Crenshaw's Books & Decks

What What What?! WTF!

If I had to make a list of the weirdest more shocking books I have ever read, this novel would definitely be one of the top ones.

The Squirrel Machine is a B&W graphic novel set in 19th century New England. It narrates the artistic life of the brothers William and Edmund Torpor, who live out of their father's inheritance with their mother. The Torpors are talented musicians, hyper-creative guys, with a hunger for exploring the unexplored to create unique musical instruments and sounds, which turn out to be quite macabre. The novel is structured in four parts, through which we see the boys go from teens to old people in a non-linear narrative.

This novel has everything I want in a graphic book to be memorable: good graphics, great dose of imagination, uniqueness in style and story, they tease my emotions and/or my intellect, and the story keeps me thinking well after I finish the book. The Squirrel Machine has all of that, but it is not the usual moderate dose, it is the baddaboom dose. This novel is fast, slippery and naughty as a mutant squirrel. The Squirrel Machine is provocative, weird, macabre, disgusting, shocking, erotic, gory, trippy, disturbing, dark, irreverent, thought-provoking, deeply oneiric and sweet and funny at times. All of those ingredients are given to the reader with generosity, not a pinch of spices, more like a whole tin  of them. Can you stomach it? Can you forget the pungent flavour of the spices to discover the ingredient that lies underneath?

MAIN THEMES AND MAIN SUBJECT 

The reviews I have read about his novel, are a mix of enthusiasm and perplexity. What is the novel all about? Is there any story at all? Is there anything to be understood, or just a collection of odd images? That is perhaps what makes the reading captivating, because even if you don't like this book, you want to know, to dig and take out the hidden secret, to "get it".  

To me, this novel is a triptych that creates a whole. The three main panels or themes are: The interrelation between oniric and awaken state, the communication between the conscious and subconscious, and the process of creating Art. They are all linked, I guess because they reflect the kind of artist Rickheit is. Of course, I am just guessing, I don't know the artist and I stumbled upon this book more than I sought it. The written introduction gives many clues about what this book is about, it is just that one forget the words easily, and here one should not.

1/If you tend to your dreams or a dream-worker you will find easier to go through some of the pages in this book. Rickheit might not be a dream-worker but he knows dream language and transposes into his images and story, and I find something amazing. There is a fine line separating the real world and the oneiric work and Rickheit gives readers several clues, first in the written introduction and then in some of the images that directly connect both words. It is raining, Edmund is sleeping and his dream reflect how the exterior world affects the story going in the dream. Most importantly, the world of dreams is symbolic and metaphorical and none of the images and words said is literal, and what is literal is like you have it in front of your nose and cannot see it. The world of dreams is a world of constant puns and metaphors, sometimes very obvious, others very hidden. For example, the erotic scene in the snails is apparently nonsense, but is it? What is the imagery telling? Doesn't intercourse feels like a constant generation and expulsion of slimy juices coming out of the body? Many of the scenes in the book can be read that way. Instead of seeing what you have in the vignette and taking it literally, ask yourself, what would be the message the image is conveying if translated, literally, into words? Is Edmund entering a secret world underneath the bed, or underneath the blankets? Is the image of William's empty skin a way of saying that he is a hollow man that has been discarded and whose life has been shattered into pieces? Is the image of a man falling from a cliff when talking about his love of a woman, a way of depicting the saying "he has fallen for her"? I read many of the images in the book this way and they seemed to make more sense than in an other way. It is also more rewarding, because it forces one to see reality for what is removing the lens of perception. It also forces to properly look at things for what they are not for what they provoke in us or the way we see them.

2/ On the other hand, this novel felt quite Jungian to me! The squirrel seems to sending messages from the upper or conscious world to the underground or the world of the unconscious, from the upper awaken world to the underground world or vice versa. The underground world is always the world of the unconscious, all our hidden self is: the surprising, the shocking, the trauma, the repressed stuff, the genius, the creativity, the fear, the wholly-molly of our inner world, a world that we don't know anything about but influences how we behave in the world. The Squirrel Machine is a constant going and coming to the underground, to the unconscious/subconscious, and the dark stuff comes from there. The relation of the unconscious & the irrational v. the conscious & rational is also exposed in the images and story in ways that aren't apparent either. It shows in the relationship between the Torpors and Emma the pig-keeper, who looks and behaves mostly like an animal, moves and acts out of her basic instincts, the animal part in all of us; however, Emma is also the owner of the book on the Squirrel Machine. She and Edmund connect directly themselves and what Edmund sees made him sick for days. Like looking inside ourselves and seeing our inner monster, our basic animality. The play of conscious/unconscious and rational/irrational are constantly used in the novel. Mrs Torpor, seems to be the only person among the main characters that has some sort of equilibrium.

3/ The exploration of the oneiric, the conscious, the unconscious, the rational and the irrational are are not the subjects of this book, they are as aids to the main subject of the book -- the artistic creative process, the way artistic creation works, the things that artistic creation brings up for the artist, and for society, and what needs to stay and what needs to be destroyed or will destroy the artist. In a way, the artist is presented as a constant explorer of the inner world, an explorer of the unconscious, the explorer of the irrational, the magician that confronts face to face the psyche and its monsters and gets its secrets out. What are the Torpor boys dreaming of? It is mostly of Art, even though their creations turn out to be monstrous and socially unacceptable. It came to me that some of the biggest artists in the 19th and early 20th century, those who revolutionised the world of Art and whose Art creations are now called masterpieces, were considered mad men at the time, their Art was considered disgusting, revolting and monstrous in a way. Like these artists, the Torpor boys have a hunger for creating, for creating something different, for experimentation and for accessing that magic well (pun!) from where inspiration comes from. The creative world has no end, keeps growing and growing, yet it is not a matter of growth, is a matter of the creative side being organic, healthy and beneficial mostly to the creator.

WHAT IS THE SQUIRREL MACHINE? 

What is the Squirrel Machine and what does it do? To me, it is that magic "thing" that connects the inner and outer self, all the parts that form who we are as persons and as human beings. he main question is not what the squirrel machine does, the question is that is beneficial to you and to your Art. Is beneficial for the Torpors? Can they stand it? What does to them? Are they ready to face the machine? There are things inside us that should never been seen by any other person, or just for those who are willing and ready, things that we are not even prepared to face without losing ourselves in them and losing who we are.

FUNNY MOMENTS

The book has also some very funny moments, which serve as a sort of release of the accumulated dark tension. Some of the scene sex are very comic, as are Mrs Torpor's paintings, and the use of the word torpor as surname. Torpor is "a state of mental or physical inactivity", which is the contrary of which these guys are, even the mother is far from torpor. There are little elements depicted in the backgrounds that are really cute.

THE ARTWORK

I have a natural preference for minimalist B&W images and lines, and for gorgeous coloured drawings, for which very busy vignettes, as the ones in this book, are never going to be my cup of tea. However, I cannot but recognise Rickheit's visual talent, and the way he is able to create amazing detailed indoor images, baroque surrealist images, cityscapes and a bit of country escape. I found that facial expressions are, on the contrary, a bit loose or not fully detailed. It might be intentional as most of the characters look a bit under the effects of hallucinogens or just hyperventilated. I like Mrs Torpor, she is balanced and has a face :)) 

WARNING

Despite the cute title and intriguing book cover, The Squirrel Machine is not a a book for children, and certainly not for most adults. Gory, violent, sexual and everything you want your children not to read until they are mature enough to understand it. Strictly for open minded adults, as well.

If you have the stomach, this is an awesome book. I found it equally repulsive and amazing. It is just me and the way I am. But I have read it twice. That is something!