Teo Degas' Books & Decks

At mid-life we come face to face with our failures and losses. As we age, each of us is confronted by limitations, threats to our capacity to control outcomes, and deflations of our presumptions of omnipotence. (p. 49). "we are called upon to examine the 'truths' by which we live and even to acknowledge that their opposite also contains truth." (p. 15) "The reluctance to face our own shit is very strong." (p. 217-218).

Living Your Unlived Life is a short Jungian book that synthesises and develops many of Johnson's previous books on shadow work, dreamwork and active imagination, and mixes them with some reflections on archetypes, complexes, and Depth Psychology from Rhul. The narrators use the first person, so one cannot distinguish what comes from whom. However, the book feels whole and coherent. Johnson's impromptu is clear, especially if you have read others of his works. Like in most of Johnson's books, a Greek myth is used as conductor of the study, in this case the story of Castor and Pollux. You might ask why myths are still relevant for our Western Culture, and the answer is: 

"Mythic stories tell us holistic, timeless truths, as they are a special kind of literature, not written or created by a single individual but produced by the imagination and experience of an entire culture. (...) Mythic stories, therefore, portray a collective image— they tell us about things that are true for all people." (p. 8).

THE NUGGETS

The second part of life or middle age is a period of time when we seek authenticity, to be true to who we are and to express ourselves in ways that connect us with our inner truth. This is also a period of upheaval and reflection when, more than ever, we start seeking for meaning to get a sense of inner fulfilment. The main quest in the second part of life is the seek for wholeness, which means to be "hale, healthy and holy" and to honour our higher self, this understood as "the propensity of psyche to dynamically seek greater levels of integration, organisation, relationship, and creative expression" (note 2).

Johnson & Ruhl's advice to achieve wholeness and authenticity is not based on fluff, it is based on serious inner work:
1/ We have to 'be' more and 'do' less, or just to alternate 'being' and 'doing' more frequently.A Zen approach to life, basically.
2/ We need to make the unconscious conscious.
3/  We have to apply meta-consciousness to our thinking and behaviour so we aren't acting on autopilot and repeating behaviour patterns that are not good for us and are even harmful. The requires that we pause and reflect instead of doing what we usually do, i.e. leave our unconscious to run its hidden agenda. To disarm a complex you must learn to move your ego into a position of witness  (...) the goal is not to eliminate patterned thoughts and behaviour but rather to loosen them up sufficiently(p. 62).
4/ We need to learn to separate which parts of us are not really us but a by-product of our culture, country of birth, gender and social class or just a projection of our families.
5/ We must live our unlived lives (those parts of our character and psyche that we consciously or unconsciously repress, which are both luminous and dark) by doing shadow work, dream work and through active imagination We also need to start asking ourselves the right questions: instead of What should I do to get rid of this wrong thing in me?” we should ask “Why is the right thing in the wrong place?” (p. 103) instead of asking "What’s in it for me?” we should ask “What is needed at this moment for greater wholeness, integration, and creative expression? What serves the greater good?” (p. 179).
6/ We need to learn to look at the world with less polarity, with less duality, with less judgement, more through a coloured lens and less through a black and white one. There is no list of virtues that cannot be contradicted; this is a truth that can be liberating and frightening at the same time. We need to synthesise the opposites tempering one with the other and accept that both are valuable and necessary to live a balanced life.  

7/ We need to keep a balance between the archetype of the Eternal Youth and the archetype of the Wise Elder, by using an attitude of tinkering, discovery and play. Without the Eternal Youth we become morally rigid, dogmatic, judgemental, and authoritarian, but if we are too attached to the Eternal Youth we may exhibit immaturity, narcissism and an inability to grow and achieve psychological maturity.
8/ Let's  get a  new mindset, as the old solutions to our problems won't work and our automatic habits will work against us the older we become.  

9/ Let's have strong ethics and walk the talk. People who behave ethically are those who make an honest effort to conform their behaviour to their values. When your conduct is at odds with your essential character, it reflects a fragmentation of the personality. Shirking of ethical responsibility deprives us of wholeness. (p. 125). Amen!
10/ We need to do some work to improve our capacity of response to the challenges we face, so we do so with more flexibility, passionately and in a powerful way.

This book is full of wisdom, with some philosophical and spiritual reflections that are wonderful to ponder on,  no matter the stage you are in life. I actually think that this sort of book should be read by people older than 25 so that  they can start doing  something with their lives to have less neurosis and more fulfilling lives when they are, say, in their mid 30s.

My favourite chapter is number 10, Returning Home and Knowing It for the First Time. This chapter is very thought provoking, very touching and lyrically spiritual, and also very confronting in a way. This won't be an easy read if you are a hardcore Christian or very attached to any established creed; however, the chapter will be like a fragrant breeze for those of us who are more spiritual than religious. In a way, this chapter is a call to arms, to  the true spirit that lives in all of us, to break free from the chains that constrict and restrict our soul even if those are part of a set of religious beliefs and structures. Besides, this is the only chapter where old age and death are considered. The chapter is a call to the return to the divine, to walk into oneness, and to reclaim our personal paradise, as heaven lives within us:

"Paradise exists, but as a level of consciousness, and it is available to you when you are ready to receive it. (...) The very idea that the material world is separate from some other “higher” existence is itself an error of duality. Reality is not dual, though our current level of awareness perceives it that way. (pp. 225-227).

If you have never read a book by Johnson, this might intrigue you enough to read more detailed approaches to shadow work, dreamwork and active imagination. If you are into Jungian and Depth Psychology, you will find wonderful applications of Jung's teachings to the challenges that your psyche  and life face, no matter your age.

THE SHORTCOMINGS

~~ Although the book has great wisdom and is well written, it might  disappoint the general public, who will come to this book because "the second part of life" in its title. They might expect precise concise answers on how to solve or face mid-age issues, but they won't find but challenging inner work.  

