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!