Recently as I clicked around the internets, I came across an excerpt of Adrian Tomine's Shortcomings. I was hooked. I'm not really a comic book graphic novel person, but after reading Persepolis I and II and American Born Chinese, maybe I am a graphic novel person. These books rock, and not only because I can finish the book in a weekend and feel like I'm actually reading something. I think the combination of snippets of conversation and some simple imagery can go a long way in conveying a message. Maybe the fact that it's so bare bones makes the message that much more obvious. But that can't be *it*, because some of the stuff in Shortcoming or American Born Chinese is so complicated.
In one of my favorite scenes, Ben Tanaka and his girl friend Miko are leaving an Asian American film festival. Ben, king of pessimism, attacks the film and everyone who cheered for it because it was an Asian American film... because to him, it was just a bad movie that they applauded simply because it was about Asian Americans. Hmmm. Have I ever been part of that?
I laughed and cringed all at the same time through all of the bits about interracial dating. About the "right" kind of person to bring home, whether it be about gender or ethnicity. Is it wrong for a person to have a "type?" What if this type happens to be white girls? Or white guys? How politicized should we be in our dating choices? We think we know the whole story when we see a "white" guy walking down the street with an Asian American girl. But do we? Maybe it's the familiarity of the images, but the newness of the stories lie a little deeper. I don't know.
Check it out for yourself. Or, find me and I'll lend you my copy. =)
~ eliaday
cross-posted at Boston Progress Radio