~~ The structure of the book  makes the message confusing or not clear enough. To me, they should have started explaining what an unlived life is, specifically, and how it affects our life. "To live our unlived lives" is repeated ad nauseam, but "unlived life" is never clearly defined. I would have explained how to access that unlived lives (shadow work, dreamwork, active imagination, archetypes in this precise order) and how to deal with our oldest years if we get there alive.  I think in this way the whole book would have conveyed the same message in a more clear way. Just my opinion, of course.

~~ Except for some parts, this book is not specific for people in the second part of life. The bits about old age are truly so, but most of the book focuses on doing things that are beneficial for people of all ages and are interested in inner work. 

~~ I have a problem with vague talking, in this case with the expression "the second part of life". What is that supposed to mean? My grandmother died old and wretched in her 40s, so her second part of life was in her 20s. Depending on the country or area of the world we live in, we have a longer or shorter life expectancy and we marry and settle sooner or later. So I would like to know, exactly, how do we know we are in that second part of life as we don't know how long we are going to live. Is it an age? I is a state of mind? Is it having a job and a routine life? Is a state of the soul?  Is being settled in life? What exactly?  

MIND

>>  Although the language is accessible, the book reads better if you already have an understanding of basic Jungian concepts, like ego, shadow, projection and archetypes.  The authors have a specific reader as a target, so if you aren't one of those, you  might get lost without the help of a teacher or mentor.

>> Although Jungian Psychology is very much Christian and spiritual, there is a good deal of elements that could conflict with orthodox Christian beliefs because, beyond the concept of psychological soul, the book is infused in Zen, Eastern philosophies and Antiquity Greek religion. Therefore, the book might not be for readers who have a set of values deeply ingrained in established churches and religions, and believe in the value and importance of right and wrong, good and bad, light and dark. 

EXERCISES IN THE BOOK

 > Unlived lived inventory (adapted from the Roland Evans' model, quite interesting and surprising.)
> What are you stuck at? (good)
> The Doing/ Being Shuffle (good)
> Who am I? (good, needs of partner or conductor).
> The living symbol (not practical, need of partner or conductor who knows what s/he is doing.)
> Talking it over with yourself  (interesting but it would be great if an expert did it with you the first time so  we learn.)
> Dream tending (excellent.)
> Follow what you love (OK.)
> Dissolving the split perspective  (truly interesting and fun!)

 Some of the exercises are great if you happen to have a guide, a psychoanalyst or mentor who has a mastery on those,;otherwise, they might  lead you nowhere. Also, some of the exercises were somewhat odd, like asking yourself about the unlived lives of your parents. Some things came to mind for my parents about things they said they wanted to do and couldn't because of poverty or their specific circumstances. Yet, I am not my parents' psychoanalyst, so there must be many things inside them that they are never expressed, of which they don't want or can't talk about, or simply don't know they exist.

RENDERING FOR KINDLE

I find upsetting paying for a short digital book to find that the notes are not linked to the text they relate, that the index is not linked either, and that some of the links do not work either. It doesn't cost much fixing that in the e-book, so I always wonder why editors don't give a damn.

WHAT?!

As a tool to remember and note down your dreams, the authors recommend a "voice-activated tape recorder also can be handy (p. 142)." Time to wake-up, most people would have a smart-phone with a voice recording app included, tape recorders died, like a few decades ago, no? Tape recorders are an obsolete technology, no longer in use, unless you happen to have one of those. In year 2016 you can still find voice recorders, digital, but they are expensive, and one needs more a mobile than a VR, so using an app, free or paid, or just the VR feature that comes included in some smartphones is the easiest cheapest way to do that in year 2016.

“The world is full of wrongs upon wrongs, so there’ll be something else that he can apologize for.” (loc. 1277-1278). 

At Least we Can Apologize (사과는 잘해요) is a Korean short novel by one of Korea's  more original contemporary Koran writers -- Lee Ki-ho (or I Ki-ho).

Si-bong and Jin-man, best room-mates and partners in suffering, are released from a horrific mental asylum after the abuses perpetrated by the Superintendent and his nephews "the caretakers" are discovered. Jin-man has forgotten who his father is and don't know where to go, so he ends at Si-yon's (Si-bong's sister). After a time of idleness, the pair decide to get some money by doing something they learned to do in the asylum -- to apologise for the wrongdoings of other people. To do that, Si-bong and Jin-man will also learn how to spot wrongdoings or how to "create" them so that they can cash on them. 

At Least we Can Apologize is narrated in the first person by Jin-man.  He and Si-bong look at the world with surprise, bewilderment and innocence, in a primeval sort of way. They show a quite Zen way of being as they live mostly in a succession of present moments and the pair seem to accept what life throws at them, adapting the best they can, but don't hold a grudge towards anything or anybody. They can see people's wrongdoings, the bad things done to them, but they seem to accept the harshness of life with matter-of-fact stoicism, without fighting back actively, but also without labelling or judging other people for their actions, not even those who mistreat and abuse them. This also happens when they are trying to find wrongs with other people to act as mediators and cash on their wrongdoings. At the same time, there is playfulness and naughtiness in their spotting of other people's wrongdoings, in creating wrongs for other people, and in the way they endure the reactions of the recipients of the apology.

The narration is very charming and filled with a not-overly-expressed tenderness. The reader soon learns to care and love the two friends, no matter their wrongs because, although innocent and simple-minded, they look at the world with insight and a sense of care. Despite them being mental ill, they show a sense of awareness and openness towards humanity that makes them more sane and human than anybody else in the story.  

