Concentric Circles

On Comics Bringing Interest in Reading

Anirudh Sasikumar — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:06:11 +0000

I have a theory: avid readers are good at visualizing a story as they read it. The more you can immerse yourself in the story of the book, the more you appreciate reading. Counting out the difference in taste for a particular type of story, this explains the type who cannot appreciate reading the “Fellowship of the Ring” while they love the movie.

If we treat this as a visualization problem, then a possible tool that can help solve this is a comic¹. They’re somewhere between books and movies. Parts of the translation from words to pictures have already been done.

Now if you believe that comics are solely meant for kids², then let me have the pleasure of introducing you to “The Sandman”. Neil Gaiman weaves a story with satisfying amounts of detail in plot, dialogue and most importantly, the mythology of the world.

Cover of The Sandman vol. 2, #1 (Jan, 1989). Art by Dave McKean.

In fact, I suspect that “Sandman” takes the whole visualization theory a step forward. Some of the story conveyed via artwork in that comic would be incredibly hard if not impossible to convey via words.

A word of warning – it starts out as dark horror in the first few books. Then it gets really good. It was one of the few graphic novels to be on the New York Times Bestseller List. It won the World Fantasy award which then allegedly³ changed its rules so that no comic could win it again. The maturity, darkness and violence exhibited by some of its characters place it firmly for adult readers. There is nudity, blood and violence of the sorts that again play to the visual aspect of the medium.

There are enough references to real world historical events and mythology in Sandman to satisfy your deepest allegorical needs. Sandman has references to Orpheus, Kane and Abel, Barbie and even William Shakespeare:

Whatever happened to me in my life, happened to me as a writer of plays. I’d fall in love, or fall in lust. And at the height of my passion, I would think, “So this is how it feels,” and I would tie it up in pretty words. I watched my life as if it were happening to someone else. My son died. And I was hurt, but I watched my hurt, and even relished it, a little, for now I could write a real death, a true loss. My heart was broken by my dark lady, and I wept, in my room, alone; but while I wept, somewhere inside I smiled. For I knew I could take my broken heart and place it on the stage of The Globe, and make the pit cry tears of their own.

- William Shakespeare, portrayed as looking back over his career as he finishes writing The Tempest as one of two plays commissioned by Morpheus (aka Dream, aka The Sandman). “The Tempest,” issue #75 of The Sandman (1996), collected in The Wake.

I particularly like the artwork in The Wake. Sandman and Death have the best dialogues and if you are used to Terry Pratchett, then you know that often, anthropomorphic personalities have the best lines. Proof that Sandman has reached cult status:

Tattooed on a girl's back - words from Sandman

(Image source: Neil Gaiman’s Blog who picked it from here.)

I urge everyone to give Sandman a try. It used to be hard to obtain Sandman in India, but Flipkart has solved that problem quite well.

In the end, a story that suggests more than what it immediately conveys is far more long living and loved. Let me leave you with this quote:

“-I am anti-life, the beast of judgement. I am the dark at the end of everything. The end of universes, gods, worlds… of everything.

And what will you be then, Dreamlord?

- I am hope.”

-Choronzon and Dream, playing the oldest game, in Preludes and Nocturnes.

Or the graphic novel, as it is called now.
I still lose myself in “Calvin and Hobbes” and Asterix
The official website states: “Comics are eligible in the Special Award Professional category. We never made a change in the rules.”

On Reading

Anirudh Sasikumar — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:58:15 +0000

Reading is a lonely activity. This hits me the most when I finish a good book. I’m sad that it is over and I yearn to go out and meet people.

Back when I was in college, I’d usually head over to the Indian Coffee house after finishing a book. There I’d sip my coffee alone, ruminating about the best bits in the book, surrounded by a sea of people. Strangers would sit at the same table and often, a polite conversation would turn into an interesting discussion about current affairs.

The reason for bringing this up. My wife is also a prolific reader and after finding her, I no longer find reading a lonely activity. We read together¹ and whenever one of us chuckles², an explanation follows. I cannot explain the joy of being able to read out a passage to another person who you know will enjoy and appreciate it as much as you do. For this (and numerous other reasons), I’m eternally grateful to my lovely wife.

Kindle’s popular highlights feature is the digital equivalent of this and while it is impersonal, a sense of community and togetherness is conveyed when you see a passage with a dotted underline and the message, “Highlighted by 54 kindle users.”

Social networks around books like LibraryThing and Shelfari solve the book discovery problem, but only the Kindle (or an e-reader of your choice) gives you a social connection to other readers as you are reading something.

To conclude, I’d like to leave you with this quote:

“We read to know that we are not alone.” – C.S Lewis

Of course, not from the same book. Though we’ve done that when the seventh Harry Potter book released. We drove to Sapna and picked up our pre-ordered copy. While on the motorbike, my wife had started reading the book. At traffic signals, people would stare and laugh at us. Once home, we read a few chapters together, patiently waiting for the other to finish before turning the page.
This happens more often than not when a Terry Pratchett book is involved.

Buying a pair of good headphones in Bangalore

Anirudh Sasikumar — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:08:45 +0000

I spend a lot of time listening to music while I’m working and I was always under the assumption that the Sony MDR-X200 I owned was good enough. Then my friend introduced me to the Sennheiser PXC-450. They blew me away! Everything was so clear, you can make out so many instruments and there’s an overall better perception of from which direction and distance the sound is coming from. An A.R Rahman song stands out with classy headphones. To top it off, it was so incredibly comfortable – the circumaural cups fit around your earlobes and you can listen for hours.

The only problem: the PXC-450 is incredibly expensive. In India, it costs about twenty five thousand rupees and that my friend, is a lot of money to dish out on headphones.

Thus I set out on my quest to find a cheaper alternative, one that would be readily available and would not cost me a fortune. I headed to the Imagine store in the Forum, Koramangala. They have a decent collection of good quality headphones and I tried out the Sennheiser HD 438 from there.

Sennheiser HD 438

I came back home and committed the first mistake: I ordered the Sennheiser HD 448 online. HD 448 should be better than HD 438, right? Well, the quick answer is no. HD 448 is more realistic and has better resolution than the HD 438; but the bass. Oh, the bass. The thump, my friends, is lacking. By “lacking”, I’m not saying it is bad. It is just not that great. I quickly managed to find a buyer for that and offloaded it. HD 438 scores on that count.

The next mistake: I then bought an open-back audiophile headphone – the Sennheiser HD 518. It costs around six thousand, but the clarity, bass and detail is stunning. If you haven’t listened to an open-back headphone before, I suggest you drop whatever you are doing and try it immediately. It is like listening to high-quality speakers at an incredibly high volume without any distortion or difference in quality. The only problem – open-back headphones leak a lot of sound. At around 50% volume, it is fine. Go any higher and people around you can hear what you are listening to. Not good when you’re in office.

Finally, I settled on a Denon AH-D1100. It costs around eight-thousand rupees; I’d say this is the best closed-back headphones around. The sound quality is exceptional; bass is lovely and the build quality is excellent. I picked these up at the Imagine store and am loving every single moment of using it:

Denon AH-D1100

Other models I tried and rejected:

Bose QC-15 – Noise cancellation is awesome. Overall bass and treble sound a bit tinny compared to PXC-450 or the Denon AH-D1100.
Beats by Dr. Dre – Too much bass; sound quality takes a hit when there’s only vocals and this is insanely expensive – around Rs. 27000/-.