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Saturday, October 19, 2013

On the Coffee Table: Palestine

Title: Palestine: A Nation Occupied
Writer and Artist: Joe Sacco
via Amazon
I have a few guiding principles when it comes to blogging, rules for maintaining The Armchair Squid as a friendly venue for the exchange of all ideas - my own and those of any who might grace my posts with comment.  One of the most important principles is avoiding politics and religion as much as humanly possible.  Don't get me wrong.  I believe strongly in the rights of all people to voice their opinions on both matters with great pride and volume.  But in the interest of maintaining my own friendly ties within the blogosphere, I do what I can to avoid such discussions in this medium.

But here's the problem: exploring any artistic medium, or really any function of culture, with sufficient breadth and depth leads to inevitable confrontation with both religion and politics.  As much as we might wish to believe that we are above the fray, much of who we are within the global community is defined by those two considerations.  Art can be beautiful and transporting but at times, it must also be topical and revealing.

Joe Sacco is an unusual figure within the comics industry.  He is a journalist first, a comic artist second.  For over two decades now, he has traveled to the world's war-torn regions - Palestine, Bosnia, Chechnya - and filed his reports in comic book form.  Palestine is one of his best known works, a nine-issue series of material compiled from interviews in both the West Bank and Gaza from December 1991 to January 1992.  A Nation Occupied collects the West Bank portion of the story, issues #1-6.  Sacco presents a ground-level view of the hardships endured by ordinary Palestinians during the Intifada of the late '80s and early '90s.  The perspective is predictably biased.  Even so, reading such a book leaves one planning donations to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Sacco's artwork is richly detailed, down to individual bricks in the cobblestone.  People, including the artist himself, are generally rendered in a more satirical fashion than are their surroundings.  The visual imagery provides a more textured world than might have been possible through text alone.

I don't want to delve too far into my own feelings about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  I grew up in a community with a large and prominent Jewish population.  Israel was a front burner issue.  There was also a smaller Arab contingent at my high school who were not shy about sharing their opinions.  Full disclosure, I'm also married to an Arab-American.  In short, I've had plenty of exposure to both sides of the matter and my own position is long-considered and well-developed.  It's virtually impossible to be a global citizen in the 21st century without awareness of the conflict.  Nothing in Sacco's book came as a startling revelation.  People at war do horrible things to one another and it's hard not to feel sympathy for those in the weakest position.  That's not politics.  It's compassion.  I'd hope we can all agree that the world could use a lot more of that.

21 comments:

  1. Okay, here's the weird thing. I got to the last sentence of your post and changed postures. You know what you do when you're reading something and you kind of move closer to the screen or page or do something to increase your physical comfort as you get ready to dig more deeply into what you're reading?

    Then the post was over.

    I know I sound like I pick on your posts sometimes and I don't mean to do that at all. What I mean to communicate is that you always leave me, as a reader, wanting more. You get started, you start to go to these really interesting places (beautifully-articulated, too boot) and then it's over.

    I hope that makes sense and doesn't offend in any way.

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    1. Hmm, perhaps this one could use a stronger conclusion. Check back in a few.

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    2. I'm glad it made a positive difference!

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    3. We all need a good editor sometimes.

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    4. That response almost inspired a post. Maybe I'll save it for a rainy day. :)

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    5. The first response or the last one? Either way, I look forward to that rainy day.

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    6. The one about needing a good editor. I sent my sample pages to Lorena this weekend before submitting to the agent who asked for the partial--which I plan to do after the weekend--and, for the first time in my writing career, I agreed with every criticism and made changes accordingly. I believe it strengthened those intro pages which, ironically, are typically the weakest and on which the most hinges. (Was that structurally correct!? :))

      I tend to be proprietary and rigid but I think opening up more and more will only help. That's the post in a nutshell. I was gonna mention this exchange, too. You are a very gracious person when it comes to being receptive to feedback and it's inspiring.

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    7. I just looked up proprietary and I think I misused that word. :) You get what I mean, right?

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    8. I do understand. Is protective what you mean?

      It's definitely challenging to divorce ego from our creative endeavors. Constructive criticism doesn't come naturally to most people, either, which adds to the difficulty. But as the creator, I am not doing justice to my own message if I fail to consider the reception on the other end. I'm not saying criticism is always easy for me to hear, either. But sometimes it's worth taking a deep breath, considering the other perspective and seeing what can be done.

      In this particular instance, I wasn't entirely happy with the way I left things either. The beginning of the post promises a bit more than just the basic rundown. A more satisfying summation was required. Most of the time, if a post is less than perfect, I figure no one's really going to care except for me. It's gratifying in a way to know otherwise.

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    9. 'But as the creator, I am not doing justice to my own message if I fail to consider the reception on the other end.'

      You speak truth.

      And I think what adds a richness to your posts is when you write a bit about your personal response. You've got the Cliff Clavin thing down pretty tight :) but a little more of Squid's spirit coming through strikes a very nice chord.

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    10. Thanks. I do like those "little known facts." ;-)

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    11. Well, they've added a very cool dimension to your Trek posts--as I'm sure you know by the comments they've generated recently.

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  2. I must get this book.
    Usually I add to wishlists for when I have money; but this time I believe I'm actually going to go ahead and order it.
    Thanks for recommending it! :)

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    1. It appears to be available now as a one-volume collection with all nine issues, both West End and Gaza. I hope you'll share your thoughts once you've read them.

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  3. Sounds like an interesting way to explore the issues without forcing you to think one way or another.

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    1. Well... Like I said, there's definitely a bias. That wasn't Sacco's intention but given that he devoted his attention to the Palestinian side of the issue, the material has an inherent slant. It's very good, but one shouldn't go in expecting equal time for both sides.

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  4. "That's not politics. It's compassion. I'd hope we can all agree that the world could use a lot more of that."

    That is lovely. I am also married to an Arab-American (his father is Palestinian) and I have cousins and an uncle who are Jewish so I know where you're coming from. This book looks great, I will have to check it out.

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    1. Thank you, Stephanie. Compassion is the answer to nearly all of the world's conflicts, I think. There's no us and them. It's all us. The sooner we all catch on to that, the sooner we can get on with the really important work.

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