\

~ Life has no meaning or purpose.
~ The main characters are controlled or menaced by exogenous forces on which they don't have any control. In a way, they are like puppets on a string.
~ The presence of a pseudo-couple or interdependent pair (in  this case two: the two caretakers and Si-bon & Jin-man).
~ The presence of some repetitive elements of language that create a cadence in the reading. In this case, the endlessly repeated "on account of". I found it more rhythmic than reiterative and has a narrative value because because every time the narrator uses the expression he is justifying his thinking, his view of the world, as if he were alien to life and were discovering the world at every second.     

Despite the apparent absurdity and funny moments, the novel digs down into the nature of apology and poses embedded questions to the reader:
~ What does mean to apologise?
~ How should apologies be dealt with?
~ Does apologising and receiving an apology mean the same to everybody?
~ Are apology and forgiveness linked together?
~ Is the apology valid if instead the person doing it is a mediator or representative? ~ Does giving an apology mean that the pain, distress and wrongdoings done should be forgotten or forgiven by the recipient of the apology?

  “An apology means that you say you’re not going to do the same thing that you did before. That’s all it is. There’s nothing we can do about your feelings, sir.” (loc. 837-838).

~ Does apology equal repentance?
~ Is an apology recompense enough for the hurt and damage caused?
~ Would be ethical apologising beforehand and then doing the wrong apologised for?

 There was only one bill in her pocketbook, but we still took it and left. That was on account of having already apologized for doing it.(loc. 981-982). 

~ If the recipient of the apology thinks that no wrong was done should the apologiser apologise?

 “But if the woman really thinks that it’s not a wrong then what are we supposed to do?” “Then you have to keep making her think it’s a wrong!” (loc. 1271-1272).

~ Is apology necessary with our love ones?
~ Is love apology free?
~ Is acceptance and compassion sufficient to forget other people's wrongdoings?

 He then added that, as a family, we should laugh together when we were happy, cry together when we were sad, and in the case that even one person did something wrong, we should all take responsibility together. (loc. 505-507).

There is this exchange between Jin-Man and Si-bong in the book that I found very moving and thought-provoking at the same time:

After a long time, Si-bong spoke. “Hey.” I looked at Si-bong. “You know, if there’s anything you want to apologize to me for, I mean, later on . . .” “Then what?” “Just apologize to yourself.” “To me? You mean the apology for you?” “Yeah.” He cracked a half-smile and nodded his head. “How’s that?” “Well, ’cause you can accept the apology for me.” I nodded and told him, “Same to you.” (loc. 1337-1342)

~ Is the apology valid if the person apologising doesn't feel true regret?

Although the characters are not fully developed, and we don't know much about their past, they feel very real, the sort of people one could find amid depressed suburbs  around the world, the sort of relationships, behaviours, and life of the pariahs of the world. The mental institution depicted in the book is quite realistic, perhaps more typical of the first half of the 20th century than of the 21st, a brutal place where interns are treated worse than animals and the asylum staff lack humanity.

At Least we Can Apologize's ending is a bit disappointing but, in a way, makes sense. Yet, I wanted a bit of closure and wanted to see the odd couple to have some hope. Also, at the beginning of the book, there is an alternation between the life inside and outside the asylum, but that stops at a certain point; I would have loved that to continue so that we can come to fully understand the background on the evil characters or are they just psychopaths?

I found the translation excellent, and completely forgot this was a translation, so I could focus on the story and the characters. 

NOTES

> First published in Korean in 2009.

> First translated into English in 2013.

> Translator Christopher Joseph Dykas.

I PROTEST
I hate the covers of the whole series. Why not keeping the covers of the originals, some of which are really nice and eye-catching? The cover looks fit for a book on Mathematics.

Beautiful is a black and white graphic novel that successfully explores the popular saying "beauty is the inside" through the character of Lily. She is a young woman who wantd to be different from who she is to be considered beautiful and more lovable.  The book has a few chapters, each preceded by a motivational quote on inner beauty.

D'Abreo's drawing style is a very polished and minimalist BW with a predominance of white, therefore, very airy and luminous. There is a minimal but effective use of backgrounds and some fantasy-like elements, like the description of the true self or the inner critic, which are resolved with great imagination. However, this simplicity is an artistic option, as D'Abreo can truly draw.

Most of the story in Beautiful happens in Lily's head, i.e. it's Lily's endless mind chatter. However, there is also some human interaction, mostly with her best friend, the cool Tag. Lily is a likeable character, mostly because you have had that sort of chatter sometime in your life, you have it right know, or you know somebody who has it. Like most teens and young women nowadays, Lily lives under the tyranny of being photo-perfect for social media and for men. The fashion industry and the Media help to convey the idea that you need to be perfect, have better looks, better hair, better clothes, less kilos, more kilos, a different attitude, a fake pose, or simply to be different from who you really are, to be liked, loved and appreciated.

The story is great at presenting the self-talk that comes with this dysfunctional look at the self. However,  it is not merely descriptive, as it shows  how to recognise the negative nagging voice and how to destroy it.   In that regard, the ending is great, and coherent with the message of the story -- When you are yourself and aren't afraid of showing it, people see your beauty, and you don't have to change anything about you.   

Beautiful is easy to read and very charming, and I find it particularly good for pubescent and teenage girls; not only for them, for any woman with self-image and insecurity issues. 

Charming and right to the point, I read the book in a sitting.

This is a 28-page e-zine, with a collection of short stories or images that can also be found in Yumi Sakigawa's website on Tumblr. Some of the stories are drawn in colour and others in B&W, and they are mostly motivational and New Age, with some "how-to" regarding anxiety, negative people, consciousness and so on. 

The drawing style is naive and young, intuitive more than artistic, but very charming. There is a mix of text and doodling as well, like the book's cover for example. 

All of the stories have a pearl of wisdom in them, and I think they would make a nice block desk calendar if more were added. 

