an entirely new perspective to consider.

Remember Art Class?

Last semester I took an online art class, and since we never met in person, our assignments had to be photographed and uploaded digitally online. One night, in my own boredom, I was going through all of my albums on iPhoto when I stumbled across the one labeled "ART 010". I figured I might as well share some of what I found for the sake of preventing these bad boys from collecting cyber dust.

Our assignment for this piece was to create something inspired by an artist from the surrealist movement. Even though he may be considered more of an abstract expressionist, I got the okay to use Jackson Pollock as my inspiration.

_{(Watercolor and white out on watercolor paper)}

Bear in mind that I am a starving artist (see also; broke college student) working with minimal funds. Having said that, I got great use out of the watercolor set I bought that semester. Another thing, having few resources and limited supplies really forced me to think outside the box and come up with any type of media that I could put to use (white out, anyone?)

This assignment was to create a piece of "mail art" that had something to do with your childhood. I focused mine around the idea that when I was little, my neighborhood friends and I always set up lemonade stands at the end of my driveway (We actually ended up making a lot of money from it! Money which would later be spent on walkie talkies that we used to communicate with each other. Money well spent, in my opinion).
_{(Watercolor and sharpie on watercolor paper)}

This class was great because it helped open up my creativity. After high school, we tend to get muddled into taking long, boring, lecture-based classes that restrict us to doing the same mundane tasks every night. However, with this class, my creative floodgates opened, and I was given the freedom to express myself in a way in which I've always felt comfortable: through art. While my roommates were buried head deep in a jumble of powerpoints and notecards, I was sitting indian-style on my floor with the newspaper spread out, splashing watercolor paint all over the place. Sounds like a solid trade-off to me.

Hitting the books this break!

At the beginning of winter break, I made it a personal goal of mine to read a real book--cover to cover. Back in high school, before I had a computer, before I had an iPod, before I had a smartphone, I read books like a chain smoker smokes cigarettes. I don't have a Kindle or Nook (as cool as they are, it's one more piece of technology that I don't need. Plus, call me weird, but I like to have the hard copies of books) so I hauled myself down to the Half-Price Bookstore and started my search.

I know it's wrong, but I judge books by their covers. I mean, who doesn't? In all honesty, if a book has an awesome cover, I am ten times more likely to purchase it. For this reason, when I saw this book:


I was immediately drawn. Not just because I vaguely recognized the title and author, but also because the artwork looked pretty badass. So I bought it. Along with "Survivor" by Chuck Palahniuk (one of my favorite authors. "Invisible Monsters" is one of my favorite books of all-time), and "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins (just to see what all the hype is about).

At first, it was hard to believe that "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" is an autobiographical piece, simply because the things that Raoul Duke and his attorney do in that book are crazy. But I loved it. Thompson has a raw, tell-it-like-it-is style of writing and doesn't hold anything back. When I finished, I was determined to go watch the movie, which I've heard does the book justice. And who better to play the role of this psychotic, kooky journalist then Johnny Depp?

Another thing that I loved about the book, was what drew me to it in the first place, the illustrations. Ralph Steadman's illustrations looked like they were taken straight from Duke's drug-addled brain and put directly into the book. From the (what appeared to be) blood splatters splayed across random pages, to the bizarre and almost abstract interpretations of the characters, his grotesque images fit perfectly with the plot's gritty and chaotic nature. Sometimes I would find myself getting lost in the vignettes and have to snap my focus back to what was happening.

I would definitely recommend this book to anybody who is looking for something twisted and entertaining.

As for the other two books? I'm currently about 8 chapters deep into "The Hunger Games" and so far, it has yet to disappoint. It's like a modern day teen-appropriate mix between "The Giver", "1984", and "Battle Royale". I want to have it finished before the movie comes out, and at the rate I'm going, that shouldn't be too hard.

Hopefully, when I go back to school, I'll be able to keep up my reclaimed booklove. It's definitely better and way more productive than constantly refreshing my newly transformed Facebook Timeline. I like to think about it this way, which would you be less embarrassed to tell people: "I spent all night reading this awesome book" or "I spent all night toggling between Facebook and Twitter"? You be the judge.