The Turtle Library #22: Early Edition
Added 2018-03-15 23:35:37 +0000 UTCThe Japanese cartoonist Inio Asano is coming to TCAF this year, and in preparation, I am reading everything the library has of his work (about a dozen volumes).
I've read a few of his stories before, and my experience then is echoed in reading them now. This dude presents characters and situations that echo the darkest depths of the human soul. Characters that chase feelings of meaninglessness and warped values as deep as they go.
I often think about the function of art and stories. What role(s) different different works have the potential to play in people's internal (and thereby external) lives. There are deeply unsettling parts of Asano's work, and my feelings about it are complex, but I find that, when he takes me through the twisted depths, I do find myself and how I interact with others in the world positively effected. Moreso than other works that try to pull the same trick of intensifying the light by staring into darkness. Asano's characters wade through miles of murky sludge to find even the smallest patch of sunlight, but in the end, that small light seems to be enough. These glimpses of hope don't transform them from twisted horrors into effervescent angels, but sometimes that slight shift in perspective is enough for them to see value in desolation, beauty in horror. A small but profound redemption.
That being said, I dunno how necessary it was for Cricket to jump on that dude's head. Not cool Crik, not cool.