Perhaps because a person I know has been dumping their negativity on me lately, the advice on how to deal with negative people in the e-zine seemed especially relevant. I also liked the whimsical advice on how to get out of a  dry creative spell.

The Rendering for Kindle is outdated. As this work has just 28 pages, it is not really an issue, but not the latest rendering for graphic books I get from other graphic books.

Miss Don't Touch Me is a four-part   full-colour noire graphic novel first published in France by Hubert and Kerascoet. The novel, is made of four chapters, the first two (The Virgin of the Bordello & Blood in the Hands) narrate a murder story, and the last two (Prince Charming & Until Death Do us Part) are a follow-up and development of the main character.

 Miss Don't Touch Me is set in Paris in the 1930s. The city is in turmoil because the wrongdoings of a serial killer called The Butcher of the Dances, who has a liking for young liberal women. Blanche, a prudish maid, lives with her sister Agatha in an old abandoned penthouse; Blanche witnesses a murder through a peep-hole in the wall and tells her sister that it is  the Butcher's work. Agatha is killed and Blanche tries to convince everybody that The Butcher was the murderer; however, her sister's death is considered a suicide and the investigation closed. Blanche loses her job. With no home to go, she does the unthinkable, she joins The Pompadour, a posh and reputed brothel, where the last victim worked, to try to investigate who the last girl was and to unveil the Butcher's identity. The second part of the story is devoted to Blanche's personal and work life, still working at The Pompadour, and her relationship with the charming, wealthy but elusive  Antoine.
Miss Don't Touch Me is, in a way, a very musical piece but with the music in mute. I see a clear relationship between  the story, settings,  tone and type of story and two theatrical musical genres that were very popular in the 1930s, the vaudeville  and the operetta or comic opera, especially Offenbach's works. Thus, the novel has a mix of burlesque, comic stage piece, social satire with a common link, in this case the character of Blanche. This could have been a terror novel and Blanche a depressed overly dramatic character, but the story is told in a light-hearted way, sprinkled with light humour, grotesque and erotic elements, still keeping a strong social satire.  

One of the downsides might be the different tone, mood and tempo in the two different parts of the novel,  as we go from the mystery and the murder to the exploration of Blanche's character. Personally, I liked both parts and I thought they made sense together and one comes to understand who Blanche really is and what she really wants in life. To be perfectly honest, this second story could have been presented at the beginning of the book with some modifications and the murder story presented afterwards and the story would have still made sense. 

The main downside to me is the ending. Truth be told, it has artistic and narrative integrity. Although I found it a bit vague and abrupt, and totally unfair, it makes sense taking into account the nature of the main characters and the era where they lived.   

Hubert and Kerascoët make a great artistic combo., They understand each other and create amazing colourful elaborated pieces of art that are very thought-provoking, stories pregnant with meaning, but presented in fun light-hearted entertaining way. 

Hubert, is a master at creating characters. They are complex, utterly charming and interesting, but also deceiving and full of flaws;  they  surprise the reader every time. In that regard, all the characters in Miss Don't Touch Me aren't what they seem to be at first sight, not even Blanche. Moreover, there is a clear digging into the individuality of each character, and the secondary characters are not presented as story-fillers or accessories, they are fully-constructed individuals who have a purpose in the narration. 
Hubert is also the colourist of the book. He has a great knowledge of lighting and how colour work and use them with naturalistic but cinematic precision. His trademark is flamboyant intense vibrant colouring and toned up pastels. So the novel doesn't have a specific or overall dominating hue, but the requirements of the narration dictate the colour. He does similarly in his graphic novel Beauty. 

The lettering by Ortho (an American lettering studio that also did the lettering for Beauty) is classic. This is a graphic novel that is as verbal as it is graphic, so there is quite a of text, but it is cosily located in rectangular balloons and economic captions lines. The lettering is appropriate and not invasive, but not specially expressive either, except for some of the balloons turned into spiky ones when the characters are shouting. And there are very few kapows as the drawing is particularly expressive.

Overall, Miss Don't Touch Me is a great entertaining and satiric novel that goes beyond the murder mystery and digs into social conventions and double morals  in  society and shows how the hunger for life plays a role in the survival of people who have had  to endure much in life but never present themselves as victims.

 

WARNING
The novel has explicit sex scenes, nudity and graphic violence. Not for children! Although by looking at the book's cover you might have guessed so :).

NOTES
> First published in French between 2007-2009.

> First published in English in 2008 and all the volumes collected in 2014.

I bought this title recently because I need a definitive guide to style for work. I would have loved this being on Kindle, but it is not, so I made the effort and ordered this manual from the Book Depository.

> Good binding, so the book is flexible and can be fully opened without the binding resenting it. 
> The dictionary is helpful at times and has solved some of my doubts.
> The style manual is helpful at times and has solved some of my doubts.

Huge No-nos

Main No-Nos

The Contents of this Manual

1/ THE NEW HART'S RULES MANUAL (NHR onwards)

2/ NEW OXFORD DICTIONARY FOR WRITERS AND EDITORS

3/ APPENDIXES

> Proofreading marks. Useful.  Not in the COD
> Glossary of printing and publishing terms. Useful. Not in the COD. 
> Primer Ministers of UK and USA. The COD has the same listing bit it also includes the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia!
> Members of the European Union. Not in the COD. Free in the Wikipedia. The UK brexit it!  
> Greek Alphabet. Also in the COD.
> Diacritics, accents, and special sorts. Not in the COD. OK.
> Mathematical symbols. OK. Not in the COD.
> SI Units.  Included in the COD.
> Metric Prefixes. Available in the COD. 
> Chemical elements. Also in the COD.

4/ GENERAL INDEX

In Short

Plot from the Editor
 "When the repulsively ugly Coddie unintentionally saves a fairy from a spell, she does not understand the poisonous nature of the wish granted her by the fairy. The village folk no longer see her as repulsive and stinking of fish—they now perceive her as magnetically beautiful—which does not help her in her village. A young local lord saves her, but it soon becomes apparent that Coddie’s destiny may be far greater than anyone ever imagined."

Recipe for a Hubert Kerascoet graphic casserole for grown-ups

BASIC INGREDIENTS

>>> A piece of new Old-style fable.
>>> A small piece of a modern strong moral lesson.
>>> A children-books graphic style verjus. 
>>> A bunch of spices. Please include the following:
~~ A pinch of strong coloured darkness.
~~ A tablespoon of sex.
~~ A teaspoon of nudity
~~ A handful of war and fights.
~~ Outrageously good but smoky heroes.
~~ Outrageously bad but funny disgusting villains.
~~ A sachet of naivety.
~~ A sachet of human stupidity.
~~ A sachet of wisdom.
 ~~ A pinch of good common sense.
>>> Cooking oils
~~ A tablespoon of love-yourself oil.
~~ A tablespoon of personal-epiphany  oil.
>>> Full-colour colouring.
>>> Seasoning to your liking:
~~ Clear lettering.
~~ Flamboyant vignettes.

MARINADE

Put your fable to marinate in a container, together with the moral lesson and verjus. Stir through. Add now half a litre of adventure, half of litre of children-book graphics and the bunch of spices. Stir the fable trough, and let it stay overnight so the flavours get through.

PREPARATION

Take the marinated fable out of the fridge in the morning, put everything in an earthy casserole, add the two types of oil and the colouring. Now is the time to add, raw, the different sorts of  beautiful stuff. The recipe recommends those from the brand Food for Thought:
}~Mind what you wish for.
}~Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
}~Beauty ideals vary from culture to culture. 
}~Beauty is in the inside.
}~Kingdoms were lost because of a woman's beauty.
}~Unless you don't see yourself beautiful you won't believe you are. 
}~ Beauty is not what you wear is what you are.
}~Beauty halo, also called halo effect.
}~ What you see in the mirror and what other people see are different things.
}~Only brutes put beauty at the top of women's qualities.

Let the whole casserole simmer slowly for a few hours and until Beauty is ready. Before retiring from the stove, increase the heat for five minutes  more.

Season. 

Voilà, the Hubert Kerascoet casserole for grown-ups is ready. What a tasty gorgeously presented plate of food for thought! 

Enjoy!

TYPO IN THE SAUCE!
"Beauty, you will be my Queen, and nothing can SEPERATE us."

Written by one of the most renowned writers in Korea, Lee Seung-U (or I Seungu),

The Private Life of Plants tells the story of a dysfunctional family narrated by the youngest sibling Kihyon. Uhyon, the oldest brother, a former photographer, develops a rare post-traumatic disorder after getting his legs amputated and becomes hyper-sexualised, psychologically self-destructive and locked inside. His younger brother, Kihyon, the narrator of the story, has to deal with some of his brother's needs and problems, his sense of guilt, feels alienated from his family, and keeps an active interest on his brother's former girlfriend Sunmi. Their parents seem to be also alien to each other; they barely speak to each other or spend time together, and seem to ignore Kyhon. This is the starting point of an exploration of Kyhon's psyche and view of the world, and an in-depth approach to the complexity of human relationships and of the world we perceive.

The Private Life of Plants is a beautifully written book -- very lyric, poetic and artistic at times, but very rough, sad, and confronting others. The characters are inquisitive, soulful, complex, and very human. There is a good dose of han in the book, that melancholy so specific of the Korean people. There is more to them than the beginning of the story makes one think. The story takes you to the same places where Kyhon is heading, and those places are a wonderful exploration of the nature of love, desire, family and the magic in everyday life.

THEMES

There are several prominent themes, masterly weaved, in the story, dialogues, and overall conception of the novel.

|~v|v~| We all have our point of view, we perceive, think and feel subjectively. The book makes very interesting reflections on the objectivity of the photographic camera, and the eye in front of behind the camera. Nobody is totally objective: 

"Nadie puede ser totalmente objetivo. Todo documento refleja necesariamente el punto de vista y la posición de la persona que lo ha elaborado. De igual modo, el que hace fotos expresa su punto de vista y su posición mediante el ángulo y el enfoque del aparato fotográfico." (loc. 562-566)
 [Nobody can be completely objective. Any document necessarily reflects the point of view and the standpoint of the person who makes it. In the same way, a person who makes a photo expresses their point of view and standpoint through the angle and the focal point of of the camera.] 

The eyes are the mind, and the mind is a coloured lens. The more people live in their head the less they can know other human beings, who have an existence outside the other's mind. The Private Life of Plants shows how difficult can be to connect with other people's souls, to get to know their real selves, to understand them, even if that "other" is a member of one's family. Kyhon's eyes are ours, uninformed and judgemental, because, like a photographer with a camera, he has a focal point, a framing and an angle. Like Kyhon, sometimes we just decide that our parents or siblings are something, without having anything to support the idea. We fabricate our views unintentionally; but sometimes we are lucky enough to be confronted with a reality that does not match what we believe about other people. People are sometimes something else or something more. Kyhon gets to know his family at the same time we do, page by page. 

"Esa faceta de mi padre era muy emotiva y desconocida para mí. Ahora me daba cuenta de lo poco que lo conocía. Y no sólo a mi padre. Me preguntaba también cuánto conocía a mi madre y a mi hermano, y tuve que admitir que los conocía muy poco." (loc. 1022-1024).
[That facet of my father was very emotive and unknown to me. Then, I realised how little I knew him. Not only my father. I asked myself how much I knew my mother and my brother, and I had to admit that I didn't know them much either.]

|~v|v~| Love has many faces, people can love and express love in many different ways. We see the different way Kyhon, Uhyon and their parents express love. Perhaps the most moving is that of the father, which takes the reader aback because is the most pure and unselfish of them all and the least obvious. Love is presented as the union of two parts of a soul. Love is powerful, the fuel of live. Love is also blind. Seung-U succeeds at showing what is infatuation and what is real love without preaching that one thing is better than other.

“Hay muchas maneras de querer”, me dije a mí mismo. El contenido del amor puede ser igual, pero la forma de querer es múltiple y diferente. Cien personas tienen cien diferentes formas de amar. Sólo los amores excepcionales se parecen. (Loc. 2820-2822). 

[There are many ways of loving, I told myself. The content of love can be the same, but the way of expressing love is multiple and different. One hundred people have one hundred different ways of loving. Only exceptional love stories are similar.]

"Aristófanes dice que el amor es el deseo de ser, en dos, un solo cuerpo. Eso mismo dice Platón en el Banquete —respondió ella." (loc. 1722-1723).
[Aristophanes says that love is the wish to be, in two, one  only body. The same says Plato in his Banquet, replied her.]

|~v|v~| Sexuality is an expression of the self and of the soul. There is a good deal of reflection about the nature of sexual desire in the novel. Kyhon feels repulsion at Sunmi engaging in a sexual relationship that does not fulfil her as the man uses, abuses and disrespects her; Sunmi feels inside that she deserves it and lets this man do that to her. Uhyon channels her inner pain through a "violent" sexuality, self-destructive, and anti-erotic because it is an expression of his inner pain and wounded soul. Soh channels her deep love for the man of her life through her sexual union with him in a magical pure and spiritual way, which  shows the state of her soul. The dichotomy we are presented with is not manichean -- all of these experiences are expressions and manifestations of the same thing -- The body, even the erotic one, is a connector with our inner life and and expression of the state of the soul. 

|~v|v~| Everything in Nature has a soul with which we can connect, plants and trees included. Uhyon tries to soothe his deep pain through a lyric connection with trees, as he sees them as soulful beings, connectors of earth and even, sustainers of time, and communicators between the human and the divine. He wants to heal his pain and his soul by becoming a tree. In a way, the book reminds me of The Vegetarian where we find the same obsession to unite with trees and Nature through the physical body. His father has a very similar reverence towards plants, which he considers living creatures with which one can communicate if speaking from the heart and with honesty. Kyhon initially has a view of the forest a la "Hansel & Gretel", therefore, dark, dangerous, untrustworthy, the home of witches and nasty beings. However, the more he gets to know to Uhyon and his father, the more he starts seeing the spirit of the trees as connectors of the human and the divine; eventually, he comes across the palm tree in Namcheon and understands what his brother feels and Kyhon experiences the true interconnectivity of the world.

The almost-Universal theme of the symbolic tree, the soulful tree, the tree of knowledge, and the personified tree is part of beliefs, cosmogonies, mythologies, legends and religions of different cultures around the globe: from the Bible to the Druids, from the vast cultures of Antiquity in the Mediterranean and the Middle East to the Celtic people and the Nordics, from the Aborigines of Australia to the Native Americans and beyond. Besides, this subject is very dear to the Korean collective psyche and culture.The link is found in the Korean shamanistic tradition of Musok or Musok-kyo, which is based on the belief that animals, plants and rocks have a spirit, that humans can communicate with them. What is more, there is a strong reverence to trees, who are believed to have individual personalities. The Private Life of Plants melts and fuses all of these elements in an organic way. However, there is a strong explicit emphasis on Greek mythology.

Mi padre dijo, en un tono suave, que los árboles también eran seres vivos, también tenían sentimientos, y añadió: La superficie de la planta percibe tu corazón a través de tu mano  (loc. 1461-7). Las plantas saben leer la mente del hombre.(loc. 1472-1473). Las plantas sienten como seres vivos. Son capaces de sentir dolor, tristeza y felicidad. Saben distinguir instintivamente si el hombre miente o dice la verdad. Un amor falso no provoca una respuesta. Para estar en comunicación con las plantas, hay que ser sincero, como cuando se trata con las personas (loc. 1475-1477).
[My father told me, in a soft tone, that trees are also living creatures and have feelings, and he added, "The surface of a plant perceives your heart through your hand. (...) Plants know how to read the mind of a man. (....) Plants feel as living creatures do and are able to feel pain, sadness and happiness. They can instinctively know whether a man is lying or saying the truth. A fake love doesn't provoke an answer. To be in communication with plants one has to be sincere, as when one treats with people."]

¿Habría algún bosque que no fuera sagrado? Todos los bosques guardan en su seno la génesis primera. Los bosques fueron el primer templo divino y algunos árboles de ese templo fueron adorados por sus propiedades divinas. (loc. 1330-1332).
[Is there any forest that is not sacred? Every forest keeps in its bosom the primeval genesis. Forests were the first divine temple and some trees in that temple were revered for their divine properties.]

|~v|v~| Reality and dream are weaved in myriad ways and the world is just both. The borders that separate them aren't clear or defined. On the contrary, the more they mingle, the more magical reality is and the more real the dream becomes. Although the theme is barely present at the beginning of the book, it becomes stronger and more defined as the story advances, and becomes prominent in the last fourth part of the book, when we see dream and reality connect in very tangible ways. When they connect, we see the characters moving from a world of hatred, guilt, repression, disconnection and pain, to a world that, although it is strange and inexplicable, feeds their soul and lets them know themselves, to communicate, to soothe their wounds and to heal. The story about the palm tree at the edge of the cliff in Namcheon and Sunmi's dream in the car are really beautiful and very lyric and a depiction of that.

"Su presencia lo hacía todavía más irreal, pues no es que ella entrara en el sueño, sino que ese espacio se convertía en un sueño gracias a ella. Mientras ella soñaba, el mundo de su sueño se agrandaba y en él se establecía ella como la heroína." (Loc. 2446-2448)
 [Her presence made it even more unreal, because it is not that she had entered the dream, but the space had become a dream thanks to her. While she was dreaming her dream's world was becoming larger and she was becoming the heroine in it.]

 "Le dije que ya era un árbol, porque el que sueña con ser árbol es el que posee el alma del árbol, y el que posee su alma, ya es un árbol." (loc.2709-2710).
[I told him that he was already a tree because somebody who dreams about being a tree is somebody who already has the soul of a tree, and somebody who has its soul is already a tree.]

IT ALL COMES DOWN TO...

The Private Life of Plants,  in the end, is a meandering walk towards wholeness and communion with the world, the Universe, and with Nature of which we are part. The characters start walking toward that wholeness, in different ways. Uhyon wants to heal his soul by connecting with his soul but since he can't do so directly he tries to connect with trees' soul. Kyhon wants to be one with his brother and with his family, to be seen, to be loved and be one with them . People become one with their lovers and their bodies become one. Kyhon's eye detaches from the mind and sees the world in its complexity and wholeness embracing the others for who they really are. Wounds start to heal and healing is becoming whole. Soh revels her secret and becomes true to herself and fully honest with her family, so she becomes whole. The family makes an effort to communicate better, so they are walking towards wholeness. Trees become personified, and one with the humans they merge. Dreams and reality fuse and integrate. Plants and humans talk to each other as they are part of the same. The Universe is one. Wholeness is oneness, union, integration and communion. Union with your self, with others, with reality, with Nature, with your dreams, with the magic we are and we are surrounded by.

TRANSLATION

I read the book on Kindle in the Spanish translation because there is no Kindle edition of this book in English. The translation into Spanish is wonderful, and one really forgets is a translation. The Spanish used is classic and elegant and I think will be enjoyed by both Latin-American and Spanish readers. Just a couple of sentences kept me munching because they sound a bit thick, or perhaps a bit surprising, and found the use of some capitals (or lack of them) and long dashes confusing, but that is just me being a picky reader.

RENDERING FOR KINDLE

There are just a couple or footnotes in the book, but they are misplaced and change position when changing the sizing of the font. Footnotes work best in Kindle when placed at the back and are properly linked, so one doesn't find them in the middle of nowhere. On the other hand, it seems that the conversion into digital book came with a large number of typos derived of improper linking and unlinking of words, and some unnecessary spacing between full stops. Some of the typos I noticed are:

~ inuti-lizada (Loc. 2498).
~preo cupara más. (Loc. 2217).
~ahora?. .”  (loc. 2107).
~arrastra do (loc. 1865).
~men-tido (loc. 1227).
~comprender lo. (loc. 1204).
~per-seguido (loc. 1193)
~sonrisadulce (loc. 1079). 

~ juego . Me (loc. 1033).
~ abstraí do, (loc. 777).
~ con-secuencia (loc.  729).
~ obstácu lo (Kindle Location 660).
~ canciónse (Kindle Location 647). E
~ el respal do (loc. 511).
~ insen-sata (loc. 417).
~ confir-marlas. (loc. 399-400).
~ ve-hículo, (Kindle Location 73). 

IN SHORT

The Private Life of Plants is a great little book -- Lyric but confronting, complex but beautiful, The characters are walking into wholeness and into more fulfilling lives and emotions. The way Seung-U looks at the world in this novel is original, complex, mysterious and very soulful. You can this novel as a straightforward novel and and forget about it when you close it. In my case the book has stayed with me. because reminds me of some experiences I have had with some areas of the world, pieces of land, parks and trees -- an inexplicable but deep sense of connexion and attachment to something that is out of me. At times, when I read some books, I experience a deep sense of connection with the writer, as if the words had been written for me, and this is the case here. Nature has a voice that sings to us... sometimes through books and writers. Seung-U deserves more attention and accolades in the West than he has 

had so far. What a great writer.

NOTES

> The novel ends with a note by the author himself, where he briefly explains how he came up with the idea of the story and what he has trying to do with the characters. I find that sort of notes wonderful, because they are a pinhole into the mind of the creator, how a simple image of two trees can give birth to a wonderful story like this.  
> The Private Life of Plants was originally published in Korean in the year 2000.

THE PLOT
Elijah is a highly-reputed veteran officer of the Philosophical Police in the galactic Union. His job is solving conflicts by focusing on discovering  the core problem to bring conflict to a halt. Life in the Union is egalitarian. People don't have to die unless they want, when and how they want.  Their bodies can be  cloned and merged at will, each clone or echo will share common memories and create new ones. When a merging occurs, only the primary  body survives and all the memories are merged into one, but the oldest ones are destroyed in the process. The Union has appointed Elijah as mediator in the conflict between the Ganedans and the Alephs, two civilisations that are on the brink of war for something that happened centuries ago. At the same time, Elijah's personal life is leading him to question whether he wants to live beyond his current body's life span and what matters to him most in life. 

THE STORY AND MAIN THEMES
I love abstract books, philosophical quests, science fiction and stories that explore new territories in the world of graphic novels. Last Days of an Immortal does so perfectly. The novel really gets under your skin, in a  very subtle but pervasive way, perhaps not the first time you read it, perhaps the second; that was my case. The world depicted and the story are intriguing, thought-provoking and pose readers awesome existential questions. The story, most importantly, has a heart, a gaseous-like sentimentality that is not dramatic or overly out there. I found the concept of echoing really ingenious, like an organic positive split-personality disorder. I loved some of the humour in the novel, like when Elijah sleeps with one of his echoes. He and his self. 

Vehlman's Last Days of an Immortal is an almost-happy Utopia. A world that is multi-racial and multi-ethnic. An egalitarian society where gender differences are non-existent, where men and women pair with people of both sexes, because the body doesn't matter. An age when women are strong, intelligent and feminine in different ways and formats. A time where age and death do not matter per se. A world where the way you look or what you wear is not relevant; you can dress or go naked, as you wish. A space where people from different cultures live together even though they not always understand each other. A society in which conflict is managed in a way that people don't hurt each other on purpose. In short, a society where judgement is minimal and conflict is analysed and tackled through philosophical reasoning. 

To me, the most interesting questions are always those embedded in the story, those never said but whispered, those hidden in the story itself for the reader to discover and reveal. Some of the ones that came to me are the following:

~*~ What does Philosophy serve for in our world? Is Philosophy an empty babble?   Philosophy is presented as something practical, usable, a successful tool to 'get' the world and the other, a door to approaching alterity. Philosophers aren't verbose people, are very sensitive tuned people who solve real problems and conflicts. That is utterly cool to me. I love the way the story shows that Philosophy is not empty rhetoric but a way of approaching reality and other sentient beings.There is an episode in the novel that shows this perfectly. Elijah is confronted by a guy in the spaceport by an annoying guy that tells him what philosophers do this and that, mocks the way they talk, but Elijah replies to him:

"You're confusing rhetoric and philosophy" (pp. 101). 

~*~  What is the key to interpersonal communication? Is it possible to really understand the other, the "alien"?

 To be perfectly frank, humanoid and non-humanoid races are equally hard to understand. -- What do affect us, however, are the expectations we bring to the encounter. -- Part of us imagines contact will go more smoothly with aliens who look like us. In the end, our disappointed expectations are to blame for making it seem more difficult. (p. 6) 

~*~ Can we trust our eyes without questioning ourselves about what we have just seen?

The story stays, be aware that what you see is not a perceptive projection. You cannot fully trust your senses or your reasoning without using meta-consciousness or double questioning yourself. 

 "You just don't ask yourself the same questions when you see things and when you hear about them, is all. You take in things differently." (p. 46) "We think the same things, to varying degrees. We suffer from the same worry -- And this has formed a knot in our minds. It keeps us from making any progress on the case" (p. 130)

~*~ Can we judge other cultures without knowing their basic codes and how they approach reality? 

I thought the way Elija's planet works is just awesome to understand how people should approach refugees and immigrants when they are from other cultures and have  different languages and social and interpersonal codes. Also, which level of understanding we hope from there, and which problems may arise out of just simply cultural misunderstanding. The whole episode with G'Ohi shows just that.

"We knew their way of life was filed by a kind of ritual theatre, but I didn't realise the degree of subtlety available. -- Everything's a game for them. Everything is theatre, down to the last detail. -- At various key moments in their life cycles , Ganedans are randomly issued librettos describing the character they must play: job, social status, sexuality, language, etc. --Upon arriving, I myself received an offworlder's libretto indicating the limits of what I could say or do." (p. 47)

The story is a ode to being understanding, to getting to know the others by getting to understand their cultures, their codes, their feelings and the motives behind their behaviour, and to solve any conflict by getting to understand if there is a conflict at all.

The story is a swan chant to the body as receptacle of the soul not as an empty vessel that can be discarded; in that regard, the sex scenes aren't there for the sake of provoking; there is a direct connection between Elijah's feelings and his lovemaking in his old body instead of using a younger more attractive one.

The story is a love song to the value of close friendship and love itself, which is what matters the most in the end. If we erase those memories we cherish, those that made us better people and gave us inner joy, are we really alive?

"You will only lose a few of your oldest memories. Isn't that the fate of all immortals, in the end-to forget our past?"  (p. 32)

My main criticism to the novel is what I experienced the first time I read it -- it is a bit cold, it feels a bit cerebral and not emotional enough. So it is not everybody's cup of tea. However, there is heart in the novel, is just that Elijah's feelings and sensitivity aren't overly verbalised or dramatic, just hinted and developed throughout the story in a very subtle but distinct way.  

THE ARTWORK

De Bonneval's artwork in the book is very elegant and minimalist, with very open spaces and landscapes, and minimal human figures, and drawn in in a very soft black and white, which becomes even softer when depicting the vanishing of an echo or when narrating episodes of the past. There are some beautifully creative and elaborate countryside landscapes, some of them naturalist and others creative. Some extra fleur is added when depicting the Ganedians and the Alephs, human gatherings and the transportation hub.

The drawing  style and imagery reminded me of some futuristic comics of the 1970s and 1980s mostly because the human figure seems to be surrounded by vast open spaces in which humans look diminute beings.

Regarding the design, some decorative arts and architecture of the 1960s-1970s came to mind: Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright's organic architecture and the glassy interiors of the former, Miró's mobile sculptures, the avant-garde opera costumes designed for The Ballets Russes by several famous artists in the early 20th century, and several interior designs, especially chairs, very typical of the 1960s-1970s interior design.

Overall the drawing has inner coherence and, although it feels familiar, it doesn't remind me of anything that is not this novel. The drawing feels expansive at times, when Nature and the landscape dominates, but it is quite constricted and minimal others, usually in one-to-one conversations, merely because the text is as important as the artwork and there is a space constriction in some vignettes.

I love the lettering used in the book because it is not futuristic, it is a handwritten-alike, personal and human writing that contrasts with the very cold lab-ish interiors and ways of living in Elijah's world. 

RENDERING FOR KINDLE

I was wondering why this ebook was so big  in size, the novel being quite short and in BW. Well, that was until used the ebook and I realised that double tapping allows readers to individuate vertical vignettes to full-screen size, which is awesome. Besides, browsing page by page is great, as the sizing of each page allows readers to pinch in an out as much as you want without losing quality of image. My only complaint is that it is not possible to add a note.

WARNING

There is full explicit sex scenes in the book, so not a book for children.